Happy Experiences

[anabananakins]

I'm at the end of day 3 of a month long holiday in the US. I went gluten free just under 4 months ago. It hasn't been too hard so far, but that's because I live alone, haven't had any social events I couldn't control and am lucky to have a reasonable number of eating out places to choose from that offer gluten-free meals (though that said, two of them have glutened me. One I won't return to, the other I tried a second time and avoided the 'gluten free' bread; that time I was fine.

Anyway, I was worried about this trip, I really didn't want to eat snacky type food the whole time. But I did what I could - read up heaps of places and knew where and what I could eat. So far since i've been in LA I've eaten at In n Out burger, protein style - fine. Chpipotle burrito bowl - fine (no lettuce, I watched and that seemed the best chance of cross contamination). Even ate at the mexican place at the Universal Studios city walk and I was fine. I was a bit careless about that - I checked the corn chips and ordered things that were safe by ingredient but didn't say anything about having to be gluten free. But I'd read the menu thoroughly while waiting for our table and the chances for cc seemed limited so I rolled the dice - and I was fine.

I do understand better now the newly diagosed's distress over shopping. The gluten free stuff at the supermarket near my hotel is all mixed in with the regular stuff and it's a big store. In Australia they put that stuff all in one aisle, though there are gluten free by ingredient items elsewhere. If I was to do this thoroughly it'd take me forever! I still haven't found the bread section, though that was more out of curiosity than any intention of buying it and I can't do more than duck in and out of the bread aisle since the massive bagel selection nearly reduces me to tears. Much of the time involved (and the envy!) comes down to the amazing variety of (regular) products compared to back home. For example, we get two varieties of pre-made frosting - betty crocker's chocolate and vanilla. I swear there must have been 20 varieties in this store! I was mesmerised - my friend had to drag me away. Plus larabars at 10 for $10...ooh!

Sorry, I digress. What I really wanted was to say thank you for all the great advice from this board. If I didn't have all your posts to read I wouldn't have known about safe places or what to check for. It would have been so much harder, I can't imagine. It takes a LOT of research but it is possible to travel around like this - and all by public transport too - and eat safely and a variety of food.

And it's not my first trip to the US but as always I'm struck by just how friendly everyone is, so thank you for that too