Did I Screw Up With Thai Food?

[color-me-confused]

Friday night: got takeout Thai food. Feeling clever, I got a fried rice dish and ate it with no consequences. I think I'm now almost 3 weeks gluten-free with no known consumption til now. Saturday: upset stomach, steatorrhea (which had vanished within a day of going gluten-free) is back. Sunday: ate leftover fried rice for dinner, followed an hour later by a bout of general malaise and a blinding migraine. Now ye olde stomach is upset again.

It has occurred to me that the restaurant probably uses the same handful of big woks for all the stir fry, or the same wooden spoon, or something. Could this have been a gluten incident? Next time I'll just get take out from the Japanese sushi place across the parking lot...

[Strawberry-Jam]

Fried rice is fried with soy sauce. All commercial soy sauces are made with wheat, except for specialty ones that are soy only. It is highly unlikely that any restaurant would use soy-only sauce unless it was advertised as such.

Ergo, you glutened yourself with the soy sauce.

[T.H.]

Yup, it's highly likely you glutened yourself with the fried rice/soy sauce issue. :-( However, true thai cuisine used to use soy sauce that is made from actual soy without the wheat. As I understand it, though, in the USA, more and more they are using the wheat based soy sauce.

Thai is definitely a place to call around to and see if you can find one that is still using soy sauce that isn't wheat based, though, for the future eating experiments. :-)

[Juliebove]

I've never eaten Thai food in a restaurant. I have had it made by a neighbor who is Thai, but what she made was maybe not even authentic Thai.

I have looked at menus online and some of it does use soy sauce. Soy sauce can contain wheat. So not safe.

I do not think Japanese food is safe either! Unless you eat only a lettuce salad with no dressing and the steamed rice.

[color-me-confused]

Darn. I even bought the gluten-free soy sauce to use at home, and yet never once thought it might be in the fried rice...that's what I get for listening to my stomach. Next time I will call them, quiz them on the wheat-ness of their curries, and try one of those with some (safe) steamed rice. Or just eat at home for 1/3 the price and a fraction of the worry.

[T.H.]

Or just eat at home for 1/3 the price and a fraction of the worry.

Yeah, that's kind of what we're attempting to do. I'm growing lemon grass, thai basil, and thai coriander in my herb garden (well, maybe not growing. I'm kind of sticking them there and hoping I don't kill them, is more like it. )

Now I just need to find an awesome recipe and get to it! :-)

[ciavyn]

Call them and ask. Most of my Thai restaurants where I live with work with me. And Pad Thai is almost always safe.

[lovegrov]

The REAL lesson here is NEVER assume anything. You absolutely must ask questions and explain your situation.

richard

[tarnalberry]

While I find that curries and phad thai are usually safe, as Richard said - NEVER assume.