Trendy

A fairly seemless morning. Kids somewhat easily whisked off to school by hubby. Dog fed. Kitties fed. Fish fed. I'm pretty sure kids were fed. I grab my second cup of wonderfully strong coffee and pick up the morning's paper. So excited to see in the UT's Dining Out section of the Night + Day a full page article entitled Going Gluten Free. So far so good! Refill my cup, throw both legs up on the couch and read... Wait, what???? Re-read it. MUST be here somewhere. Where is the mention of cross-contamination in this article? I look again. Nothing! How can they print this without asking each restaurant how they handle cross contamination in their kitchens? But they did, and they didn't. Cross-contamination can be the difference between being truly gluten free or not. Safe or not safe. A separate grill? Colander? New pasta water in a GF only pot? Designated cutting boards, utensils and even possibly a separate prep area? These are all the basic, but crucial, elements to offering gluten free safe choices. This is obviously and understandably not possible in some, maybe even most, restaurants due to space restrictions, cost and a lack of honest interest to provide to a limited (but growing!) audience. It's tough. I get that. But please do not say 'gluten free' if you cannot go the extra mile it takes to avoid cross-contamination! It is simply not safe, or worth it. This author's intro states that 'since May is Celiac Awareness Month, here are some of our picks in San Diego.' Now that would lead a reasonable person to assume that these 'picks' are safe for Celiacs. Right? Well... I do know that one of the vendors listed in this article states on her labels that her products are GF. Presumably true. But she also states clearly on her labels that her products are made on either equipment that is shared with wheat or in a facility that processes wheat. I found this so surprising and disappointing. I actually stood in front of the owner at a farmer's market and introduced her to Libby and told her of her Celiac diagnosis. She never once disclosed the possible cross-contamination issue. She said her products were made for Libby! We bought some, only to read the label after we got home. I threw them away. Not worth the risk. For someone with Celiacs, shared equipment/facility is not a good or safe choice usually. As the doctors say, 'when in doubt, go without.' Celiacs is not trendy. It is not the next diet fad. It is a pain in the ass and not a choice. Restaurants are unfortunately jumping on the GF bandwagon way too quickly without doing the proper homework. Do YOUR homework before eating at any restaurant. Some do go the extra mile... most don't. Not yet anyway. Call, request, ask, ask again... about their safe practices. And please don't assume that someone who writes about 'Celiac Awareness Month' knows anything more about it than you do. I would venture a guess it's much less! Every restaurant we go to, with or without Libby, I ask the waitperson and then the manager about their GF options. I ask in detail. I wait for the key words. I wait to see what their attention to the conversation is. I will post a list of such restaurants in the coming weeks.