Parties, Girls brunch, Dinners, and Potlucks; A Guide to Dining Out.

Last weekend was my anniversary, and like many other couples my boyfriend and I took this as an opportunity to go out to dinner (with our hectic schedules we don't get many). But as many of you know dining out with Celiac's disease (or any food allergy) can be tricky to say the least. Now i've lived in Moscow for a year and traveled the world and have tried plenty of restaurants without getting sick. But how? Well I have a few simple pointers to help decide on places to go eat, and what to eat there.

So first we have choosing the restaurant, what are you in the mood for? well there's a few things to consider:

• Do they already have an existing gluten free menu?
• Is the rest of their menu gluten heavy? (aka. is there a large chance of cross contamination?)
• Is it listed on any known gluten free websites? (I recommend www.findmeglutenfree.com)
• Is it gluten free, gluten friendly, or celiac friendly?

I'll go a little more in depth on the points above; a restaurant with a gluten free menu or an allergen list can be quite nice and can limit a lot of questioning back and forth between your table and the kitchen but remember unless there is a specific gluten free dedicated part of the kitchen or facility no restaurant can guarantee gluten free food, there is a chance of cross contamination. So if you want to make 100% sure that you do not get sick i suggest looking at both menus, and the ingredients on your chosen dish more closely. For example; if you are at a restaurant that serves breaded items as well as normal fries and maybe non-battered fried wings, they are probably all being fried in the same frying fat giving you a high chance from cross contamination (though there are tricks to visually spot fries from clean or non contaminated fat). Another example is pizza, most pizza places have gluten free pizza now a days which is great! However you have to make sure that when it goes into the pizza oven it is on a cover such as an aluminum tray or just a sheet of aluminum foil, since the crumbs and flour remnants from normal pizza's will cross contaminate your pizza. Also make sure people that prepare your food switch gloves when handling your food and that they have separate sauces and toppings for gluten free pizza's as they are all contaminated when some puts they regular pizza dough hands in the toppings. But if you have questions about all of this there is no fear in asking, if i'm curious and can't find any info online i'll call ahead to ask and often i'll ask the server about the details of their gluten free practices. Find me gluten free is a great website for this as well, it is all based on people's reviews as well as what companies mark themselves as it even has a differentiation for places that are celiac friendly! 

So a lot of people get confused between Gluten-Free, Gluten-Friendly, and Celiac-Friendly. Basically to my non celiac friends I explain it like this: Gluten-Free restaurants try to cater to our celiac needs but know there might be some cross contamination so its not 1000% certain, Gluten-Friendly to a celiac person is basically a big red flag saying DO NOT EAT HERE these are places that advertise to the group of society that prefer eating gluten free without the autoimmune disorder or the serious consequences, Celiac-Friendly to us is like heaven it often means there is a dedicated facility or part of the kitchen where gluten will never go. 

Now this might make you think "Oh no! The restaurant i want to eat at doesn't have a dedicated menu or doesn't label itself anything, I can't eat here" don't worry you will be fine. There is a sushi place here in Moscow that doesn't label anything GF but i eat there often and never get sick, just use common sense. When it comes to asian cuisine it can be kind of tricky because soy sauce is NOT gluten free, and soy sauce is everywhere! But most places now a days offer gluten free soy sauce you just have got to ask for it. Now when it comes to common sense just remember to stay away from anything breaded, battered, and in most cases fried, also watch out for croutons in salads and always specify to leave them out, and for sauces/dressings make sure that it is something that is gluten free. For example any asian sauces in chain restaurants will not be due to the soy sauce but any dressings and sauces that do not look thickened are usually ok. When i say thickened it basically mean that they add a thickening agent (mostly flour) to give the sauce or dressing more body, this happens very often with soups as well. 

Now nobody is perfect and sometimes miscommunications exist [BUT.. DONT FORGET TO NOTIFY YOUR SERVER OF YOUR CONDITION BEFORE HAND] so you might have put a GF order in but it comes out non GF. What do you do? Well first you have to spot it; does it have croutons? Is the pasta a different texture/shape/size? Does your burger bun look an awful lot like everyone else's? If its obvious send it back! If not and you are unsure (sometimes i can tell by a certain smell) ask the waiter to double check.  

I know this seems like a ton to keep up with just for a night out but after a while you get almost automatic at it! It is easiest to do your research first (call ahead!!!!) and that mostly ends in a more enjoyable day/night. 

Now there are places all around the world i could suggest that are specifically perfectly catered to our needs but lets be honest we don't all live in a big city with hundreds of restaurants. Actually if you're like me and live in a relatively small town you'll have a few nice little restaurants and then an Applebee's and a couple of fast food restaurants. And we all don't have the money to eat at a fancy small restaurant every now and then so lets look at some good chain restaurants with great GF menu's.

1. Outback Steakhouse - great menu, everything is fairly clean and grilled, lots of sides to choose from!
2. Applebee's - great menu, a lot of appetizers, their special menu (deals) has options for GF people.
3. Chipotle (does that count as fast food?) great selection, and GF burrito's! (allergen list online)
4.  Buffalo Wild Wings- decent selection, had mild discomfort after eating here once but we were with a group of 15 people so it was hard to keep track of the food.'
5. TGI.Fridays- Great food, a lot like outback. 
6. Johnny Carino's - great gluten free Italian food! 

If you're lucky and live in a city big enough i suggest going to any of these restaurants as well:

1. P.F. Chang's - big menu & A DEDICATED KITCHEN!
2. Cheesecake factory - HUGE menu & a GF cheesecake
3. The melting pot -one of my favorites, great experience great food, lots of options!

Those restaurants are my general go-to, but even with these remember the things discussed up top! These can also be applied to parties, weddings, and potlucks. 

~Hanna

Ps. Eating fries is great so here are my quick go-to fries: The classic McDonalds ones, they do not fry their fries in the same fat as anything else. That is why they are always so clean and yellow! which is also the trick to telling old/contaminated fries from fresh fries, brownish fries with bits on them are often friend in old fat or with other items (or they are seasoned) either way it's a no, fresh fries are often crisp and yellow with see through grease and no bits.