(abridged version…read full blog here)
Eating out as a coeliac can, at times, be a very, very disappointing and frustrating experience, and in some cases, an emotional minefield. So here is a list of my Top Ten Gluten Free Pet Peeves that prevent coeliacs from dining well!
See how many you can relate to!
1. People treating your request for gluten free options with annoyance implying it is a dietary choice that is just inconvenient
2. When gluten-consumers eat the gluten free options on a buffet because, unusually, they look appetising. So there is therefore none left for the coeliacs. Do you people not have enough!!
3. When restaurants think ‘catering for gluten free’ means they simply have to remove all gluten-offending items from a regular menu item (aka all flavour & texture), with no replacements!
4. AND then when they expect you to pay the full amount for this ½ meal that is also now no longer enjoyable.
5. Restaurants that stock traditionally gluten free cakes (aka the macaron…the poster-cake for coeliacs around the world) but make them NON GLUTEN FREE!! Torture.
6. Wait staff who have NO IDEA about gluten free options and spend half your dining lifetime going back and forth to the kitchen correcting themselves with each successive choice you make saying ‘oh sorry but that actually isn’t gluten free either!’
7. Big food industry corporations who make almost no effort to cater for gluten free or give us variety. You have resources and buying power…use it. We will love you forever if you cater for us well.
8. The assumption that we should just be happy to get something to eat, anything at all…it doesn’t matter if it is enjoyable. If you expect us to pay for a meal, we expect to enjoy it.
9. Restaurants that cater gluten free well for mains but have NO GLUTEN FREE DESSERT options. Do we not need dessert?? Or are you feeling that on the whole coeliacs are a bit ‘tubby’ around the middle and so you are performing a community service by restricting our calorie intake??
10. The assumption that gluten free is also dairy free. Please don’t make me miss out on cheese and chocolate and ice cream as well…life without gluten is tough enough.
Like this??…please share, and you can READ MORE in the full blog here
Want to READ MORE about some of my most frustrating gluten free dining experiences check out my Cook Islands travel blog or my 5 star High Tea experience that went horribly wrong!
Relate?? I’d love to hear about your most frustrating experiences in the COMMENTS below!
Jane xx
