Just one of the countless reasons I heart NY...
Why am I smiling in this picture? Because I'm holding a bag contaning two boxes full of yummy gluten-free baked goods from the infamous Babycakes on Manhattan's Lower East Side (at the start of the big snowstorm that blew through in December).New York has lots of easy gluten-free eating. I can't tell you what a treat that is.
Listen, I'm lucky to live where I do, where great food is plentiful and chefs and restaurant staffers have some familiarity with food allergies* and how to handle them. But here's what I have to do when I dine out here, especially when considering a new eatery: I check the restaurant's menu online** to see if there are at least a couple of dishes that sound like they could be gluten-free, or easily modified to be safe for me.
Once I get to the restaurant, I alert my server and ask them about the dishes I'm interested in, and then they go to the kitchen to see if I can have any of them. I've only encountered one server who didn't handle this well (and in that case, once he alerted the kitchen, they took great care of me - even made a special amuse bouche just for me, yay). I've never been glutened accidentally, and I try to be really pleasant when quizzing my servers, so it works. Often, these folks will bend over backwards to take care of me, and I really appreciate that (and make sure I show it in my tip). Again, lucky.
But it's beyond wonderful to have an entire menu of gluten-free items to choose from, as I do at several places in New York. It takes me forever to make a decision because I'm not used to having so many options when I dine out. And many of these places are ITALIAN, meaning lots of gluten-free pasta and pizza! There's even a place that's doing gluten-free Chinese, which means I get to have potstickers again....yay! And now, a Mac & Cheese place that's ohhhh soooo good. They even put gf breadcrumbs on the mac...OMFG. There are so many places in NYC with gf menus that I haven't even had a chance to try them all yet.
Yeah, I know... it sounds silly to get so excited about this, but it really is a treat to be able to eat freely in so many places, especially when it's in a city I already adore. Living gluten-free isn't as hard as you might think, but it does require attention and planning, and dining out can be the most challenging part of it. With awareness - and diagnosis - of Celiac disease and gluten intolerance growing, I look forward to more restaurants jumping on the bandwagon and doing a better job outlining what they're serving.
*It's not a food allergy, actually, but an auto-immune disorder...but it's far easier to explain in a restaurant as a food allergy...!
**I don't know how anyone managed this without the internet. So many resources out there, and some great gf food bloggers, namely Gluten-Free Girl and Celiac Chicks. Also, check out the Gluten-Free Restaurant Awareness Program.
posted by terry @ 3:07 PM
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