Monday, May 21, 2007

Justified

It's four months since I went completely gluten free. I'm feeling much better but still not perfect. It's supposed to take at least 6 months for the intestine to fully recover so I hope I'm almost there.

I think I have a good idea of what I can and can't eat but I finally get my appointment with a dietician next week. I've been saving up questions, like whether it's true that dried fruit is often dusted with flour to prevent it sticking.

So far I haven't felt like I've been missing out on anything (okay, except for the egg tarts maybe). The most annoying thing has been the embarrassment of having to be so fussy.

Since I went off gluten I haven't eaten anything in a restaurant. I might be overreacting but I'd just prefer not to have to worry about what might have gone on in the kitchen.

I went out to lunch with friends last week and though I'd just eaten at home, I ordered a fruit salad to lessen the awkwardness. It sounds crazy, but that was a big deal and I didn't feel good about it.

Coincidentally, our table was right next to the glass counter where the fruit was sitting. Even the proximity of the fruit salad to the cakes made me nervous.


I had noticed that there was no serving spoon in the fruit and I kept my eyes on the counter to see what they used. When the waitress opened the counter to serve my fruit salad, she picked up a pair of tongs that had been used for pieces of cake.

As she was serving, she dropped several pieces of fruit into the adjacent tray of cakes and rooted around to return them to the bowl she was filling. She then used the tongs to rearrange the cakes again before finishing filling the bowl with fruit.

So I didn't eat the salad. And I'm so glad for what happened. I feel so much less crazy.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

After seeing that, I would have gone up and told them I didn't want the fruit salad anymore! That's kind of horrifying, considering how much chocolate, peanuts and sugar and other crap people could be allergic to are there!

Anonymous said...

I didn't notice you taking that picture during lunch Joe! anyway dun worry you didn't miss out on anything! the fruit salad wasn't that good anyway ~ your parsnips are totally in another league, miss them a lot :)))

Joe said...

Yeah KO, I should have said something. But I figured that stuff like this is the least of what goes on in restaurants. I guess that being vegetarian you know that it's the non-obvious things that you have to watch out for.

Hey Wiwo! I hope you've settled back into HK okay after all the skydiving, hang gliding and other excitement of Europe! I still want to know your blog address!