I was at a conference in a less gluten enlightened part of Colorado the past couple of days. We were at a restaurant, and 3 of us at the table were asking about wheat in their food. One gal, who I had just met from Denver, asked about wheat in their rice pilaf. The waitress, even after checking with the cooks, couldn't tell us if there was wheat in the pilaf. The Denver gal said that rice pilaf usually has wheat in it. I didn't believe her, as I couldn't imagine how they would put wheat in rice pilaf, and went ahead and ordered it. Being from The People's Republic of Boulder, we're a bit sheltered here and wheat isn't in our rice pilaf.

Lo and behold, the rice pilaf came out with orzo pasta in it. I couldn't believe it. And if I would have ordered the chicken fajitas, they also got the same rice! I ate it anyways as I was already drinking my beer that was not GF. Sometimes, I just don't feel like going hungry, and all the other choices of sides had dairy in them, so I had to pick my poison. A couple of days later, I got a little blue, but that could have been related to a friend dying earlier this week. And today I got the "cow pie" stools, boardering on diarrhea, so I guess the gluten was a loser still. I wish I had had digestive enzymes on me for this type of thing to lessen the symptoms, which weren't really that bad, but just a reminder for me to steer clear of gluten.

The moral of the story is that if you order rice pilaf at a restaurant, make sure they confirm that there isn't any orzo pasta in it! I'm sure the waitress didn't even know what orzo is made of.

Claire

Most restaurant rice has gluten in it. If it's not in the rice, it's in the seasonings?

I'm very sorry to hear about your friend... (((((((hugs))))))))

I'm wondering why on earth you would ever purposely fill your body with gluten (beer) instead of having something like tea or pop or water?

I see that you say there was nothing else to eat but then you must find something else to eat, even if that means going to a grocery store and eating fruits/veggies/gf stuff in your hotel room. Otherwise, you will never get well and will constantly be risking other immune disorders emerging... like Sjogren's, diabetes and thyroid disorders.

Seems that many restaurants that I have gone to have told me the rice is not GF. The last one was a Mexican restaurant. Not sure what forum of gluten was in the rice and didn't ask.

Anne

My mistake was not researching GF restaurants ahead of time. I was just feeling stubborn that night I guess. I do miss beer, and finding GF beer in a restaurant in Colorado is nearly impossible.

BTW, my new avatar is some artwork from our friend. It's a photo of liquid crystals under a microscope.

Claire

I love the new avatar - looks like colorful snowflakes.

The other one was so dark. I could not figure out what it was.
Anne

That is TOO cool!!

Aaawww, thanks. I like that image, so now I always think of it as colorful snowflakes too!

The other avatar was me, with some visual enhancing compliments of a Mac program called Photo Booth. You can make really weird pictures of yourself, including ones that make you look like a Picasso painting. It's really fun to do with kids.

Claire