Monday, November 8, 2010

for the love of noodles...

So, learning to eat gluten free has been a challenge.  Especially if you want to eat out somewhere.  A few weeks ago, I had this experience at our local Nothing But Noodles:

me: (calling to order two meals to go for L to pick up) I've been told that you have gluten free noodles.  is that right?
NBN girl: ummm...what?
me: pasta.  noodles.  gluten free.  do you have them?
NBN girl:  ummm...i don't think they're free...
me: (with an exasperated sigh and eye roll, cuz it's not like we had a bad connection) no, hon.  GLUTEN free.
NBN girl:  oooohhhh!  yeah, they're glue free!
me: ooooookay.  know what?  i'm just gonna get two chicken and cheesy vegetables or whatever it's called.  i need two separate orders of that.
NBN girl: okay!  great!  and what's the name on that?
me: slaymaker.
NBN girl: oh, wow!  that's really cool!  okay, ms. slaymaker (not my name, fyi, but L's) we'll see you in a little bit! bye!

and i'm still frustrated that she didn't give me a total, but i got over it.  i repeat the conversation to L and she laughs.  but then she goes to pick it up:

NBN girl: (same one, no lie) okay, that'll be $16.83.
L: okay, i need to pay for those separately.
NBN girl: okay!  so this one's $16.83.
L: no.  i need to split that and pay for them each separately.
NBN girl: yeah, okay.  so we'll take care of this one first and then get your second one.
L: NO.  (pulling two debit cards out) i need to put ONE on this card.  and ONE onthis card.
NBN girl: oooohhhh!  okay.  yeah, i don't know how to do that.

Thankfully, the next time I actually went IN to NBN, they had gluten free menus right by the register.  And y'all, it was GOOD.  Perfect rice pasta.

I also know that Olive Garden (and who doesn't love the OG???)  has a gluten free pasta.  Yes, ma'am, they do.  And it's GREAT.  And ordering that over the phone wasn't nearly as complicated.  To make that experience five times better, the girl that brought it out to me at the restaurant is also gluten free.  She said working at the OG around all that pasta makes her feel like a fat kid who can't have any cake.  Yeah, I can relate to that feeling.  But she has learned her menu and knows what's gluten free there and what's not.  And FYI, per OG girl, the salad dressing that we all love so much is NOT gluten free.  Dang.

Bridge tells me that Mellow Mushroom has a gluten free pizza crust and it's good, too.  Everything else I've tried has been normal food, just nothing with bread.  Grilled chicken and corn tortillas and stuff.  But you should know that my life has been made a million times better by the fact that I can, in fact, get gluten free pasta at the two best pasta places in the world.  And at one of them, I'm even guaranteed that the pasta is GLUE free, as well.  Who could ask for more???

2 comments:

  1. yeah GF!! I am patiently waiting a GF baking experiment post. :) PS- maybe the NBN chic's 1st language wasn't english... possibly it's txt :p

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  2. ah...GF baking to come this weekend with MC's 4th birthday party :) i've done some GF baking already, and it's been wildly successful, thanks to Cooking For Isaiah. i'll post this weekend, promise!

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