After my Nia class this past week, I went out to have something to eat with a friend. I wanted something on the menu without this and with that, and instead of this could I get that on the side? In the past I have hated going out to eat because I couldn’t ever find anything I liked. Well, several things have happened;
1) I eat more variety than I used to eat
2) Almost every restaurant serves a salad and
3) I can now rearrange a menu item and the server doesn’t have a fit.
I think a lot of it is due to food allergies.
Well, not entirely because long before people started discovering they were allergic to gluten restaurants started being more flexible with their menu. So many things have tomatoes and even though I will eat a tomato, I prefer not to have them IN things. Now-a-days it seems so many things have a hot, spicy chipotle or something other sauce on it. So I am ALWAYS at the very least requesting that something listed on the menu as part of the dish be eliminated. I do believe though that so many people are allergic to so many things servers and restaurants are more sensitive to the fact and they just try their best to do what you want. Sometimes they might feel the need to charge you when you do a lot of rearranging, but they will usually let you know if that is the case. And you will be able to get what you want.
I used to pour over the menu trying to find the thing that I could eat. I used to break out in a sweat when it was my turn to order. My husband used to . . . .no, he still does, roll his eyes. Now I can pick something and take off a few things or add this. I once was reminded that if the kitchen isn’t busy and they have all the ingredients for what you want, you can always just ask for it. Sometimes you get a surprise. Years ago I was at a hotel and I asked if they could make me a grilled cheese even though it was not on the menu. When my order came up I was horrified because I didn’t remember ordering two, but there were two sitting there. The waitress saw my face and laughed explaining that the cook thought it sounded good so he made one for himself. Whew! I certainly didn’t want two.
While I don’t really love food allergies because I understand that they can have very serious consequences if the person that is allergic to a particular food happens to consume it. I also understand that living with a food allergic can be quite a challenge. I do, however, love that as a result I think restaurants are more accommodating. I love that most restaurants will have a vegetable option and/or vegetable sides. Also, if there really isn’t anything on the menu that grabs me, I can usually fall back on a salad. Since so many things contain gluten that you might not even thing about, I can also rearrange the salad if I want.
What about you? Do you order straight off the menu? Or do you rearrange things a bit?
Terre Pruitt's Blog 