I am back on the road, traveling from Upstate New York to Texas. Eating on the road is always a problem, so I made sure to pack a lot of food to take with me.
First, let me say that squeezing slices of lime into one's beverage can while driving is difficult. On the other hand, when I decided that maybe I needed a glass to put the drink and the lime slices in, I was confronted with another problem -- driving with one hand and pouring a drink I couldn't really look at with the other. I don't know which is harder. Maybe next time I will just throw the lime out instead of trying to rescue it from the refrigerator on the way to a road trip.
The first day out I ate only what I packed. I had cheese and turkey and toasted gf bread; I had deviled eggs and tuna salad; I had lots of Club Sodas (with lime slices!) and I had the giant bag of M&M's -- as well as some very nice coconut chocolate chip meringues that I made myself on the way out of town. It probably was not a good idea to get the big bag of M&M's -- still I had plenty left for the second day. The second day I threw out the leftover tuna salad and the last egg and lived solely on cheese and Glutino crackers (and of course M&M's), but I knew that I had a reservation for dinner in Memphis at Amerigo's on Ridgeway in the Germantown area.
The restaurant was only about a mile and a half from the hotel (which I picked because it was only a mile and a half from Amerigo's). I put the address in the GPS and drove over, but was startled to see that the address was for PF Chang's where I had eaten when I came through Memphis in May! How could that happen? I had entered the right address, I was sure! And I had -- Amerigo's is in the same shopping center as PF Chang's.
The restaurant had a very warm feeling to it, and I had an excellent meal. It was one of the Specials -- and was not on the printed GF Menu that I was given at the door. It was Chilean Sea Bass served on a cedar plank with some potatoes that were sort-of-kind-of mashed, but not completely, and some roasted vegetables -- Zucchini, Squash, and Red Peppers. The meal arrived really quickly and very hot. Marvelous. I had coffee and ice cream afterwards, but I should have skipped it. Too many calories and not impressive. If I am in Memphis again though, I will go back to Amerigo's. If you go, make a reservation, and go early. It was not crowded and the food arrived extra fast. I hardly had time to regret that I did not bring something to read.
Cathy
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Gluten Free in Germany
Gluten Free in Germany -- hey, that rhymes!
I can't state strongly enough how much I needed the German translation of the dining card from CeliacTravel.com. I used it at virtually every meal, and I would have been lost without it. Many of the people in the smaller cities and towns that we traveled through did not have much of a command of English, including wait staff in restaurants. I tried to mostly eat in more sophisticated restaurants where the kitchen staff would have better knowledge of the diet, but in truth pretty much everywhere we went the people serving in the restaurants went to some effort to help me. I thought for sure that a small restaurant in Bad Sooden Allendorf would throw up their hands and tell me that they could not help me, but the waitress and the owner(?) of the restaurant went over the note, heads together and conferring for a few minutes before the waitress came back and said that they could get me a salad, some potatoes, and an unbreaded schnitzel. Ach du lieber! Lunch!
Most of the trip I chose salads for lunch. The salads in Germany are nearly always very fresh and can be ordered with a meat served on it. They were very accommodating about no breading, etc. I don't really understand about the dressings though. I always asked for the salads without dressing, at least for Steve, who doesn't eat dressing, and for me, because I don't always know what is in it. Without dressing seems to mean "only vinegar". sometimes I would say "ohne vinegar"; maybe that threw them. It means without, I believe. Maybe they heard "only vinegar." But even if I didn't say that, some mild vinegar dressing seemed inevitable.
Dinners were easier most of the time. We ate in some very nice restaurants. One was in Darmstadt on a street less traveled. It was an Italian restaurant that I think was named Panino. The name scared me a bit, but we looked at the menu and I'm glad that we stayed. I had some very nice Prosecco, a tomato soup, and some lamb and potatoes in tomato sauce. It was maybe a bit of tomato overload, but it was quite good.
Cathy
I can't state strongly enough how much I needed the German translation of the dining card from CeliacTravel.com. I used it at virtually every meal, and I would have been lost without it. Many of the people in the smaller cities and towns that we traveled through did not have much of a command of English, including wait staff in restaurants. I tried to mostly eat in more sophisticated restaurants where the kitchen staff would have better knowledge of the diet, but in truth pretty much everywhere we went the people serving in the restaurants went to some effort to help me. I thought for sure that a small restaurant in Bad Sooden Allendorf would throw up their hands and tell me that they could not help me, but the waitress and the owner(?) of the restaurant went over the note, heads together and conferring for a few minutes before the waitress came back and said that they could get me a salad, some potatoes, and an unbreaded schnitzel. Ach du lieber! Lunch!
Most of the trip I chose salads for lunch. The salads in Germany are nearly always very fresh and can be ordered with a meat served on it. They were very accommodating about no breading, etc. I don't really understand about the dressings though. I always asked for the salads without dressing, at least for Steve, who doesn't eat dressing, and for me, because I don't always know what is in it. Without dressing seems to mean "only vinegar". sometimes I would say "ohne vinegar"; maybe that threw them. It means without, I believe. Maybe they heard "only vinegar." But even if I didn't say that, some mild vinegar dressing seemed inevitable.
Dinners were easier most of the time. We ate in some very nice restaurants. One was in Darmstadt on a street less traveled. It was an Italian restaurant that I think was named Panino. The name scared me a bit, but we looked at the menu and I'm glad that we stayed. I had some very nice Prosecco, a tomato soup, and some lamb and potatoes in tomato sauce. It was maybe a bit of tomato overload, but it was quite good.
Cathy
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