I hope elynne doesn't mind my theft of her Wheat Attack icon

[torquill]

Next time the fries look like they've been coated with something, and the waitress cheerily assures me that no, they're just potatoes without anything else, I will send her into the back (no matter HOW certain she sounds) to fetch the ingredient list anyway. Stupid bint cost me a good night's sleep.

Edit: Now apparently I'm reacting to phantom wheat. I called up Chez Pierre and asked the waitress to check the ingredients list; she asked the cook and told me, "oil and salt." She confirmed that it was potatoes in, fries out. Yet my pulse spiked to about 110 25 minutes after eating them, I had a very restless night last night, and I'm still not hungry -- classic signs of my wheat sensitivity.

I think I'll still stay away from fries that have flaky outsides.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe they also fry cheese-sticks or chicken or something with wheat in the fryer and your fries went into the contaminated oil immediately after something else. I don't know if a situation like that could cause a cross-contamination, but maybe you need to ask for fresh oil.
Take care, Meredith

[luna-torquill.livejournal.com]

That was what my mom suggested -- but why I should get a full-blown, multi-day reaction off of it when I can quite happily eat fries from any Denny's... that baffles me.

Not to mention that I would be shocked if any normal proteins survived a deep-fryer cycle without denaturing beyond recognition. :)

[packy.livejournal.com]

It may be exactly that--you were convinced on some level that you had ingested wheat, so your body was reacting appropriately. As you know, the mind is a powerful thing.

[luna-torquill.livejournal.com]

I don't buy that. An initial pulse spike while I was eating it, maybe... but I had some powerful distractions going on the rest of the day, and the only thing that made me remember what I had eaten for lunch was the physiological distress later. I'm pretty familiar with my subconscious, and this didn't have that signature to it.

[foogod.livejournal.com]

But the question is: Were those ingredients from the packager, or just what the cooks do to them on-site?

It's possible they were using pre-coated fries and not realizing it. I don't know Chez Pierre, but very few restaurants actually make their fries on-site from actual potatoes. They presumably get them pre-cut from Sysco or somebody, and depending on what kind they order, they might be coming off the truck with wheat in them.

If that's the case, though, they really ought to be checking better when somebody asks for allergy-related information.

[luna-torquill.livejournal.com]

Yeah... when I call up and say "could you read the ingredients list for X for me?" I expect them to look at the packaging and read what it says. I took her answer to mean that they cut them on-site, but I suppose that's unlikely for a restaurant that isn't either upscale or a distinguished burger joint like the Hotdog Palace or In&Out.

I guess I need to add "do you cut the potatoes here?" to my list of questions. sigh.

[foogod.livejournal.com]

Well, the problem is that "ingredients" is kinda ambiguous in a Restaurant context. They may have just read you the ingredients list out of their own recipe book ("hmm, let's see: potatoes, into the oil, out of the oil, add salt: Potatoes, oil, salt!").

The other problem is that with stuff from most restaurant supply places, they can't just "look at the packaging", because the packaging doesn't actually have any ingredients on it (heck, they're lucky if it even says "fries" on the box somewhere). They'd probably need to go look up the ingredients in a reference book somewhere (probably in the Manager's office).

In general, it's probably best to tell them up front "I have an allergy to wheat, so I'd like you to check to see whether the fries have any wheat added to them." That tells them (a) that it's not just an idle request and they probably need to take it seriously, (b) that you mean you want them to check all the ingredients from all parts of the process, and (c) in case they didn't realize, sometimes things like potatoes have things they might not expect added before they even get into their kitchen, so they should check for that too. Many restaurants also have a list of common allergens and what does and doesn't contain them, too, so if you're wondering about a specific one (particularly something not entirely uncommon and for some people rather severe, like wheat), and tell them that specifically, they may be able to just go look it up off their list (which is very likely to be accurate, since it's created specifically for the purpose of not making people deathly ill).

Still, even without that, they really should be handling things better than this anyway. For starters, when you called up and asked, you should have been handed over to a manager automatically, who would then look it up in the appropriate place. The person answering the phone shouldn't have just "asked the cook"..

[luna-torquill.livejournal.com]

When I have to ask about a food item that's sitting in front of me, first I ask, "Does this have any flour/breading/coating?" and once they answer, especially if it's negative, I clarify, "I'm allergic to wheat, so I need to know whether it has any flour/breading/coating". This lady answered no to both at the time, and again when I called, so it's not like she didn't know I have an allergy and what it was to.

Anyone who serves at a restaurant that gets anonymous boxes from Sysco (I've seen them too) should at least understand that there's an ingredients list somewhere. A manager would know where it was. It's kind of like MSDS pages -- the information is available on site, and should be provided on request.

For all I know, this lady was the manager. It seemed like a pretty small place. I agree she should have handled it better, though.