h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've developed an allergy to gluten. Or wheat. It comes to the same thing. Either way...

Bread's out. Cookies are out. Pasta? Gone. Beer? Nope. Chinese food? History. Breaded anything? Fugetaboudit In fact, almost everything made with wheat gluten has got to go.

Think about what that entails.

So...been and restocked the pantry with rice based everything and thus far, it's all going well.

But still. No beer. I am therefore forced to rely on rum.

No ?

There there, it could have been worse - my Mum was unable to take *any* alcohol at all after a bout of pancreatitis... not that it bothered her too much anyway - she only used to drink one small sherry a year, on Christmas Day.

How did you find this out btw? What were the symptoms?

The symptoms were: bloating, gas, swelling of the stomach, I can't spell nausea but that's one anyway, and a variety of less pleasant gastrointestinal odds and ends after eating gluten type foods.

The thing is to catch this stuff before it leads to Celiac Disease.

So, post weekend I'm feeling about a thousand percent better. The Gluten free diet is a beautiful thing. I no longer feel like an earth tethered Zeppelin. When I eat, I feel full rather more quickly than I did and remain feeling full for longer (which, now that my diet is rice based, is odd). I am also enjoying the fact that I can now have a form of Pasta again. Italian food is probably my favorite and I will swap any two deserts for one lasagna. Since the advent of a metric shedload of non-gluten pasta, I'm back in the kitchen!

It does make eating out a pain, but I will learn to cope.

And the lack of beer isn't a problem. I can drink wine, and I am in the market for a bottle of Rum or two. Huzzah!

Let's face it - living in America you're probably in a much better position to find gluten-free products than in the UK. American food companies seem to be able to produce anything-free anything in order to satisfy the food allergies of people here. I saw a box on the supermarket shelf a few weeks ago that said 'No wheat, no gluten, no dairy, no potato starch, no this, no that...' seven things altogether that weren't in this product. I must admit I was left wondering if there was actually anything in the box at all.

Last week we had our Pirates of the Caribbean feast at work - whenever there's a big film the chef comes up with a menu based on the film, paired with wines and/or beers, and we charge people an arm and aleg to watch the movie and eat this rather good food.

One of the items on the menu for Pirates was roti filled with a crab and shrimp curry (there were a few left over afterwards and it was delicious ). Apparently word came back to the kitchen that someone in the audience complained she couldn't eat it because she's allergic to curry. John (the chef) had had a tough day and was.... nonplussed to say the least "Allergic to curry? What the ? That's the stupidest ing thing I've ever heard! That's bullshit. Curry is a mix of spices and herbs! You can't be allergic to curry - thery've all got different ing ingredients! And if you know you're allergic to curry, why the buy a ticket for something that's got ing curry on the ing menu?".

John's a big fan of Gordon Ramsay, I should add

I'm a fan of John the chef, and I like his attitude to 'allergic to curry'. Silly patron has probably had an attack of the Tandoori Hurricane and mistook it for an allergic reaction. Meh.

Here's a couple of pictures for you to print out and hang on your wall
http://www.originalalamo.com/shared_web/meetthechef/bullington.gif
http://www.originalalamo.com/archives/southlamarribbon/slides/0503_SLOpen_55.html

By the way, he now has a chef's jacket that has 'Executive chef, Badass Cinema' embroidered on the pocket

My word, the place looked so clean and so new when that picture was taken You should see it now after 18 months