Glutened by Sushi

I am a sushi lover! Doesn't matter what kind, I love it. Ever since my diagnosis, I have been extremely careful to only eat my sushi with gluten-free soy sauce since it's one of the first "hidden glutens" that you get warned about. I have no shame in taking my own personal dipping container of soy sauce with me no matter whether I'm having sushi at the fanciest of restaurants or at the hockey game. 

Recently I have been eating more sushi than normal, particularly California rolls. Lately, I've also been feeling worse than normal. I'll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say that things weren't "moving along" as they should. Now, this was typical of pre-diagnosis me, but I've gotten used to regularity and damn, it feels good!

Thanks to a server at Genji restaurant on Lisgar Street in Ottawa, I discovered the culprit:

Imitation crab meat. A gluten-free gal's nightmare. 

We were at the restaurant and I had ordered my maki when the server came back to our table to ask why I had ordered all of my rolls without tempura. I guess she had a sneaking suspicion why but wanted to be sure. I told her of my issues and she informed me that two of the four rolls I had ordered had imitation crab meat in them which are not gluten free. At first I was shocked, but then everything made sense!

The regular server at my favourite all-you-can-eat sushi place called Hao Sushi on Merivale Road confirmed this information when he kindly checked the ingredient list on the imitation crab meat package for me just this past weekend. Gluten-free sushi lovers be warned!

Gluten-Free Food Nation: McDonald's

Now, we're not big McDonald's eaters. But when those darn coupons arrive in the mail every few months, I can see the gleam in my husband's eye. Just like Homer Simpson and his doughnuts my husband is thinking: Mmmmm....Big Mac.....

Me going gluten-free messed up his quarterly Big Macs at first. But one day he convinced me to order a bunless Big Mac just to see what would happen. What happened was pathetic. I don't eat the cheese from McDonald's either so what I got was two meat patties in a box with a couple of pickles, some scraps of lettuce and a squirt of Mac sauce.

The next time hubby convinced me to make use of our coupons, I was smarter about the whole thing. The kid behind the counter looked at me like I was crazy when I ordered a Big Mac "with no bun, no cheese, extra lettuce and extra pickles". But when it arrived, I was pleasantly surprised. What I got is what I now call "a Big Mac Salad". Seriously, McDonald's...you owe me for coining that.

A Big Mac salad is a pile of lettuce, a handful of pickles and two meat patties drizzled with Mac Sauce like salad dressing. It all comes in a salad container too. And it's good.

I've ordered it once more since then and I can confirm that McDonald's is consistent in its Big-Mac-sSlad-making procedures. To be clear, the Big Mac Salad is not on the menu. You kind of have to describe what it is you want. But they will do it!