Galactosemia Food Information Cooperative
Eating
out
Some tips to consider when eating out
For our son, we usually find a restaurant that serves hamburgers. We bring our own hamburger bun to replace the one that comes with the burger. We also ask to see the ingredient list for the French Fries (our son loves french fries). Usually, the french fries are dairy-free, but we have found that sometimes there is dairy in the french fries that some restaurants serve. We tend to go back to the restaurants that we know have the dairy-free fries. If you are so concerned, you may want to ask if the burger is 100% all beef . You also may want to find out what the burger is cooked in.
At other times, we bring part of our son’s meal with us. I have brought meatballs and sauce to restaurants and only ordered pasta. We usually bring his bread just in case we can’t get a clear answer from the restaurant about bread ingredients.
As our son gets older, and his tastes change I imagine we will get more adventurous and try other things, but for now this is working for us.
I have found that if you ask the restaurant employees on an off-peak time, they will be more helpful. Sometimes, however, it all comes down to who you ask. Some people are more helpful than others. Some restaurants are more helpful than others. Be wary of trusting your server for answers. We have found that they are frequently ill-informed or don’t care. To be fair, I have also found that some servers are very helpful and will go out of their way to help us get the information we need.
Dessert Issue
We always bring a dessert for our son. Sometimes I ask him what he would like me to bring, other times I surprise him with something that I know he will like. For special occasions, I have even brought a brownie along with chocolate syrup, marshmallows and other toppings to make him his own fancy chocolate dessert. (I ask the server for an empty dish to make my creation). Usually though, I just bring a cupcake, or a chocolate chip muffin or cookies.
Salad Bars
If you child likes salad bars, you may want to bring your own salad dressing and let him/her pick dairy-free items from the salad bar. We usually find enough items our son can have, such as, cucumbers, lettuce, egg, fruit, crackers (with label), etc. We stay away from items that we are unsure of such as, croutons. I don’t bring an entire jar of dressing. I use a very small Rubbermaid- like container to hold just the amount of dressing that we need.
Drinks
We usually have no problem finding something for our son to drink. We allow him to have juice, lemonade, or soda on these occasions as we feel he gets enough soy drink at home.
Some tips from other parents:
From Bonnie Murphy: (Thank you Bonnie!)
“Regarding
pizza, I have found lactose free cheese with no additives and when Michelle
goes to a party or has a party at a pizza parlor she brings the “special
cheese” and we have them cook a
pizza with her “special cheese” We have had some great support from
restaurants that will do this for us."
Below
is a compilation of e-mails/information regarding specific restaurants:
Longhorn
Steakhouse April
2003
Theresa,
The fries are great for your family to
eat. I have listed the ingredients for
you. Ingredients: Potatoes,
Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Disodium Dihydrogen Pyrophosphate (to promote color retention),
Dextrose.
Please
feel free to contact me directly with any additional questions you may have.
Robert
Rutherford
Dir. of Culinary
Longhorn Steakhouse
770-551-5428
Bugaboo Creek March 2003
Therese,
Here is the information you
requested. I hope this helps you! Please let me know if you need anything else.
Sincerely,
Erica Hetzler
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Justice
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2003 2:39 PM
To: Erica Hetzler
Subject: RE: Bugaboo Creek
Website - All Other Inquiries
Fries contain, Potatoes,
Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Dextrose, and Disodium
Dihydrogen Pyrophosphate (color stabilizer)
All locations use the same fries; they are cooked in vegetable oil.
Jimmy Johns October 2002 Thank you, Stacey
Taylor
From: Gail Voce [mailto:gvoce@jimmyjohns.com]
Sent:
To: suptegrove@midwayusa.com
Subject: bread ingredients
Stacey:
Unfortunately I can not tell you the
ingredients that make up our breads, but I can inform you that yes our breads contain some dairy products.
Thank you for your interest in Jimmy John's.
You can find Nutritional Information on our
website at: http://www.jimmyjohns.com/menu/
Click any sandwich, and then click the
"Nutritional Information" link below
the sandwich description, to see the information.
Please let me know if you have any further
questions.
Thanks,
Gail Voce
Jimmy John's Franchise Inc.