The other day, I was up in Austin visiting some good friends of mine, and one of them, Andy, and I went to the grocery store. Well, of course we went to the grocery store because in a non gluten-free household with four kids, I wanted food I knew was safe while I was visiting.
While we were wandering around HEB, we encountered a lady, shopping cart in tow, staring at the rows of crackers with a look of bewilderment on her face. She slowly bent down and picked up a box of Nut Thins and stared at them. I know that look and I know who usually buys Nut Thins - gluten free folks. So I asked her if I could help her. She looked at me, blinked, and asked, "Do you know anything about gluten-free stuff?" Yes. Yes I do.
Andy and I directed her to the gluten-free aisle of the grocery store (and god bless HEB for having one!), and I helped her pick out a few items that I knew were good - Glutino's Pretzels, Kinnitoo's Vanilla Creme Cookies, Mary's Gone Crackers (great for meat and cheese appetizers). I asked her if she was going gluten-free. She said, "No. My husband is at the airport right now picking up some visitors, and I just found out they are gluten free. So I'm here." I told her they would probably arrive with food anyway but would be super impressed that she had things on hand for them to munch on. And anything they need can be bought the next day as long as she had the basics.
First, how cool that she was there looking for gluten-free food for her guests. Second, how incredibly great it is that we live in a time when gluten-free foods are available in a local grocery store. Third, what a great coincidence I was there to help her. Just goes to show how many of us there are out there - we exist, we impact others, we travel. We do. How wonderful!
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4 comments:
are there any further specific products you can recommend (this is yummy, this has a great texture, etc.)? any to be avoided? what's your all-time-favorite top 5 for glutton-free snacks?
Well done Dr. Barlow. Very impressive. I am very anxious to read your book. How great to be in the right place at the right time to help someone select products that are gluten free.
It's awesome to know there's gluten-free stuff out there that doesn't taste like dirt, too. P.S. thank you for leaving some of it behind when you left. It didn't last long.
There are a host of gluten free products, but as BLuRy said, many of them taste like dirt. But there are a bunch of tasty ones too. The ones I mentioned in the blog are all good, although stay away from the Mary's Gone Crackers Sticks and Twigs which is their attempt at pretzels. They do indeed taste like twigs and sticks. ick.
I haven't found a bread that tastes good yet. The best I've done is get a bread machine and play with recipes. With a few uh-ohs, I've gotten some decent sandwich bread from it. Although when my mom first tried it, she said, "There's something missing. What is it?" My reply: the gluten! LOL. I will keep posting things I find that I really like and work.
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