I recently went to Toronto on a work trip. I actually had the opportunity to be a bit of a tourist rather than be stuck in a hotel working the whole time so that part was really nice. What wasn't nice was trying to find places to eat around my hotel. OMG that was brutal. I ended up having one dinner at The Keg which was nice since a lot of their stuff is very gluten free friendly and they even have a separate menu which was a nice touch but of course, that's a bit more expensive. However, much more reasonable than the lunch I had at my hotel. OMG. BRUTAL. Which is what lead to me wanting to find a different place for lunch the next day.

I hopped on Google to try to figure out what was near by and noticed there was a Boston Pizza not far away. They have GF pizza's that are just sooooooooo good. Except, while it looked not far away it was a good 15 minute walk from my hotel in plus 35 (celsius) heat. Awesome. And when I got there they were full and the wait was 20 minutes and I was dying of the heat. I ended up deciding to go elsewhere which was pretty much my 2nd mistake (my first was not opting to go to The Keg again for lunch, lol). I ended up going to a couple other places and reading their menu outside to decide if I wanted to go inside. Except, I didn't. I ended up at Tony Roma's and when I asked the manager there about GF options he was USELESS. I'm sorry but if the manager is useless, then it's really just a pointless restaurant excursion because OMG if they don't get it, their staff won't either. I ended up having fries. yay!!!!!! Anyway, I later found out that all their rib sauces are GF so I could have had ribs but since the manager was useless, I didn't know that. Woohoo.

Anyway, I figured Toronto would be super eassy to find GF food because hello, huge city! That means more people with a special diet like this. But nope, I had bigger obstacles than in Winnipeg. Although, I'm pretty sure the only reason I don't have huge obstacles here is that I'm familiar with the lay of the land as it were and so I know where to go. And I have a car so I can go wherever I please rather than being at the mercy of where I can walk/taxi/bus without getting lost. Oh well!!! I was there for a conference of sorts and I must say, they were awesome at ensuring GF meals HOWEVER, my only complaint is that I had to find a server and ask them for my food (it was a buffet for most people). I felt like this created an obstacle as well as singled me out. I work in the disabilities community and I really strongly believe in eliminating barriers. I hate when people need to ask for a key to an elevator in order to ensure accessibility, that type of thing however, I felt like I was basically "asking for the key" in order to get my lunch. I really just wish they had had the buffet items labelled as to what they are with a little "GF" symbol next to them. If I couldn't get protein off the GF buffet, then fine, make me ask I guess but almost guaranteed there were items I could have had from the buffet but since they weren't marked, I wasn't going to risk it :(

Anyway, this has made me want to become more involved in advocacy work. I think the more restaurants know about gluten intolerances and the more they know how EASY it is to accommodate then the better. So yes, I am on a mission. Watch out.

In happier news, I discovered Kinni-Kritters this week. Yum!!! I've been a wee bit jealous of my nephew because he can have all the animal crackers he wants but yay now I can have them too!!! Other than bread and pasta, there aren't a ton of gluten type foods that I love. I like cookies but I don't love them so no big deal. I've really only ever like chocolate cake/brownies and I have a store that makes FAB GF brownines so that dilema is solved. And Glutino makes amazing crackers that I love. The Kinni-Kritters just completes the "missing" food from my life. YAY!!!