This week, Pie had an early meeting at work, and needed to eat lunch before noon. So he called to see if I’d like to go to an early lunch with him. Sure!

When Pie suggested we go to Popeyes, I reminded my son I couldn’t eat anything there. Gluten Intolerant, you know. He knew, and assured me they had a chicken item on the menu that wasn’t battered and fried.

Okay. I ordered the Naked Tenders, with green beans as my side.

When the order came out, I stuck my spork into the green beans. They were covered with a watery, white liquid.

As I’ve mentioned before, when you have food allergies, you learn to be cautious.

I took the bowl of green beans to the counter and asked the cashier if the green beans had any flour in them. I sloshed the spork around to show her the liquid. Like she hadn’t seen it before. Yeesh.

Anyway…the cashier looked at me as if I had three heads, and six arms, or some such, before she went to the back. Another person came out. I repeated my question.

I’ve learned you don’t ask if the food has gluten in it. Whaaat?

I’ve also learned you don’t ask if it has wheat. Huuuh?

Although I am aware there are multiple types of flour: corn, rice, potato, quinoa…I still ask the question, “Is there any flour in this?”

The manager gave me a rather unfriendly look, and assured me there was no flour in the green beans. Like flour is some bad thing. It’s not. It is just something not everyone can tolerate.

I ate 2-3 small bites of green beans, being sure to shake as much of the suspect sauce off as possible. I still doubted there wasn’t any wheat in them, so I pushed them to the side.

In the middle of the night, I jolted awake with the feeling someone had stabbed me with a sharp knife in the lower left quadrant of my abdomen. It hurt!

When I looked up Popeyes gluten free nutrition information, there it was. Milk. Wheat. Soybeans. MSG. All were in the green beans. Why?

The Naked Tenders were tasty. I’d eat them again. I now know, however, that the only G/F sides Popeyes has are corn on the cob, red beans and rice, Cajun rice, applesauce, and cole slaw.

So, for all you G/F-ers out there, hope my painful experience will keep you from making the same mistake.

I wish you well.

Sandy

PS

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