Travelling anywhere when you're on a strict gluten free diet can be problematic, but particularly when the traveler is a child. Spending five or six hours in the car to go and visit relatives isn't great fun at the best of times, but if you're stressing about what you're going to feed your child it is worse.
Fortunately, we had been lucky in New Zealand that there was usually a McDonalds restaurant that we could stop at. When our kids were younger, we would get them a Hamburger Happy Meal without the bun.
Sounds easy. But here are some of the questions we'd get.
"So you only want the bun?"
"Do you want the sauce with that?"
"Sorry I don't understand, do you mean you only want the meat?"
So my wife's standard request became "This is an intelligence test. I'd like a Hamburger Happy Meal without the bun. I only want the meat patty and I don't want it anywhere near a bun. My child is highly allergic to the bun. No bun".
Once the Store Manager overheard this conversation and asked if that was really necessary.
Occasionally we'd still end up with a bun.
Some people may stress out about residual traces of gluten in the deep fryer contaminating the chips. Can't say it was a problem with V, because any traces of gluten and she would get dark circles under the eyes.
The great thing about McDonalds is that it is the same in Australia. As she got older she has moved onto two ten-to-a-pound meat patties, a large fries, a caramel sundae and an orange juice. Yes, I know, but it is not as though she gets it every week.
We did have a couple of McDonalds restaurants offer to heat up our own gluten free buns for us too, but we were never organised enough to take up the offer.
Having a quick look at their ingredients list (June 2012), the Breakfast menu hashbrown is also has no gluten, and an egg would be a fairly safe bet.
http://mcdonalds.com.au/our-food/nutrition
note Even a plain sundae may contain traces of gluten
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