Dining Car Menu Question

[chakk]

My guess is that more menu items contain wheat than contain garlic, so you might have a larger challenge than I do. I do not have any issues with breakfast.

Just stay clear of the garlic french toast! :wacko:

or Garlic Vanilla Ice Cream ....

or Amtrak's most famous breakfast -- the Bob Evans Garlic Scramble

 

[NW cannonball]

Looked up Dinty Moore beef stew (Amtrak's shelf-stable reserve food on some long-distance trains) at http://www.hormelfoods.com/Brands/Gluten-Free-Products it is on Hormel's gluten-free list.

A surprise to me. So if the train is stranded in the outback and runs out of regular menu items, the canned stew on rice should be ok. :unsure:

 

[bmorechris]

Since I started this thread, I'm coming back in to clarify what I was asking. I'm not looking for a special gluten free or wheat free meal. All I want is to find out if the eggs are a mix with wheat, if the hamburger is mixed with bread crumbs, and if the steak is marinated in something with wheat like soy sauce. If we can safely eat these three things, we're all set for all three meals. Almost all chain restaurants willingly give customers this kind of information. All I can get out of Amtrak is their pat statement that they don't have a gluten free menu. Thousands of people are giving up wheat because they can't digest the new wheat that has been altered by hybridizing until it's causing all sorts of ailments. Amtrak will eventually have to respond to this. For now, if they could just let people know if wheat is in everything they serve.

Unfortunately, I think you are running into a CYA (Cover Your *butt*) situation on Amtrak's part. They get the meals from a food service vendor, so all they have to go on for ingredients is what is provided by their vendor. Whether that ingredient list ever gets into the hands of anyone in customer service or the on-board staff is questionable. So in order to not get into a situation where they say something is gluten (or nut or garlic or whatever) free when it actually does contain that ingredient, they say they don't have anything that is gluten free to avoid a situation where they could be held liable for making someone sick or worse.

 

[SarahZ]

The salad dressing on the SWC is Newman's. I'm not sure if it's the same brand on other trains.

 

[zephyr17]

The salad dressing on the SWC is Newman's. I'm not sure if it's the same brand on other trains.

It's been Newman's on every LD train I've ridden in the last few years (Empire Builder, Coast Starlight, Southwest Chief, Cardinal, Sunset, City of New Orleans)

 

[SarahZ]

Here's the allergy info for Newman's salad dressing:

http://www.newmansown.com/faqs/?type=food-allergen-and-gluten

 

[Guest]

Thanks for all of the advice, everybody. This is really good information and will make our trip a lot easier. Thanks for taking the time to help.

MJ Auch

 

[RampWidget]

Considering that Amtrak makes zero effort to stock anything that's gluten free, even if requested far in advance of your trip, I think the advice to bring your own food and only eat what you bring is probably your best bet.

On a long distance trip how does one bring food if it cannot be stored or refrigerated? My girlfriend, who has a gluten allergy, will be travelling with me in a sleeper for three nights. I'm not sure what gluten free food we could bring that doesn't require refrigeration. And, would they heat something up in a microwave if we requested it?

Andy, I know for certain that Amtrak will not (due to regulations, etc.) refrigerate food that a pax has brought with them, nor can they microwave it for you. The refrigeration dilemma can be solved by bringing your own cooler and some sort of ice, freeze-paks, etc. to keep items therein chilled.

You'll have to use your imagination to be able to serve your GF an appealing meal. It may not be hot, but it can be done.

If you are in a sleeper, the SCA can bring you an icebucket and ice, but they won't have enough ice to restock your cooler, so keep that in mind.

 

[chakk]

If memory serves, I think the Stinking Rose in San Francisco actually has garlic ice cream.

You will find "garlic everything" -- including free garlic ice cream -- at the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California. This year July 26-28, and Caltrain often runs a special train on the weekend to the festival from San Francisco.

 

[pennyk]

If memory serves, I think the Stinking Rose in San Francisco actually has garlic ice cream.

You will find "garlic everything" -- including free garlic ice cream -- at the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California. This year July 26-28, and Caltrain often runs a special train on the weekend to the festival from San Francisco.

I will NOT be attending. :giggle:

 

[AmtrakBlue]

If memory serves, I think the Stinking Rose in San Francisco actually has garlic ice cream.

You will find "garlic everything" -- including free garlic ice cream -- at the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California. This year July 26-28, and Caltrain often runs a special train on the weekend to the festival from San Francisco.

I will NOT be attending. :giggle:

As, gee. I was going to ask you if you wanted to go with me. :giggle:

My husband would have loved to have gone. He loved garlic. I tolerate garlic.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Andy, I know for certain that Amtrak will not (due to regulations, etc.) refrigerate food that a pax has brought with them, nor can they microwave it for you.

I've heard that many times but what specific law or regulation would Amtrak actually be breaking? Is there anything legally preventing Amtrak from merely making a microwave and/or refrigerator available and simply letting the passengers decide what to do with their own food?

 

[zepherdude]

Cross contamination, responsibility for passengers food, equipment malfunction, employees being asked to heat passenger food, unsanitary packaging, who cleans the equipment. Other passengers taking the wrong food or just theft. Food left in coolers at end of a trip, empty containers around, chicken and rib bones, empty tuna cans stinking up the car, subway lettuce all over the floor and everywhere else, trash cans overflowing.

Amtrak is in the business to sell food, not reheat other peoples. I can see a lot of reasons. I would not want to leave my food open to other people to open or look at. Passengers upset because someone else took their food. Not to mention sales dropping in the dining and snack cars.

It is inviting all sorts of health department issues. Not to mention Amtrak liability.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Cross contamination, responsibility for passengers food, equipment malfunction, employees being asked to heat passenger food, unsanitary packaging, who cleans the equipment. Other passengers taking the wrong food or just theft. Food left in coolers at end of a trip, empty containers around, chicken and rib bones, empty tuna cans stinking up the car, subway lettuce all over the floor and everywhere else, trash cans overflowing.

Sounds like every convenience store microwave and workplace refrigerator I've ever used. It's not like Amtrak passenger areas are free of personal food and related trash now. It's just less safe for those who bring their own because there are so few options to heat or cool it properly.

Where are all these SHARING KILLS! people coming from anyway?

Were they born in a sterile vacuum or are they simply suffering from hypochondria?

I would not want to leave my food open to other people to open or look at.

Then maybe you should simply stay away from any microwaves or refrigerators instead of worrying about what might happen if you ever had a moment of weakness and used one.

 

[Nathanael]

The restaurant laws mean that while Amtrak certainly could provide a refrigerator or microwave for customer use, it would have to be *separate* from the refrigerator or microwave used by the dining car or by the cafe car. (Same damn thing happens in every landside restaurant: they can't accept food you bring in unless you qualify as a food vendor.) At that point, it becomes the usual issue for on-board services: space. There's about enough room for a coffee maker in the sleepers right now, not really enough for a refrigerator.

 

[Nathanael]

All I want is to find out if the eggs are a mix with wheat

I believe the eggs for breakfast are actual eggs which are actually broken on board; this has changed back and forth over the years, however, so you'd have to ask the dining car staff.

However, they're then cooked on a shared grill, so someone who is on a strict no-cross-contamination gluten-free diet, such as someone with celiac, would be out of luck.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

You could probably fit a small refrigerator where the coffee pot currently sits. If the diner brewed actual coffee instead of using those Sara Lee coffee syrup machines I would be fine with that. There's enough space for every single SSL to have an extra drink and snack stand that goes unused 99% of the time so maybe we could put a small microwave on top of it.

 

[AlanB]

If the diner brewed actual coffee instead of using those Sara Lee coffee syrup machines I would be fine with that.

If they're not all history by now, they will be soon. Those machines are all being replaced; started on the Auto Train last year and its working its way through all cars. Even the sleepers are getting new machines, which I do find to be a bit of bummer, as the old perk pots in the Superliners are going away.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

If the diner brewed actual coffee instead of using those Sara Lee coffee syrup machines I would be fine with that.

If they're not all history by now, they will be soon. Those machines are all being replaced; started on the Auto Train last year and its working its way through all cars. Even the sleepers are getting new machines, which I do find to be a bit of bummer, as the old perk pots in the Superliners are going away.

Replaced with a drop coffee maker? If so that's excellent news! That would be a serious improvement in my view. I'm not as sure how to interpret the sleeper machine changes.

 

[AlanB]

If the diner brewed actual coffee instead of using those Sara Lee coffee syrup machines I would be fine with that.

If they're not all history by now, they will be soon. Those machines are all being replaced; started on the Auto Train last year and its working its way through all cars. Even the sleepers are getting new machines, which I do find to be a bit of bummer, as the old perk pots in the Superliners are going away.

Replaced with a drop coffee maker? If so that's excellent news! That would be a serious improvement in my view. I'm not as sure how to interpret the sleeper machine changes.

I know that the machine is made by Douwe Egberts, but I'm not sure just how it differs from the liquid machines that they used to have. I do know that, while still not great coffee, they produce something more drinkable than the original liquid coffee machines that have populated the dining cars now for several years.

 

[oldtimer]

Amtrak is covered by the Food & Drug Administration regulations that prohibit them from allowing Non-Commissary issued food to be stored in their refrigerators nor heated in any Amtrak cooking device. Amtrak several years ago was under a consent decree by the FDA due to it's food handling practices. Several years of compliance has "turned down the heat" by the FDA but a spot inspection finding violations would be a disaster for all involved.

 

[Phil S]

Between sequestration and austerianism the chances of an FDA inspection have dropped considerably. But back to the coffee makers, are you all saying that the dining car coffee is totally different than the urns in the sleepers? I find frequently that the sleeper coffee is much better than the dining car coffee. In fact I joke with the SCAs about whose coffee is best and, though there's disagreement among the SCAs as to theirs, there's universal agreement that the SCAs make better coffee than the dining car, and I agree. Is it really a coffee syrup in the dining car and drip in the sleepers?

This is important info!

 

[railbuck]

Andy, I know for certain that Amtrak will not (due to regulations, etc.) refrigerate food that a pax has brought with them, nor can they microwave it for you. The refrigeration dilemma can be solved by bringing your own cooler and some sort of ice, freeze-paks, etc. to keep items therein chilled.You'll have to use your imagination to be able to serve your GF an appealing meal. It may not be hot, but it can be done.

If you are in a sleeper, the SCA can bring you an icebucket and ice, but they won't have enough ice to restock your cooler, so keep that in mind.

Bring your own microwave. h34r:

 

[AlanB]

Between sequestration and austerianism the chances of an FDA inspection have dropped considerably. But back to the coffee makers, are you all saying that the dining car coffee is totally different than the urns in the sleepers? I find frequently that the sleeper coffee is much better than the dining car coffee. In fact I joke with the SCAs about whose coffee is best and, though there's disagreement among the SCAs as to theirs, there's universal agreement that the SCAs make better coffee than the dining car, and I agree. Is it really a coffee syrup in the dining car and drip in the sleepers?
This is important info!

WellTrained,

I wouldn't argue that the coffee brewed in the urns in the sleepers was much better than what the dining cars & cafe cars turned out. In fact, I've been bringing my Acela/Mets mug with me on trips for the last few years, so that I could drink the better coffee at breakfast. I'd fill the tall mug up before going to the diner.

Alas, that is coming to an end, as these Douwe Egberts machines replace both the coffee makers in the food service cars, but the urns in the sleepers. When I rode the Auto Train last summer, I had no use for my mug. As the urns were gone from the sleepers and the machines were in.

 

[MJ_Also]

I originally started this thread, but wasn't a registered member at that time. We have completed our first half of the trip on the Lakeshore Limited from Rochester, NY, and the Texas Eagle to Fort Worth, TX. My husband and I can't eat anything with wheat or white flour in it, and we were unable to get a straight answer from Amtrak ahead of time about which meals would be wheat free. They just said they didn't have a gluten-free menu, which isn't what we were asking for. Here's an update on the meals. We were able to have the scrambled eggs or omelete and bacon for breakfast, the angus burger without the bun for lunch, and the steak without any sauce for dinner. I am extremely sensitive to wheat, and had no adverse reaction to any of the meals. Besides, they were all really tasty. They even had a "gluten-free pudding" on the menu!

Thanks to everyone for the advice. We brought some food with us, but haven't had to use it.

MJ