No Meat, no Wheat

One evening we had dinner under the stars. When we arrived, this fabulous violin and guitar duo were performing live, and no matter what they played, it had a zest to it that seemed to perfectly match the ocean breezes, the setting sun, and the emerging stars just above us. Then, a table opened up not far from ours. Two women came to eat, and (at least) one of them had a child with her. I tried to listen to them, for one, to see if they were perhaps friends or something more significant. The woman with brown hair did most of the talking; the lady with short white hair either did not talk, or talked so low that her utterances were undetectable by my now aging ears. As it turned out, the brunette was engaging the waiter first about the seat for the baby, and then next, what the vegetarian options were. "She doesn't eat meat," she told the waiter, gesturing towards her dining partner. Later, another waiter emerged, and she was asking him about noodles. "Do you have any noodles that aren't made with wheat? She can't eat the wheat..." Then I thought it very curious. This poor woman can't eat meat or wheat. And they rhyme. Only in English does this woman's condition (or prefernce) come with tongue-in-cheek comedy, not meat nor wheat!. She asked about rice noodles with tofu, I believe, and then I wondered why they hadn't tried an Asian restaurant instead of an Italian one, specializing in wood oven-baked pizzas.