Hold the Allergens
No tree nuts, nutmeg, mace, cardamom, buckwheat, apples, pineapples, pears, peaches, nectarines, apricots, eggplant, seeds of citrus fruits, or poppy seeds: a tough set of guidelines for a chef to work with. Nonetheless, two friends whose food-allergy lists comprise this impressive litany decided to try their luck at three very different restaurants. They emerged safe and satisfied enough to produce a pleased review for New York magazine.
For allergic connoisseurs looking to replicate this experience, food-allergy coach Sloane Miller suggests a list of tips that are a little less gauche than Food Allergy Restaurant Cards.
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2 Comments:
As someone with a similar, though not quite as long, laundry list of food allergies, I can totally relate to these women and what they were trying to accomplish. My peanut allergy is the worst - I don't dare go to Thai restaurants that I don't already know are safe (I have found a few here and there) because even if I communicate to my server about my allergy, the cooks invariably are not as attentive to the matter as they ought to be. I almost never venture to get anything anywhere that's deep-fried, for fear that peanut oil would be the frying fat of choice in that particular establishment.
The commenters on that article are jerks... not everyone ends up with food allergies because they were over-protected as children (I certainly wasn't!) and its not our fault that we have them. Its something we have to live with, and although I understand the frustration on the part of restaurant managers and chefs when confronted with these issues, implying that they were being unnecessarily demanding or saying that they're hypochondriacs is incredibly unfair.
Anyone who'd ever experienced a severe allergic reaction to their food because of a dangerous ingredient that they didn't know was there would never react that way.
erichan726 at 11:08AM on 05/21/08
Ugh, I read those comments, and while some were okay, the two that said "I think that they're making those up, who is allergic to pears, cardamom and apples." really bothered me. I'm allergic to apples. It is pretty mild but has resulted in hives on occasion. (one time was from apple jacks! I didn't even know that there was apple juice concentrate in them. Yeah the name should have given it away, but I'd never reacted before...)
cmtigger at 10:02PM on 05/22/08