When this website was first made, I thought it would be a good idea to make it a blog, however as I went on to create it and actually understand the message and purpose of it, I drifted further and further away from the idea. Little did I know that I would not be able to change the main set up of my website after finishing it, and so I had to still have a blog page in the beginning. It took me a while to try to figure out what to write, but finally I settled on maybe writing about my experiences of eating out with allergies....
I love food and the experience of eating out. Throughout my life I have been lucky enough to have had these experiences many times, yet have always stressed about whether or not I would get an allergic reaction from the food. Unfortunately, there have been a fair number of incidences where this has happened, here are a couple:
Prague 2013: When I used to live in Prague my family and I had this special restaurant that we used to go to all the time. Through our 6 years there I don't really have any strong memories of any other restaurant other than this one. One year, we decided to go to this restaurant for my sister's birthday. This time, unlike my usual order of Margherita pizza, I decided to order a Piadina (an Italian flatbread sandwich). Since we had been coming here so often by this point we had full confidence that the restaurant could cater to my allergies, as they
had multiple times prior. Unfortunately this time, after asking 3 or 4 times, I took a couple bites and knew immediately I was having a reaction.
As luck would have it, there was mayonnaise in the sandwich, a dip made primarily from eggs. Honestly, I don't know what happened that day. Was the message miscommunicated? Did no one realise that mayonnaise had egg? I really don't know, but that is something that I've learnt to always be aware about in restaurants: the fact that some people just don't know, so you have to be extra cautious sometimes, as well as the fact that I should always be suspicious of any white sauce in my food in a restaurant!
Salzburg 2019- The memory of this reaction is the strongest in my head because it was the most recent, but also one of the most violent. My family and I went to a relatively classy restaurant where we confident they would take care of my allergies. In the beginning we were very confident as they even brought me separate bread without egg, and did their utmost to make me feel safe. When ordering, I clarified my other allergies (nuts and shellfish), and they once again assured me that it
would not be a problem. However, while eating my meal (around half way through), my throat started getting 'thick' and I knew it was happening once again. This particular reaction was terrible because the pain and vomiting that ensued. It was a long, exhausting and painful reaction, but yet again it taught me to never become complacent with eating out. Because of the type of restaurant it was, and the fact that I had not had a bad reaction like that for a while, I never remembered how bad it could get. Additionally, the odd thing about this meal was that even the restaurant was baffled as to why I got a reaction. They really thought that the meal was completely fine. All this meant was that obviously there was some cross contamination or miscommunication in the kitchen.
Unfortunately these are only a couple of the multiple allergic reactions that I have had throughout even this time period.
Source:
“Piadinas Two Ways with Hand Cut Pesto.” Recipes | Gino's Italian Escape, www.itv.com/ginositalianescape/recipes/piadinas-two-ways-with-hand-cut-pesto.
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