I have been in school all summer. I am studying to be a Montessori teacher (ages 3-6). Therefore my blog has really suffered. So here are some quick updates to issues I left hanging.
Tortilla Factory - Went great. Everyone there seemed to be in the know. Max had a black bean taco. No reaction! Yea!
Owen and Sesame - All tests negative. Dr. and I decided his reaction very well could have been cross-contam. Once we are back from vacation we will try an at home challenge.
Owen and Mustard - Positive test result. Grrrr! Dr. wants us to try an at home challenge. Like Owen is going to willing eat mustard directly.
Owen and his other allergies - Numerous environmentals. Eggs and milk - down. Sunflower seed -up.
Max and Weight - Max gained an entire POUND this past year. He's got to be the skinniest 7 year old on the block. Ped. is worried. Looks like we'll be seeing a GI specialist and a nutritionist sometime soon.
Showing posts with label eating out. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eating out. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Here's One For You
Picking up Max from school one day last week, he said to me "Mom, we are going to go eat at a restaurant!" Stop in my tracks. "What?" "My class. We are all going to go to a restaurant!"
I turn around and head back to the teacher. With a big smile on my face and sweetness in my voice I say, "So Max tells me you are going to a restaurant." The teacher replies yes. "We've never been to a restaurant." I say. "Oh!" she seems surprised. I ask where they are going. She says she looked at the menu and it seemed there are things on there he could have. We discuss cross contamination. I end with telling her I will need to call the restaurant to see if they can safely provide Max with a meal.
Damn it. What do I do? Max will feel left out if he can't go but I don't know if I trust a restaurant to feed him. I'm also perplexed by the teachers' decision to do this without talking to me first. As a school they have been great with Max and brought him a long way academically. They support him as a student in unbelievable ways. And for the most part are very sensitive to his allergies but this is disappointing to me. I little more conversation with me would have been nice.
I turn around and head back to the teacher. With a big smile on my face and sweetness in my voice I say, "So Max tells me you are going to a restaurant." The teacher replies yes. "We've never been to a restaurant." I say. "Oh!" she seems surprised. I ask where they are going. She says she looked at the menu and it seemed there are things on there he could have. We discuss cross contamination. I end with telling her I will need to call the restaurant to see if they can safely provide Max with a meal.
Damn it. What do I do? Max will feel left out if he can't go but I don't know if I trust a restaurant to feed him. I'm also perplexed by the teachers' decision to do this without talking to me first. As a school they have been great with Max and brought him a long way academically. They support him as a student in unbelievable ways. And for the most part are very sensitive to his allergies but this is disappointing to me. I little more conversation with me would have been nice.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Traveling for the Holidays and Eating Out
On one of my support groups recently there was a discussion about the possibilities of eating out with severe milk allergies. One member reminded us that when we go to restaurants and advocate for our child we are setting an example. Showing them how to manage their own food allergies and that we should continue to make that effort and not be afraid to walk out of a restaurant if we feel uncomfortable with the restaurant's ability to keep our child safe.
And she is right. Yet, I gave up eating out with our kids long ago because I hate the eye-rolling, the impatience, the way I am made to feel as if I am a terrible inconvenience for just asking questions.
Case in point, we were at the St. Louis Zoo the day after Thanksgiving. It was a cold day in Missouri and the zoo was not exactly packed. I stopped at a hot dog stand to get a diet coke. Max was by my side.
"I'm hungry" he said "What do they sell here?"
"Well," I answered "Hot dogs and pretzels."
"Are they safe for me?"
"I'll have to ask. Are you really hungry?"
"Yes"
So I begin to question the cashier. And let me set the scene. It is a cold day. The zoo is not busy. There is NO ONE else in line at this hot dog stand staffed by at least 6 people.
I ask what brand of hot dogs they are. Everyone keeps replying they are all beef hotdogs. I have to repeat myself several times to get the brand name. Farmland. I have never heard of it. I ask to read the label. One of the cashiers runs in the back to get the box. Max asks me about the pretzels. I look down at him and say it is most likely coated with egg or butter so it probably isn't safe.
I look up in time to see the cashier roll his eyes at me. He then turns and says something to the women behind him that I can't make out. They all laugh. Maybe I'm being paranoid but honestly why do people in the service industry think they can be rude to customers.
The other cashier returns with the box. I read the label and order two hot dogs without buns. Max wolfs his down and asks for another. In all he ate two and the half of Owen's he didn't want. He loves situations where he can feel like a normal kid.
And, though this is getting long, here is another example. Last summer we stopped at a hotel on our long vacation drive. We always choose hotels with indoor pools that allow dogs. This one also served breakfast. Traditional breakfasts are not exactly the safest of meals for us. But at this hotel they had out dry cereal in glass jars labeled Frosted Flakes, Fruit Loops and Honey Nut Cherrios. We can eat Frosted Flakes and Fruit Loops yet there were only two scoops on the table. Since I (nor would anyone) be able to tell which scoop had been used in which cereal, I went to the kitchen to ask if I could get Max's cereal directly from the box. The lady in the kitchen asked why so I started to explain about cross-contamination. She rolled her eyes, looked away, thrust the bag at me and said "Whatever." Later a woman at the table next to us stopped the lady from the kitchen and asked about my request. They talked in hushed tones and glanced over at me. I felt ashamed. Like I had made an unreasonable request. I know they are small instances and I shouldn't take it so personally but here in lies one of my own weaknesses. I hate conflict.
So, perhaps I should keep trying. For Max and Owen. For them to learn to stand up for themselves which I obviously have a hard time doing. Perhaps it will be a good lesson for me as well.
And she is right. Yet, I gave up eating out with our kids long ago because I hate the eye-rolling, the impatience, the way I am made to feel as if I am a terrible inconvenience for just asking questions.
Case in point, we were at the St. Louis Zoo the day after Thanksgiving. It was a cold day in Missouri and the zoo was not exactly packed. I stopped at a hot dog stand to get a diet coke. Max was by my side.
"I'm hungry" he said "What do they sell here?"
"Well," I answered "Hot dogs and pretzels."
"Are they safe for me?"
"I'll have to ask. Are you really hungry?"
"Yes"
So I begin to question the cashier. And let me set the scene. It is a cold day. The zoo is not busy. There is NO ONE else in line at this hot dog stand staffed by at least 6 people.
I ask what brand of hot dogs they are. Everyone keeps replying they are all beef hotdogs. I have to repeat myself several times to get the brand name. Farmland. I have never heard of it. I ask to read the label. One of the cashiers runs in the back to get the box. Max asks me about the pretzels. I look down at him and say it is most likely coated with egg or butter so it probably isn't safe.
I look up in time to see the cashier roll his eyes at me. He then turns and says something to the women behind him that I can't make out. They all laugh. Maybe I'm being paranoid but honestly why do people in the service industry think they can be rude to customers.
The other cashier returns with the box. I read the label and order two hot dogs without buns. Max wolfs his down and asks for another. In all he ate two and the half of Owen's he didn't want. He loves situations where he can feel like a normal kid.
And, though this is getting long, here is another example. Last summer we stopped at a hotel on our long vacation drive. We always choose hotels with indoor pools that allow dogs. This one also served breakfast. Traditional breakfasts are not exactly the safest of meals for us. But at this hotel they had out dry cereal in glass jars labeled Frosted Flakes, Fruit Loops and Honey Nut Cherrios. We can eat Frosted Flakes and Fruit Loops yet there were only two scoops on the table. Since I (nor would anyone) be able to tell which scoop had been used in which cereal, I went to the kitchen to ask if I could get Max's cereal directly from the box. The lady in the kitchen asked why so I started to explain about cross-contamination. She rolled her eyes, looked away, thrust the bag at me and said "Whatever." Later a woman at the table next to us stopped the lady from the kitchen and asked about my request. They talked in hushed tones and glanced over at me. I felt ashamed. Like I had made an unreasonable request. I know they are small instances and I shouldn't take it so personally but here in lies one of my own weaknesses. I hate conflict.
So, perhaps I should keep trying. For Max and Owen. For them to learn to stand up for themselves which I obviously have a hard time doing. Perhaps it will be a good lesson for me as well.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Traveling for the Holidays and McDonalds French Fries
It has been a month since I blogged. I don't think I've even logged in since then. Partly I needed a break and partly I have just been darn busy.
We traveled for Thanksgiving and we will travel for Christmas. Eating while traveling can be tricky. I have in general given up eating out with the kids. It is too complicated and too risky but sometimes, well, everyone is hungry. What do you do?
We eat at McDonalds generally. And honestly it makes my stomach turn. I used to love McDonalds now I can barely choke down my bland salad there. BUT we have never had an issue there. The kids eat hamburgers and french fires. I know, I know, there are those out there now protesting "But McDonalds fries contain dairy!" So here's my story and take on McDonald's fries. I think it was 3 or 4 years ago that McDonalds changed the labeling on the fries, not the recipe, the labeling. They discovered after FALCPA went through that the flavoring they were using was dairy "derived". So they changed the labeling to reflect this. People protested, wrote letters. There are long threads on POFAK (Parents of Food Allergy Kids) regarding this. McDonalds did testing and found that the dairy derived flavoring did not contain milk proteins. I think Max was 2 or 3 and we had been safely eating McDonalds fries for a couple years. I decided that since it was one of the few "treats" he gets I would continue to let him have them. I know other parents of milk allergic kids who came to the same conclusion.
We have had nary a hive at McDonalds.
If I was a newly diagnosed family or diagnosed since the whole fries brouhaha, I would probably see the labeling and conclude McDonalds fries are not safe. For this reason I don't go around touting our McDonalds consumption to other food allergic families because sometimes when you tell someone you do something that they consider risky behavior they get that tight lipped look like you just told them you let your children smoke crack.
Anyway, this post took a whole side track that I didn't mean it too. I will have to write what I REALLY wanted to say about travel in the next post.
(I used the word McDonalds 9 times in this post. Anyone googling it may get this instead. Hee hee)
We traveled for Thanksgiving and we will travel for Christmas. Eating while traveling can be tricky. I have in general given up eating out with the kids. It is too complicated and too risky but sometimes, well, everyone is hungry. What do you do?
We eat at McDonalds generally. And honestly it makes my stomach turn. I used to love McDonalds now I can barely choke down my bland salad there. BUT we have never had an issue there. The kids eat hamburgers and french fires. I know, I know, there are those out there now protesting "But McDonalds fries contain dairy!" So here's my story and take on McDonald's fries. I think it was 3 or 4 years ago that McDonalds changed the labeling on the fries, not the recipe, the labeling. They discovered after FALCPA went through that the flavoring they were using was dairy "derived". So they changed the labeling to reflect this. People protested, wrote letters. There are long threads on POFAK (Parents of Food Allergy Kids) regarding this. McDonalds did testing and found that the dairy derived flavoring did not contain milk proteins. I think Max was 2 or 3 and we had been safely eating McDonalds fries for a couple years. I decided that since it was one of the few "treats" he gets I would continue to let him have them. I know other parents of milk allergic kids who came to the same conclusion.
We have had nary a hive at McDonalds.
If I was a newly diagnosed family or diagnosed since the whole fries brouhaha, I would probably see the labeling and conclude McDonalds fries are not safe. For this reason I don't go around touting our McDonalds consumption to other food allergic families because sometimes when you tell someone you do something that they consider risky behavior they get that tight lipped look like you just told them you let your children smoke crack.
Anyway, this post took a whole side track that I didn't mean it too. I will have to write what I REALLY wanted to say about travel in the next post.
(I used the word McDonalds 9 times in this post. Anyone googling it may get this instead. Hee hee)
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Two Entries!
Boy, I totalled a whole two entries last month. I really am a slacker. Thing is sometimes I just get tired of food allergies. Talking about them. Blogging about them. I thought about a lot of other things to blog about but kept pushing food allergy thoughts aside. Alas it is an everyday part of my life so back to business.
We just got back from vacation in Alabama. We drove so there is the whole traveling with food allergies thing. The only place I have continued to stop for food is McDonalds. I know that their labeling for their fries changed a few years back but as they never presented a problem for us I have continued to let Max have them. However, I am sick to death of McDonald's. So on the way down I had us stop at Subway. They seem to have changed their kids meal recently. The previous round sandwiches contained egg (remember the sort of yellowish coloring). Now they just use the regular white bread but cut it in half. Max ordered a sandwich with lettuce, cucumber, and olives (the guy in front of me asked if was becoming a vegan a little early). I ordered Owen a turkey sandwich. They both got apple slices.
Max took all the veggies off his and ate only the bread. Owen ate just the turkey and left the bread. Next time I'll just order a turkey sandwich and they can split it between them.
We just got back from vacation in Alabama. We drove so there is the whole traveling with food allergies thing. The only place I have continued to stop for food is McDonalds. I know that their labeling for their fries changed a few years back but as they never presented a problem for us I have continued to let Max have them. However, I am sick to death of McDonald's. So on the way down I had us stop at Subway. They seem to have changed their kids meal recently. The previous round sandwiches contained egg (remember the sort of yellowish coloring). Now they just use the regular white bread but cut it in half. Max ordered a sandwich with lettuce, cucumber, and olives (the guy in front of me asked if was becoming a vegan a little early). I ordered Owen a turkey sandwich. They both got apple slices.
Max took all the veggies off his and ate only the bread. Owen ate just the turkey and left the bread. Next time I'll just order a turkey sandwich and they can split it between them.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Pump It Up
Max decided he wanted a Pump It Up party this year. As he talked about it he suddenly got thoughtful and asked "Do they make you have pizza to eat though?" "Oh, no," I replied, "I'm sure we could bring our own food, like hot dogs or something."
Boy was I wrong. I called to schedule the party and the woman on the phone started talking about the pizza packages. "Wait a second," I said. "Are we not allowed to bring in our own food."
"Well, yes and no. You can bring in your own cake and pre-packaged snacks. But no other food including any kind of salsa or dip."
"Well, we have a problem then." was my response. I explained Max's dairy allergy and that he couldn't eat pizza.
"Oh, in the case of an allergy we can make an exception." I was momentarily relieved until she added, "You can bring in seperate food for the birthday boy, but you will need to order a pizza package for everyone else."
"That still doesn't seem fair for Max. It is his birthday and it does bother him when everyone around him is eating something he can't have. It's an emotional issue for him as well."
"Well, how about this, for the time your party is set up most people have already had lunch. You could do a pre-packaged snack and the cake, which you can bring yourself."
I found this to be acceptable and honestly less work for me.
I will give Pump It Up half-credit. The woman I spoke to was kind and understanding of our situation. She handle the conversation professionally and with tact while sticking to Pump It Ups rules. (I'm sure she personally did not make them). But under no circumstances will anything other than pizza be served at Pump It Up. You may not bring your own hot dogs.
Boy was I wrong. I called to schedule the party and the woman on the phone started talking about the pizza packages. "Wait a second," I said. "Are we not allowed to bring in our own food."
"Well, yes and no. You can bring in your own cake and pre-packaged snacks. But no other food including any kind of salsa or dip."
"Well, we have a problem then." was my response. I explained Max's dairy allergy and that he couldn't eat pizza.
"Oh, in the case of an allergy we can make an exception." I was momentarily relieved until she added, "You can bring in seperate food for the birthday boy, but you will need to order a pizza package for everyone else."
"That still doesn't seem fair for Max. It is his birthday and it does bother him when everyone around him is eating something he can't have. It's an emotional issue for him as well."
"Well, how about this, for the time your party is set up most people have already had lunch. You could do a pre-packaged snack and the cake, which you can bring yourself."
I found this to be acceptable and honestly less work for me.
I will give Pump It Up half-credit. The woman I spoke to was kind and understanding of our situation. She handle the conversation professionally and with tact while sticking to Pump It Ups rules. (I'm sure she personally did not make them). But under no circumstances will anything other than pizza be served at Pump It Up. You may not bring your own hot dogs.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Multitude of Events Equals Multitudes of Substitutions
Okay, so I'm exaggerating but we do have a lot of outside the home events to attend this weekend. Today I have been running through the mental list of things I need to bake, buy or otherwise get together.
Here's the list:
Saturday afternoon birthday party: The mother is keeping it simple (Bless her!) She is serving fruit, juice and cookies. Note to self: Bake cookies
Saturday evening auction and dinner at Max's school, kids are going to onsite child care (only $30 after paying $80 last week for a sitter this is a steal.): They are serving the kids ice cream and were going to serve goldfish crackers but changed to teddy grahams. Note to self: Buy Tufutti Ice Cream (Chocolate) and send along own ice cream scooper (so my kids don't get cross-contaminated ice cream).
Sunday Newcomers Welcome Luncheon at our church: croissant sandwiches and sliced wraps (from Costco), potato salad and cole slaw (Safeway deli), brownie bites (Costco), Country Time lemonade and sparkling water. Glad she gave me a complete list but this requires I bring along complete lunches for Max and Owen. To make it simple I'll pack: Turkey wraps, Pillsbury crescent rolls (Note to self: buy Crescent Rolls), Carrot slaw (grated carrots) and the cookies I will have already baked.
Why the list? I titled this blog "Everyday with Food Allergies" because I wanted other people to see the preparation that happens for events that people without food allergies don't have to think twice about. I also want to say that a year ago I probably would have only done the birthday party and skipped the school dinner and church luncheon all together. But I can't keep us all shut away in a house. We need to build a community, make friends and get involved. Unfortunately this often involves events with food. So we will just need to learn to deal. Bring our own food. Watch carefully. And carry an Epi-pen (or two or three).
Here's the list:
Saturday afternoon birthday party: The mother is keeping it simple (Bless her!) She is serving fruit, juice and cookies. Note to self: Bake cookies
Saturday evening auction and dinner at Max's school, kids are going to onsite child care (only $30 after paying $80 last week for a sitter this is a steal.): They are serving the kids ice cream and were going to serve goldfish crackers but changed to teddy grahams. Note to self: Buy Tufutti Ice Cream (Chocolate) and send along own ice cream scooper (so my kids don't get cross-contaminated ice cream).
Sunday Newcomers Welcome Luncheon at our church: croissant sandwiches and sliced wraps (from Costco), potato salad and cole slaw (Safeway deli), brownie bites (Costco), Country Time lemonade and sparkling water. Glad she gave me a complete list but this requires I bring along complete lunches for Max and Owen. To make it simple I'll pack: Turkey wraps, Pillsbury crescent rolls (Note to self: buy Crescent Rolls), Carrot slaw (grated carrots) and the cookies I will have already baked.
Why the list? I titled this blog "Everyday with Food Allergies" because I wanted other people to see the preparation that happens for events that people without food allergies don't have to think twice about. I also want to say that a year ago I probably would have only done the birthday party and skipped the school dinner and church luncheon all together. But I can't keep us all shut away in a house. We need to build a community, make friends and get involved. Unfortunately this often involves events with food. So we will just need to learn to deal. Bring our own food. Watch carefully. And carry an Epi-pen (or two or three).
Friday, March 21, 2008
Eating Abroad
I have been wanting to write about our food experiences in Spain (neither my husband or I have food allergies and we didn't take the kids) but re-entry into the real world has been rough and has left little time for blogging. My memories of cafe con leche on a sun filled plaza are slipping away. I want to escape back there if only for a moment...
Ordering food in a language you don't know if difficult. With our handful of Spanish and the waiters' handful of English, we did for the most part end up with food we wanted to eat.
The Spanish have an odd eating schedule. Breakfast consists mainly of coffee of which I drank con leche (with milk) and David drank his solo (self-explanatory) with a bollo (pastry) or small sandwich of jamon (ham) or queso y pimienta (cheese and pepper). I love cafe con leche. The drink is smaller than the lattes served in coffee shops here and the taste stronger. And even though breakfast was a no nonsense affair, never was coffee served in a paper cup. It was expected that you were going to sit down at a table right there and enjoy your pastry and coffee, if only for 10 minutes. The result is you don't see people wandering around nursing a double tall skinny latte with extra foam. I also realized I drink way too much caffeine.
The other great thing about Spanish breakfast was the fresh squeezed orange juice or zuma de naranja. The cool thing was the way it is squeezed. Every restaurant seemed to have this machine that the server fed oranges into the top. The oranges dropped down were sliced in half and then squeezed on this turning wheel and out flowed delicious fresh squeezed juice. I told David I want an espresso machine to make my own cafe con leche and an orange juice machine to entertain the kids in the morning.
The hard part about eating in Spain was waiting for lunch which is taken between 2pm and 4pm. My blood sugar levels had a hard time with this. Restaurants didn't even open for lunch until 1pm at the earliest. Seriously, how do people do this? The interesting part was watching things really shut down for this siesta time. In small places we visited like Segovia and Toledo, shops closed and people headed home to have meals with their families. Things reopen around 4 pm or later and I guess people work til like 8pm. And that's okay because dinner isn't served til 9, 10, 11pm!
The food itself was pretty simple. We ate a lot of jamon y queso served with el pan (bread). You can probably find the jamon we ate in Spain at a specialty deli. It might be labeled Serrano Ham. It is thin sliced, chewier and fattier than the ham we know. Kind of like prosciutto but not as salty. The queso was always Manchego, which I already loved.
Toward the middle of the week it became my quest to figure vegetables into my diet. They just seemed kind of scant on menus but I did find them. The language barrier often kept me from knowing exactly what I was getting or how it would be cooked but since I'm not a picky eater, I really didn't mind. I did ask at one restaurant what the deep fried seemingly tasteless vegetable was with my mixed otherwise grilled vegetables. The waitress said she had to check. She came back to our table and said she knew what it was in Spanish but didn't know the English word for it. She wrote it down for me. Acelgas, which translates to chard. Deep fried chard.
The day we visited Segovia it was freezing. We even got snowed on. The wind whipping through the narrow streets had us numb to the bone so we ducked into a little Lonely Planet recommended restaurant. I really wanted soup but couldn't find the soup on our menu listed in my menu reader book. It was called sopa castellana. Did you look at it? Yes, that is a huevo (egg). It was basically broth with breakfast in it. Not vegetable soup but it hit the spot anyway. Good thing I'm not allergic to eggs.
I would love to take my kids to Spain someday or any other foreign country but it occurred to me how difficult it would be to do this if you had food allergies. I don't take them to restaurants here in the states, how would I safely feed them in a country where I didn't speak the language? I guess we'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it. In the meantime, I'll be dreaming of cafe con leche.
Ordering food in a language you don't know if difficult. With our handful of Spanish and the waiters' handful of English, we did for the most part end up with food we wanted to eat.
The Spanish have an odd eating schedule. Breakfast consists mainly of coffee of which I drank con leche (with milk) and David drank his solo (self-explanatory) with a bollo (pastry) or small sandwich of jamon (ham) or queso y pimienta (cheese and pepper). I love cafe con leche. The drink is smaller than the lattes served in coffee shops here and the taste stronger. And even though breakfast was a no nonsense affair, never was coffee served in a paper cup. It was expected that you were going to sit down at a table right there and enjoy your pastry and coffee, if only for 10 minutes. The result is you don't see people wandering around nursing a double tall skinny latte with extra foam. I also realized I drink way too much caffeine.
The other great thing about Spanish breakfast was the fresh squeezed orange juice or zuma de naranja. The cool thing was the way it is squeezed. Every restaurant seemed to have this machine that the server fed oranges into the top. The oranges dropped down were sliced in half and then squeezed on this turning wheel and out flowed delicious fresh squeezed juice. I told David I want an espresso machine to make my own cafe con leche and an orange juice machine to entertain the kids in the morning.
The hard part about eating in Spain was waiting for lunch which is taken between 2pm and 4pm. My blood sugar levels had a hard time with this. Restaurants didn't even open for lunch until 1pm at the earliest. Seriously, how do people do this? The interesting part was watching things really shut down for this siesta time. In small places we visited like Segovia and Toledo, shops closed and people headed home to have meals with their families. Things reopen around 4 pm or later and I guess people work til like 8pm. And that's okay because dinner isn't served til 9, 10, 11pm!
The food itself was pretty simple. We ate a lot of jamon y queso served with el pan (bread). You can probably find the jamon we ate in Spain at a specialty deli. It might be labeled Serrano Ham. It is thin sliced, chewier and fattier than the ham we know. Kind of like prosciutto but not as salty. The queso was always Manchego, which I already loved.
Toward the middle of the week it became my quest to figure vegetables into my diet. They just seemed kind of scant on menus but I did find them. The language barrier often kept me from knowing exactly what I was getting or how it would be cooked but since I'm not a picky eater, I really didn't mind. I did ask at one restaurant what the deep fried seemingly tasteless vegetable was with my mixed otherwise grilled vegetables. The waitress said she had to check. She came back to our table and said she knew what it was in Spanish but didn't know the English word for it. She wrote it down for me. Acelgas, which translates to chard. Deep fried chard.
The day we visited Segovia it was freezing. We even got snowed on. The wind whipping through the narrow streets had us numb to the bone so we ducked into a little Lonely Planet recommended restaurant. I really wanted soup but couldn't find the soup on our menu listed in my menu reader book. It was called sopa castellana. Did you look at it? Yes, that is a huevo (egg). It was basically broth with breakfast in it. Not vegetable soup but it hit the spot anyway. Good thing I'm not allergic to eggs.
I would love to take my kids to Spain someday or any other foreign country but it occurred to me how difficult it would be to do this if you had food allergies. I don't take them to restaurants here in the states, how would I safely feed them in a country where I didn't speak the language? I guess we'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it. In the meantime, I'll be dreaming of cafe con leche.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Walking With Dinosaurs...But Not Eating With Them
I took Max to see Walking With Dinosaurs today. He loved it, of course. The kid was in dinosaur heaven.
We breezed on past the concession stands selling overpriced popcorn, hot dogs and, you guessed it, peanuts. And here is the advantage of having a food allergy child. He did not ask for a single thing. We never (well hardly ever) buy him food anywhere that, well, frankly I don't know if he even realizes they are selling food. He must, I guess. Everyone around us was eating french fries and hot dogs, but not once did he say "Hey, I want that." (That is until we got to the merchandise stand after the show.) Truly, I probably saved $20 or more just becuase we couldn't eat the food!
When Max does get to eat something not made at home, he savors every bite. Last fall we went into DC to see the sights. I bought Max a pre-packaged Italian Ice from a street vendor. After reading the label 2-3 times I handed him this magnificent cherry flavored concoction of high-fructose corn-sryup. For 30 minutes he slurped and licked and praise poured forth "Mommy, thank you so much for this delicious treat." "This is so good, Mommy." "This is the best treat I have ever had." "I don't like it, I LOVE it." "Mommy, this is the best day ever." "Thank you for getting me this great treat!" "Mommy, I love you."
Aw shucks, it's just Italian Ice.
We breezed on past the concession stands selling overpriced popcorn, hot dogs and, you guessed it, peanuts. And here is the advantage of having a food allergy child. He did not ask for a single thing. We never (well hardly ever) buy him food anywhere that, well, frankly I don't know if he even realizes they are selling food. He must, I guess. Everyone around us was eating french fries and hot dogs, but not once did he say "Hey, I want that." (That is until we got to the merchandise stand after the show.) Truly, I probably saved $20 or more just becuase we couldn't eat the food!
When Max does get to eat something not made at home, he savors every bite. Last fall we went into DC to see the sights. I bought Max a pre-packaged Italian Ice from a street vendor. After reading the label 2-3 times I handed him this magnificent cherry flavored concoction of high-fructose corn-sryup. For 30 minutes he slurped and licked and praise poured forth "Mommy, thank you so much for this delicious treat." "This is so good, Mommy." "This is the best treat I have ever had." "I don't like it, I LOVE it." "Mommy, this is the best day ever." "Thank you for getting me this great treat!" "Mommy, I love you."
Aw shucks, it's just Italian Ice.
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