China Visit

[Guest guest]

I have just returned from an 11-day business trip to Shanghai and

Beijing, and I am glad to report that I was able to enjoy meals from a

large number of restaurants with no ill effects. I was able to manage

quite well without a Chinese-speaker for restaurants that did not serve

Asian food, and I was fortunate to have at least one Chinese-speaker

for Asian restaurants. Most Asian-style restaurants were fairly

up-scale and had good control over the ingredients. European and

American style restaurants were the same except they were usually more

moderate in price. Tony Roma's - not a place I would generally

recommend in Shanghai - had difficulty getting it right initially, but

they were accommodating with a burger patty, salad and baked potato.

Several of our Chinese-speaking engineers were able to assist me prepare a pocket card which proved to be indispensable: http://tinyurl.com/3dsj4u (

http://home.comcast.net/~vhdolcourt/china_card/china_card.doc).

I needed this card for every Asian meal. The restaurants would not cook

custom meals, but they would identify which foods met the criteria. In

Shanghai I was able to eat approximately 80% of the dishes from the

Shanghainese and Thai restaurants. In Beijing, the number dropped to

about 20% as northern China is much more wheat-based and uses soy sauce

in many of the dishes. I did have some luck with Sichuan dishes in

Beijing, many of which had simpler sauce that did not use soy or oyster

sauces. Shanghainese cuisine - whether in Beijing or Shanghai - is

light, tasty and just moistened with sauce. The Shanghainese are not

heavy soy or oyster sauce users.

Of course, I stayed away from all noodle and dumpling dishes.

In Beijing, chow fun was fried rice, not noodle. For the trip I brought

along and really depended upon Bars, Nectar Bars, TJ trail mix

and TJ "All Fruit Bars" - ends and pieces. We did a self-guided trip to

Zhouzhuang, and a Chinese member of our customer's team told all of us

to bring all of our food because she would never eat anything there. We

found a well-stocked, multi-ethnic supermarket on Nanjing Xi Lu in

Shanghai for food and bottled water to take to Zhouahuang.

You

have to be very choosy where you eat in China and what you eat - cooked

foods, salad is OK in good western-style restaurants, and so is fruit

which is served with nearly every Asian meal - watermelon, Asian pear,

dragonfruit, kiwifruit, and some times cherry tomatoes.

Our group flew United Airlines, and they accommodate a GF diet

although there is no way to put it on your frequent flier profile. Some

of the people in our group complained about United's food, but I

thought the GF food was good tasting, albeit a bit on the plain-side.

The airline choice was my customer's, and I accommodated them.

Should you go to China? Definitely and by all means! We were there in time for the Moon Festival, and Tiananmen square was absolutely packed with people in the evening.

Vic-Sunnyvale

[Guest guest]

I frequently go to Kaohsiung, Taiwan and have had great experiences with GF meals there. Ruth's has locations in Taipei and Kaohsiung and much of the local cuisine is simply processed and uncontaminated. Black bean soy sauce is usually GF and widely available.

Glad you had a good trip!!Cheers,Joe-- Joe http://sanbeiji.com/On 9/28/07, vdolcourt

<vdolcourt@...> wrote:

I have just returned from an 11-day business trip to Shanghai and

Beijing, and I am glad to report that I was able to enjoy meals from a

large number of restaurants with no ill effects. I was able to manage

quite well without a Chinese-speaker for restaurants that did not serve

Asian food, and I was fortunate to have at least one Chinese-speaker

for Asian restaurants. Most Asian-style restaurants were fairly

up-scale and had good control over the ingredients. European and

American style restaurants were the same except they were usually more

moderate in price. Tony Roma's - not a place I would generally

recommend in Shanghai - had difficulty getting it right initially, but

they were accommodating with a burger patty, salad and baked potato.

Several of our Chinese-speaking engineers were able to assist me prepare a pocket card which proved to be indispensable:

http://tinyurl.com/3dsj4u (

http://home.comcast.net/~vhdolcourt/china_card/china_card.doc).

I needed this card for every Asian meal. The restaurants would not cook

custom meals, but they would identify which foods met the criteria. In

Shanghai I was able to eat approximately 80% of the dishes from the

Shanghainese and Thai restaurants. In Beijing, the number dropped to

about 20% as northern China is much more wheat-based and uses soy sauce

in many of the dishes. I did have some luck with Sichuan dishes in

Beijing, many of which had simpler sauce that did not use soy or oyster

sauces. Shanghainese cuisine - whether in Beijing or Shanghai - is

light, tasty and just moistened with sauce. The Shanghainese are not

heavy soy or oyster sauce users.

Of course, I stayed away from all noodle and dumpling dishes.

In Beijing, chow fun was fried rice, not noodle. For the trip I brought

along and really depended upon Bars, Nectar Bars, TJ trail mix

and TJ " All Fruit Bars " - ends and pieces. We did a self-guided trip to

Zhouzhuang, and a Chinese member of our customer's team told all of us

to bring all of our food because she would never eat anything there. We

found a well-stocked, multi-ethnic supermarket on Nanjing Xi Lu in

Shanghai for food and bottled water to take to Zhouahuang.

You

have to be very choosy where you eat in China and what you eat - cooked

foods, salad is OK in good western-style restaurants, and so is fruit

which is served with nearly every Asian meal - watermelon, Asian pear,

dragonfruit, kiwifruit, and some times cherry tomatoes.

Our group flew United Airlines, and they accommodate a GF diet

although there is no way to put it on your frequent flier profile. Some

of the people in our group complained about United's food, but I

thought the GF food was good tasting, albeit a bit on the plain-side.

The airline choice was my customer's, and I accommodated them.

Should you go to China? Definitely and by all means! We were there in time for the Moon Festival, and Tiananmen square was absolutely packed with people in the evening.

Vic-Sunnyvale