My trip to South Korea and Japan

[Guest guest]

Our son's wedding in South Korea was amazing! For some reason (probably because

he was from America), they played the theme from Star Wars as our son walked

down the aisle, with different colored strobe lights and fog coming out of

little holes in the altar! (We were expecting Darth Vader to appear any

moment!) The two families blending together culturally was so touching,

especially when my daughter-in-law was not around to translate into Korean so my

son spoke Japanese to my daughter-in-law's sister and brother - who then

translated in Korean to their parents. A definite experience of a lifetime!

ON TO THE FOOD! Well, as expected, since I don't eat much meat, no fish or

seafood and gluten is out, there really wasn't much for me to eat in either

Korea or Japan except plain rice (with my packets of g-f soy sauce) and salad

(with my packets of g-f salad dressing). However, after coming home to our

hotel room at the end of the day, we snacked on Udi's bread with peanut butter

and jelly and had cheese and crackers. My daughter was able to eat a lot more

things because she eats meat and sushi. By the way, Udi's bread was still soft

and delicious after a week because I kept it in the refrigerator in the hotel

room.

In Korea, there are these restaurants where you cook pork strips (like bacon) in

little barbeques at your table. My in-laws were so considerate, they requested

that no sauce be added to the pork before barbecuing so I could eat it. After

cooking, you put the pork in lettuce strips with sprouts, etc. I managed to eat

one piece of pork in lettuce, but that's all I could honestly choke down. They

kept putting more pork on my plate, bless their hearts. When there was a

distraction, I would sneak some slices to my husband's plate because I did not

want to hurt their feelings.

For breakfast at one restaurant, they requested plain chicken soup so I could

eat it. There were all these bowls of different spices, spiny-type things,

rice, etc. to put in the soup. I ate some of the plain soup and added rice, but

it definitely tasted different than American chicken soup.

In Tokyo, things were different. We actually ate at a Sizzler and Outback! The

managers at both restaurants were terrific! The manager at Sizzler took out an

allergy chart from behind the counter, but was confused as to what I was

actually allergic to. I gave him the Japanese restaurant card and he knew

immediately which column to look at. I could eat their chicken and they also

had a buffet, so he took me around and pointed to which foods I could eat. I

stuck with the safer looking foods at the buffet and didn't get sick.

At Outback - WARNING - the BBQ sauce in Japan's Outbacks contain wheat flour!

The manager was so sweet, he looked up the ingredients of the BBQ sauce and told

me that the Outbacks in Japan use the OLD Outback BBQ sauce recipe containing

flour. I stuck with a plain grilled chicken and the manager himself cooked my

potatoes and mashed them for me just to be sure that there was no flour in the

mashed potatoes. I was so grateful to him. My daughter and I didn't get sick

once during the trip!

It definitely was a trip to cherish for a lifetime! We even visited the Tokyo

Tower, which was incredible!

Sue