Re: RE: Asia, Italy

[Guest guest]

Re Asia: If you're super-sensitive, I'd suggest you stay away from anything cooked in a wok, even if the ingredients are GF. I was told by a Canadian chef that woks can't be cleaned well enough to get rid of gluten.

In Italy, light, snack-type lunches are difficult (in my experience), as paninis and pizza are the easily available choices for most people. Breakfasts on the run are difficult, as pastries are the obvious move in coffee bars. I learned always to carry something like a banana, a hard-boiled egg, or a GF carton of yogurt. Fortunately, really good yogurt has been available in most places I've looked. I found fantastic GF cereals, crackers, and cookies in health food stores. For outdoor snacking, I carry a set of hiker's flatware and sharp knife, in case I need to slice fruit while others are eating sandwiches. I always travel with disposable Gladware-type containers and zip-lock bags, plus a vial of salt. For hotel buffet breakfasts, I bring a plastic container of GF dry cereal and my own GF crackers to use with the cheeses and meats that often are provided in the pre-paid hotel breakfast.

I find the big auto-stop/snack bar places difficult in terms of packaged foods -- it all seemed to contain gluten, even the yogurt and candy. On the few occasions when I've needed to eat there, I've had beautiful salads with fresh mozzarella or Parma ham or such.

In restaurants, avoid the places that focus on pizza and pasta and bread. Why make life more difficult?

I found it far, far easier to get good restaurant food in Italy than in the U.S. Just say you must eat non-glutino, and you have it made. Every chef, every waiter that I encountered knew exactly what I needed and was pleasant about making sure I got it.

Northern Italy gives you a little more latitude than southern, as the north if the production center for wonderful rice and therefore for wonderful rice dishes.

You can get great GF beer in Italy!

Remember, CD has the same prevalence in Italy as in the U.S., but it's much better known there. Take along a laminated card explaining your needs; this will be good to have in case you're especially tired. I made one up with my own wording, using very simple terms, rather than ordering a pre-printed one. However, I never found it necessary to use it.

H.

-----Original Message-----

From: Palmer, <palmer@...>

< >

Sent: Fri, Apr 9, 2010 10:43 am

Subject: [ ] RE: Asia trip, and Italy

Hi Sue,

A couple of tricks I use are to look around me at all of the fat people and feel thankful that I have to pay attention to what I eat.

Also, I try to make sure that my daughters and I do get to eat delicious treats (i.e. like you did with gelato in Italy).

Finally, for me I feel so sick when I accidentally eat gluten that gluten-containing food looks like poison to me, even if it might look tasty to someone else.

On the other hand, your comments on Italy have me worried. My family and I, including 4 celiacs, will be living in Florence next spring, for 6 six months. I had heard it wasn't that hard to eat gf there . . . Please share any tips or good restaurants that you found.

Take care--

(palmer@...)

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From: [ ] On Behalf Of CalicoSue [susan.hersom@...]

Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 9:51 AM

Subject: [ ] More thoughts on my Asia trip

Thank you for your responses! Celiacs can sometimes feel emotions that most people don't - i.e., feeling deprived when you can't eat something everyone else is enjoying, sometimes feeling isolated and different, not being able to totally enjoy eating out. Boy, we could go on and on, couldn't we?

When we visited Italy a few years ago, I had heard so many stories of how easy it was to eat g-f in Italy. I found that not to be true, for me anyway. Of course, I had my own food and the pharmacies in Italy had g-f food that I could snack on, but to be able to easily eat lunch or dinner somewhere was very hard. We took taxis at night to certain restaurants that I had researched before we left to make sure they had g-f pasta and pizza, so I knew I had at least one meal a day I could look forward to, but it was so hard to walk around the cities in Italy during the day and not be able to enjoy a slice of pizza, etc. for lunch like everyone else. All I could find to safely eat was gelato (and my snacks). By the 5th day or so, I was starting to cry and dreaded eating the same old thing again. I think I even started feeling resentful. I think my deep-seeded fear is that I'm going to ruin our vacation to our son's wedding by not controlling my emotions – and I know I WILL be deprived because I cannot eat most of what will be offered to me in Asia. Thank goodness we will only be gone for a week, but I'm a bit disappointed in myself for not being a stronger person. Geez, I'm really opening up, aren't I?

Any thoughts on how to control these emotions of feeling deprived and a bit resentful?

Sue

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