Monday, May 19, 2008

Eating out and traveling with food allergies

I went on a mini vacation just last weekend.
I went and had an awesome time at Universal City Walk, Disney, Downtown Disney, and Bok Sanctuary.

Now here is the million dollar question.... Is it possible (without any planning whatsoever) to get food and stay on this diet if you have food allergies?
The Answer: Depends on how far you want to go (both travel and bringing your own), how much you want to spend, how accommodating the particular place you go to is, and maybe how much salad you want to eat.
First I should say that I am a little tired of salads so if I wanted salad, I could get it just about anywhere so long as it didn't come pre-made/mixed with ingredients that I could not eat.

What was my approach?
  • I didn't call ahead
  • I was trying to eat something other than lettuce
  • I wanted some different yet good for me
  • I wanted to see how easy this was to do
  • I wanted to see how easily restaurants/fast foods places would handle my request
  • I wanted to see if places like Disney / Universal etc could help me find what I needed
  • I assumed that I would not be able to bring/store my own food anywhere (hotel did NOT have a fridge)
Places I went to:
  • TGIF :
  • Wal-mart
  • Animal Kingdom(Guest Services)
  • Magic Kingdom(,Guest Services)
  • Epcot (Japan, China, USA, Guest Services)
  • Universal City Walk (Bubba Gump's, Latin Quarter Express, Piaganno's)
  • Wolfgang Puck cafe
  • IHOP
  • Sizzler's
You are probably wondering which ones were the easiest to get food at that tasted good and was different?
  • TGIF : It was ok. I got a Pecan Encrusted chicken salad and though the server got a little nervous when I told her I have food allergies she still listened and got the order right.
  • Wal-mart: All the hot food is near /made with things I cannot eat. Pre-made salads had too many little things that I could not eat and I had no place to refrigerate a bag of regular salad so I had to walk away from there.
  • Disney: They disappointed me the most because there was no consistency when you went from one park to the next. Also the general consensus here was that I should go to the actual restaurants and not do fast food but in truth, I didn't want fast food every time I ate.
  • Animal Kingdom(Guest Services): Guest services here gets an A++ because not only could they name what foods contained what ingredients BUT they also had a list that I could take (but was dumb enough not to) of what restaurants in Disney had what items. I used it to lunch at a really cool restaurant where I was taken care of very well by the manager (his tag said he was from King of Prussia, PA)
  • Magic Kingdom(Guest Services): Took them almost 10 minutes to get something and it wasn't the same list. This List also didn't have the list of which restaurants I could go to.
  • Epcot (Japan, China, USA, Guest Services) Japan and China were out because they use soy sauce which has wheat. The two places I went to, I found that they were not very friendly or helpful with trying to help me. When I went to the USA area, they messed my order up so I had to shake the cheese off.
  • Universal City Walk (Bubba Gump's, Latin Quarter Express, Piaganno's)
  • Bubba Gump's: I didn't read the menu well enough and ended up with rice on my plate. All they did was remove the rice but there were still grains that I ended up eating.
  • Latin Quarter Express: Awesome service. He gave me more beans and I had no rice with my yucca with meat.
  • Piaganno's: Not much I could do there all the salad was pre-made.
  • Wolfgang Puck cafe: well all I can say is DUH. Their staff was awesome and though my wallet is somewhat poorer, the food there nonetheless was very good. What did I have? Nice THICK piece of steak (medium), green beans, brocollini, and carrots. Can't go wrong there and I now have a NEW favorite veggie.
  • IHOP: Fried potatoes, fruit, cawfee. There is really nothing on their breakfast menu that I can have
  • Sizzler's: Fruit and potatoes and cawfee. Staff was ok but looked at me like I grew horns because I said I had food allergies.

So all in all. It was a learning experience worth having. I know when traveling:
  • Try to get a fridge
  • Call call call ahead
  • Dont expect fast food places to have what I want
  • Buy some snacks
Stay tuned for my next chapter... on the dining a la food allergies

1 comment:

bradfoot said...

I had similar problems when I was following the blood type diet.

I told you about a wheat free soy sauce - it is called San-J.

http://www.san-j.com

It is available at any health food store.