Help me eat the food of other countries!
April 16, 2011 5:10 PM Subscribe
I need more information on which popular ethnic dishes I need to avoid.
Hi Metafilter. I'm not a very adventurous eater, I guess you could call me a bit picky. I'm often at a loss in non-American restaurants, particularly at East and South Asian restaurants. I do not eat any seafood at all, and am even allergic to shellfish. I also have an allergy to tree nuts. I wish not to encounter these things in my food.
However I often find that many ethnic eateries don't particularly watch out for that kind of thing. Last year on my birthday I spent the evening throwing up because the naan going around the table had nuts in it. This was after I'd told the waiter I'm allergic to nuts when ordering my dish. I no longer trust ethnic restaurants to ensure my health. I even try to ask the people I'm eating with, hey what's in dish X, and they'll be like oh I don't know or *hand wavy* or deliciousness. At Dim Sum I just want something without shrimp mixed into it, but the buns all look the same on the outside....
I'd like to try new foods but knowing little about the contents of my food holds me back. It took several times of throwing up my delicious chicken tikka masala before I realized that it's apparently common to put cashew in the sauce.
It's awkward enough ordering things I can barely pronounce; please help me deconstruct ethnic favorites! This is kind of the reverse of a "give me restaurant or food recommendation" question. So, which common dishes have seafood or nuts lurking in them?
Hi Metafilter. I'm not a very adventurous eater, I guess you could call me a bit picky. I'm often at a loss in non-American restaurants, particularly at East and South Asian restaurants. I do not eat any seafood at all, and am even allergic to shellfish. I also have an allergy to tree nuts. I wish not to encounter these things in my food.
However I often find that many ethnic eateries don't particularly watch out for that kind of thing. Last year on my birthday I spent the evening throwing up because the naan going around the table had nuts in it. This was after I'd told the waiter I'm allergic to nuts when ordering my dish. I no longer trust ethnic restaurants to ensure my health. I even try to ask the people I'm eating with, hey what's in dish X, and they'll be like oh I don't know or *hand wavy* or deliciousness. At Dim Sum I just want something without shrimp mixed into it, but the buns all look the same on the outside....
I'd like to try new foods but knowing little about the contents of my food holds me back. It took several times of throwing up my delicious chicken tikka masala before I realized that it's apparently common to put cashew in the sauce.
It's awkward enough ordering things I can barely pronounce; please help me deconstruct ethnic favorites! This is kind of the reverse of a "give me restaurant or food recommendation" question. So, which common dishes have seafood or nuts lurking in them?
First of all, they're American too.
To answer your question, though: You should really avoid every restaurant. I know, it sucks. If you can't read a definitive list of a dish's ingredients, you shouldn't eat it, period. Even when you're careful about what you order, sometimes cooks just fuck up and throw a bunch of chopped almonds on your salad or whatever.
posted by Sys Rq at 5:35 PM on April 16, 2011 [5 favorites]
To answer your question, though: You should really avoid every restaurant. I know, it sucks. If you can't read a definitive list of a dish's ingredients, you shouldn't eat it, period. Even when you're careful about what you order, sometimes cooks just fuck up and throw a bunch of chopped almonds on your salad or whatever.
posted by Sys Rq at 5:35 PM on April 16, 2011 [5 favorites]
Best answer: Pesto contains pine nuts or walnuts.
Wontons often have shrimp in the filling.
A friend of mine with a shellfish allergy once got a Bloody Mary that contained Clamato. Surprise!
Check to make sure that salad dressing, especially house-made, is not made of nut oils, like walnut or hazelnut.
The crusts of various pastries and desserts can be made with ground nuts.
You probably won't run into this, but some gluten-free baked goods use almond flour.
Are peanuts a problem for you? If they are, make a point of asking if anything fried or stir-fried--and I do mean anything, in any type of restaurant--is cooked in peanut oil.
You may have already tried this, but make a point of telling waitstaff that you have an allergy to nuts and shellfish and asking them to check with the cook. Lots of servers are young, inexperienced, and underpaid; they won't necessarily know exactly what's in the food.
posted by corey flood at 5:39 PM on April 16, 2011 [2 favorites]
Wontons often have shrimp in the filling.
A friend of mine with a shellfish allergy once got a Bloody Mary that contained Clamato. Surprise!
Check to make sure that salad dressing, especially house-made, is not made of nut oils, like walnut or hazelnut.
The crusts of various pastries and desserts can be made with ground nuts.
You probably won't run into this, but some gluten-free baked goods use almond flour.
Are peanuts a problem for you? If they are, make a point of asking if anything fried or stir-fried--and I do mean anything, in any type of restaurant--is cooked in peanut oil.
You may have already tried this, but make a point of telling waitstaff that you have an allergy to nuts and shellfish and asking them to check with the cook. Lots of servers are young, inexperienced, and underpaid; they won't necessarily know exactly what's in the food.
posted by corey flood at 5:39 PM on April 16, 2011 [2 favorites]
Many restaurants note on the menu to inform the manager if you have allergies. I would suggest going above the heads of the waitstaff and talk to whoever is running the restaurant, they probably are better informed and have more incentive to keep you healthy.
posted by cestmoi15 at 5:44 PM on April 16, 2011
posted by cestmoi15 at 5:44 PM on April 16, 2011
Probably avoid virtually every SE Asian cuisine (such as Thai, Vietnamese) as they will flavor almost every dish with fish sauce. Sometimes their vegetarian dishes will omit it, tho. Peanuts are present in these cuisines but are usually more obvious (sprinkled on top.)
posted by gnutron at 6:16 PM on April 16, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by gnutron at 6:16 PM on April 16, 2011 [2 favorites]
"I often find that many ethnic eateries don't particularly watch out for that kind of thing."
I've found that restaurants in general tend to have no clue how not to poison you with something you've explictly told them you're allergic to. You can tell them you're really very allergic to cashews, and they'll be all like "Fuck yeah! I know what a cashew is!", and then you'll somehow end up with a sauce made entirely of liquified cashews because they're somehow unaware of the exceedingly simple fact that foods can be magically transformed beyond their natural state.
You might think that people who work in restaurants realize that transforming food in such ways is precisely the point of a restaurant. But they don't. And you can never presume otherwise.
"So, which common dishes have seafood or nuts lurking in them?"
I'll venture that this question is completely unanswerable, and that you'll be better off keeping this fact in mind: a dish prepared one day will often be prepared completely differently the next (different oil, different spices, different etc.), even at the same restaurant, and the commonest of dishes prepared one way at one restaurant will be prepared completely differently at the next. My only solution has been to ask every single time, and just hope for the best. (Apologies for the jadedness of thisrant answer.)
posted by astrochimp at 6:34 PM on April 16, 2011 [3 favorites]
I've found that restaurants in general tend to have no clue how not to poison you with something you've explictly told them you're allergic to. You can tell them you're really very allergic to cashews, and they'll be all like "Fuck yeah! I know what a cashew is!", and then you'll somehow end up with a sauce made entirely of liquified cashews because they're somehow unaware of the exceedingly simple fact that foods can be magically transformed beyond their natural state.
You might think that people who work in restaurants realize that transforming food in such ways is precisely the point of a restaurant. But they don't. And you can never presume otherwise.
"So, which common dishes have seafood or nuts lurking in them?"
I'll venture that this question is completely unanswerable, and that you'll be better off keeping this fact in mind: a dish prepared one day will often be prepared completely differently the next (different oil, different spices, different etc.), even at the same restaurant, and the commonest of dishes prepared one way at one restaurant will be prepared completely differently at the next. My only solution has been to ask every single time, and just hope for the best. (Apologies for the jadedness of this
posted by astrochimp at 6:34 PM on April 16, 2011 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: Marked great answers so far; I'm learning a lot here! For example I had no idea about wontons.
Peanuts actually happen to not be an issue for me. But when I'm out I find it easier to tell people I'm allergic to nuts generally, instead of being like oh yeah I'm allergic to only specific nuts.
And very well said, astrochimp!
posted by The Biggest Dreamer at 7:52 PM on April 16, 2011
Peanuts actually happen to not be an issue for me. But when I'm out I find it easier to tell people I'm allergic to nuts generally, instead of being like oh yeah I'm allergic to only specific nuts.
And very well said, astrochimp!
posted by The Biggest Dreamer at 7:52 PM on April 16, 2011
Best answer: I am allergic to the things you are, and also many other things. And sadly, there is no easy answer to this, because ingredients in particular dishes tend to vary according to region, restaurant, or even which chef is in the kitchen on a particular day of the week. And that's not even counting accidental cross-contamination where like a piece of a nut falls into the next bin over, or your dish is being cooked on a grill right after shrimp were grilled on that spot. Of course problems are even worse when the waitstaff doesn't speak much English (or whatever else you are fluent in).
So here is my strategy: find a few items that are essentially never cooked with foods you're allergic to - staples of the cuisine that are made so simply that variation is minimal. Pho is a great standby in Vietnamese restaurants. Tandoori dishes are safe at Indian places. At dim sum, cha siu bao (AKA char su bao) are always filled with pork, and chicken feet (if you like them) are also pretty self-evidently themselves and not likely to be a problem for you. Only order something not on your safe lists at restaurants with very detailed menu listings and/or waitstaff that seems to clearly understand what you're saying and will confirm their answers with the chef. Also make sure you tell them that X makes you very sick, not that you don't like it. Before you eat something new, smell it. If your nose tells you something's not right, abort or at least have a friend taste it for you first. And understand that even so, you're taking a risk, even if you've had that exact same thing before at that same restaurant. That's just how life is for us.
A few tips that actually answer your question: Chinese soup dumplings (xiao long bao) always have seafood in them. Stay away from these, no matter how delicious your friends say they are. And at dim sum, any dumpling with "shu mai" in the name is probably going to contain shrimp (among other things). And it's a good precaution when ordering any Vietnamese dish that isn't a soup to ask if there's fish sauce in it. Most Japanese soups, on the other hand, have broth made at least partially with fish, especially if neither "miso" or "shoyu" is in the name. At Korean restaurants, never eat the kimchi - this pretty much always has tiny dried shrimps mixed in with the vegetables. Oh, and if you're ever in Italy, don't order pasta with marinara sauce - that means seafood sauce over there.
posted by unsub at 8:10 PM on April 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
So here is my strategy: find a few items that are essentially never cooked with foods you're allergic to - staples of the cuisine that are made so simply that variation is minimal. Pho is a great standby in Vietnamese restaurants. Tandoori dishes are safe at Indian places. At dim sum, cha siu bao (AKA char su bao) are always filled with pork, and chicken feet (if you like them) are also pretty self-evidently themselves and not likely to be a problem for you. Only order something not on your safe lists at restaurants with very detailed menu listings and/or waitstaff that seems to clearly understand what you're saying and will confirm their answers with the chef. Also make sure you tell them that X makes you very sick, not that you don't like it. Before you eat something new, smell it. If your nose tells you something's not right, abort or at least have a friend taste it for you first. And understand that even so, you're taking a risk, even if you've had that exact same thing before at that same restaurant. That's just how life is for us.
A few tips that actually answer your question: Chinese soup dumplings (xiao long bao) always have seafood in them. Stay away from these, no matter how delicious your friends say they are. And at dim sum, any dumpling with "shu mai" in the name is probably going to contain shrimp (among other things). And it's a good precaution when ordering any Vietnamese dish that isn't a soup to ask if there's fish sauce in it. Most Japanese soups, on the other hand, have broth made at least partially with fish, especially if neither "miso" or "shoyu" is in the name. At Korean restaurants, never eat the kimchi - this pretty much always has tiny dried shrimps mixed in with the vegetables. Oh, and if you're ever in Italy, don't order pasta with marinara sauce - that means seafood sauce over there.
posted by unsub at 8:10 PM on April 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
Oh, if you go to restaurants where there's a language barrier, it can be helpful to get an allergy translation card to show to your waitperson - here is one website you can get this (there are many). And if you come across something intriguing but unfamiliar, I find it pretty helpful to do a web search on my (or my friend's) smart phone for the food name + recipe, or just a Wikipedia search for the food name, and take a quick look at the top results.
posted by unsub at 8:26 PM on April 16, 2011
posted by unsub at 8:26 PM on April 16, 2011
Agree entirely with unsub. I travel very broadly, eat out every week, and love just about every cuisine around - but I definitely keep a mental checklist in my mind of what I can eat and what I cannot. I have a tree nut allergy.
I will note that the only times that I have suffered anaphylaxis are from the following foods:
Waffles
Salad dressing
Tuna sandwich
None of which at first glance you would ever imagine have nuts. But the waffles I ate in Chicago were pecan (unlabelled), the salad dressing in Ukraine is still a mystery to me, and I suspect the Tuna sandwich in Amsterdam was a cross-contamination issue.
You have to be careful at all times no matter where or what you eat because as unsub says, there is no consistency, often no knowledge by the waitstaff, and frankly no concern.
Specifics in addition to the above: many Indian dishes contain almond meal. Water chestnuts are NOT a nut. Fancy restaurants usually serve nuts on the side of cheese platters so don't order them.
My biggest tip - flat out refuse to ever eat desert regardless of how safe it looks.
posted by wingless_angel at 1:09 AM on April 17, 2011
I will note that the only times that I have suffered anaphylaxis are from the following foods:
Waffles
Salad dressing
Tuna sandwich
None of which at first glance you would ever imagine have nuts. But the waffles I ate in Chicago were pecan (unlabelled), the salad dressing in Ukraine is still a mystery to me, and I suspect the Tuna sandwich in Amsterdam was a cross-contamination issue.
You have to be careful at all times no matter where or what you eat because as unsub says, there is no consistency, often no knowledge by the waitstaff, and frankly no concern.
Specifics in addition to the above: many Indian dishes contain almond meal. Water chestnuts are NOT a nut. Fancy restaurants usually serve nuts on the side of cheese platters so don't order them.
My biggest tip - flat out refuse to ever eat desert regardless of how safe it looks.
posted by wingless_angel at 1:09 AM on April 17, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by SMPA at 5:21 PM on April 16, 2011 [1 favorite]