What should you do if you have unusual food allergies?

Posted by The_Sown_Rose@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 17 comments

Inspired by another question here, does anyone with relevant experience have advice on what to do in restaurants if you have an unusual allergy? I’m allergic to lychee, it’s a proper histamine response allergy. No restaurant has lychee on their allergen list; the vast majority of restaurants probably never even see a lychee. I have said it before but it seems to confuse people, they don’t know what it is. But there is a chance it is sneakily in a dish, and then it would be on me for not saying “Yes, I have an allergy to lychee.”

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17 Comments

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sparkly_wolf@reddit

Lots of research! Find out if there's any derivatives from lychee, if flesh/stone/skin is used in any other way or product, and if it has an associated e number. Then the allergy cards are brilliant, have it all listed, along with anything else in the same family that you've been advised to avoid. It's a whole journey, I have a capsaicin allergy and have gone from just no chillies to a whole list i hand over including paprika and e160c as I've discovered all the derivatives that were causing ongoing reactions.

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LanguidVirago@reddit

Get one of those allergy info cards and ask to talk to the chef. I used to be a specialist chef in hospitals for people with allergies, and special diets. Don't trust the waiter/ waitress, they are often overworked, don't take it seriously. The chef knows what goes in his/her gresh dishes and if there would be any cross contamination. Let him know the severity, some people Dan almost died from things they eat even being in the same time zone to what they are allergic to, others are fine if the prepared surfaces were merely wiped down first. A lot of deserts and exotic foods ere bought in to restaurants in single serving portions, so even if on the menu, there is a likelihood of no cross contamination with cooked dishes. But the chef will know if they is a chance of cross contamination and if the restaurant uses them.

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alloftheplants@reddit

You'd hope so- but I vividly remember working as a waitress and the chef told me someone had phoned in advance and said they were coeliac, so could they get a gluten-free menu. He'd helpfully gone through the day's menu and marked what was safe, and told me that as there wasn't many options, he'd also, just in case, saved a portion of the lunch menu to offer; cous-cous stuffed peppers. He was immensely pissed off at me, a lowly waitress, for pointing out that cous-cous was actually kinda gluteny and maybe that wasn't the best idea..? Unless it was stuffed with a badly spelled [cuscus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuscus) of course, in which case there were even more questions...

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FlossieRaptor@reddit

I have oral allergy syndrome, with the strongest reaction for many years being raw celery - cooked, it's fine. Gives me a nettle-sting sensation in the mouth. Horrible, but won't kill me. I can just pick it out of a salad and manage the discomfort if I miss a bit or there's some essence remaining! Growing up as I did in working class northern town, my exposure to fancy veg had been rather limited but a few years ago I discovered that I get the same but rather more intense sensation with (cooked) celeriac. Which I only discovered having eaten some, presented in a rectangular brick shape, at a restaurant that listed just "seasonal vegetables" on the menu, rather than an itemised list. I now _always_ ask about potential celeriac contamination (especially at this time of year, when it's in season) if there are no definitive guides to what's in something.

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alloftheplants@reddit

Celery and celeriac are the same species- Apium graveolens- just one's selected for the stems and the other for the swollen basal plate (the bit where the stem meets roots). You'd expect it to be the same reacontion; weird that you still react to celeriac cooked but not celery.

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Smaiblue@reddit

I'm sorry to hear about your food allergy. If you're eating in a place that knows how to host well letting them know beforehand you have an allergy to lychee will be enough to make sure you're safe. I doubt there'd be anything in packaged British/European foods that would have lychee hidden in it but it's always worth checking, food allergies are serious. Lychee being tropical is more frequently found in South East & South Asian cuisines. You're in a good spot as tropical food is very rare here. You can however get tinned lychees & some fresh ones have started being exported from Israel. You'll need to be particularly cautious around any food from a tropical region, especially desserts but don't discount savoury seeming dishes that use lychees to replace the sugar component. Sorry if I seem detailed/patronising or obvious in tone, I'd rather overanswer than underanswer when it comes to the serious matter of your health. Safe eating! :)

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stellarglory@reddit

I was once eating at a restaurant with a friend of a friend who had some fairly complicated food allergies. They had a little business card printed out with a couple of sentences explaining it so that they could hand it to the staff. This seemed to work pretty well - it got the basics across to give a starting point and then they could talk with the staff in more detail as needed for the specific meal. (Also the staff at the table could take the card through to the chef if they needed to check something.)

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CertainPlatypus9108@reddit

You don't go to restaurants if you'll die from a food. This insane mentality of entitlement. If you have an allergy that makes some food poison. You don't risk it. However. Everyone who is a chef knows what a lychee is you maniac.

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The_Sown_Rose@reddit (OP)

I won’t die from it, or at least I haven’t yet! It was more a ‘should you raise a really niche allergy and if so how?’ question. And yes, chefs will know. The waiter with a variable grasp of English in the first place usually doesn’t.

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CertainPlatypus9108@reddit

Oh you're a racist Now It makes sense

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The_Sown_Rose@reddit (OP)

It’s not racist to recognise that a lot of waitstaff don’t have English as their first language and trying to communicate a food they probably haven’t heard of in a language they’re not familiar with isn’t the easiest task.

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Chlorophilia@reddit

Why are you so angry?

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CertainPlatypus9108@reddit

I'm not angry. I'm just not going to risk death for a meal. That's insane.

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Emotional-Ebb8321@reddit

I would mention any allergies at the time of booking, and again when ordering. If the restaurant knows in advance there will be a diner with a specific allergy, they can plan ahead for the day and make sure that there is an allergen-free workspace in the kitchen ahead of your arrival, avoiding any delays for a deep-clean of an area to avoid any cross-contamination risk. Doesn't really matter what the allergen is or how rare it is. You don't want it to spoil your meal, and neither does any responsible restaurant. They can't avoid the allergen if they don't know about it. It probably won't be an issue with lychees, but why take unnecessary risks.

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Alarmed_Crazy_6620@reddit

I think if somebody finds it important enough to mention, you should consult with the kitchen staff that their dish doesn't have the ingredient

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RemoteGlobal005@reddit

'Is there lychee in this dish?' Have a picture ready to hand too. Also, avoid cuisines that use lychee as a base sweetener, filling or fruit, which are far and few between.

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