Ettiquette

[TastyReuben]

The server came back and said that onions were ok as long as they weren't obvious on the plate. Pretty funny moment actually.

That has been exactly my experience:

"I'm allergic to onions."
"Are you allergic or do you just not like them?"
"Oh, I'm allergic. It's something in the enzymes."
"So, no onion...no onion powder...no onion salt...?"
"Well, I can eat them if I have to, they just need to be chopped up fine, so I can't see them."

Butthead. 😒

 

[garlichead]

That has been exactly my experience:

"I'm allergic to onions."
"Are you allergic or do you just not like them?"
"Oh, I'm allergic. It's something in the enzymes."
"So, no onion...no onion powder...no onion salt...?"
"Well, I can eat them if I have to, they just need to be chopped up fine, so I can't see them."

Butthead. 😒

The funny thing, in the County (PEC) locals (around 10,000 people over a fairly large geographic area) have less overall allergies, adversions, preferences than the average person coming from urban areas, specifically Toronto. Most inquiries for alterations of all sorts are from this demographic. How would I know people ask. Because we are seasonal and fully booked each night and always have a name and number and the area code are generally, a very high percentage, the GTA which is Toronto and the surrounding area. I guess country (rural) people are just more healthy lol.

 

[Morning Glory]

The funny thing, in the County (PEC) locals (around 10,000 people over a fairly large geographic area) have less overall allergies, adversions, preferences than the average person coming from urban areas, specifically Toronto. Most inquiries for alterations of all sorts are from this demographic. How would I know people ask. Because we are seasonal and fully booked each night and always have a name and number and the area code are generally, a very high percentage, the GTA which is Toronto and the surrounding area. I guess country (rural) people are just more healthy lol.

Interesting. Could some of it (most of it?) be dietary fads from the 'more sophisticated' city dwellers?

 

[garlichead]

Interesting. Could some of it (most of it?) be dietary fads from the 'more sophisticated' city dwellers?

That is my hypothesis. The gluten thing has gone from almost non existent 10 years ago to a multi billion dollar business. As people get more informed with nutrition in general, the waist size and disease of the general population continues to increase. makes no sense to me, except maybe misinformation and fully entrenched motives with large companies that are only encouraged by increase profit margins and happy shareholders.

 

[TastyReuben]

Interesting. Could some of it (most of it?) be dietary fads from the 'more sophisticated' city dwellers?

Purely my opinion, but a lot of it in my extended family (and my wife's) appears to be generational. Every last one of our adult nieces and nephews have "allergies" or "intolerances" - and I put those in quotes intentionally because when pressed, every single one of them are self-diagnosed, nothing from a doctor.

I think for them, it's partly "I don't like that," partly trying to be trendy, and partly trying to be...special or distinct in some way, possibly motivated by mild attention-seeking.

 

[Morning Glory]

The gluten thing has gone from almost non existent 10 years ago to a multi billion dollar business. As people get more informed with nutrition in general, the waist size and disease of the general population continues to increase. makes no sense to me,

You are so right. The gluten thing makes me quite angry. There are people who are genuinely gluten intolerant and its a very serious thing for them. But it is a rare condition. Large companies are cashing in, as you say.

 

[medtran49]

I do have an allergy to mangos, pumpkin and eggplant skin. The first causes numbness and tingling in mouth and lips, and a contact rash, which I discovered when a tree in the backyard of a house we were renting short term was flowering and putting out pollen. Not a good idea to walk around barefoot on the patio. I've learned the hard way to ask if a restaurant has a special house dressing or a secret sauce, and I don't drink smoothies unless I know exactly what they are made from because mangos are in a lot of frozen fruit mixtures here in Florida. Interestingly, there is 1 variety that doesn't cause the reaction, honey mango. Not sure why, but I can eat those. I very rarely eat pumpkin and actually haven't in years, but I had to stop carving pumpkins, the fancy ones, which we used to enjoy doing for Halloween because of the rash I would get from touching the flesh. My daughter also has this. Eggplant, let's just say the results of eating eggplant skin are neither comfortable or pleasant. I never order eggplant out because of that. I usually make Craig peel them because they make me itch horribly even if I wash my hands as soon as I'm done.

I used to know an older gentleman who was allergic to black pepper. Now, most of you are probably thinking he just didn't like it. Nope, his new lady friend thought that too and used some when cooking for him and didn't tell him. She ended up driving him to the ER. This was before EpiPens. Surpringly enough, they ended up married.

I'll agree that a lot of "allergies" are simply dislikes or fads, but please don't ever assume that because someone could die.

 

[Morning Glory]

I'll agree that a lot of "allergies" are simply dislikes, but please don't ever assume that because someone could die.

Absolutely. If I was running a restaurant I'd make sure I respected customers wishes in that respect. If I had a dinner guest I'd ask them carefully if it was a dislike or an intolerance.

Your allergy is rather strange. I wonder why the skins of those particular fruits should be an issue? Does squash skin or cucumber skin have the same problem?

 

[garlichead]

You are so right. The gluten thing makes me quite angry. There are people who are genuinely gluten intolerant and its a very serious thing for them. But it is a rare condition. Large companies are cashing in, as you say.

The people that actually have celiac are benefiting. They have many more delicious offering than at any other time. They're laughing all the way to the bakery.

 

[garlichead]

I do have an allergy to mangos, pumpkin and eggplant skin. The first causes numbness and tingling in mouth and lips, and a contact rash, which I discovered when a tree in the backyard of a house we were renting short term was flowering and putting out pollen. Not a good idea to walk around barefoot on the patio. I've learned the hard way to ask if a restaurant has a special house dressing or a secret sauce, and I don't drink smoothies unless I know exactly what they are made from because mangos are in a lot of frozen fruit mixtures here in Florida. Interestingly, there is 1 variety that doesn't cause the reaction, honey mango. Not sure why, but I can eat those. I very rarely eat pumpkin and actually haven't in years, but I had to stop carving pumpkins, the fancy ones, which we used to enjoy doing for Halloween because of the rash I would get from touching the flesh. My daughter also has this. Eggplant, let's just say the results of eating eggplant skin are neither comfortable or pleasant. I never order eggplant out because of that. I usually make Craig peel them because they make me itch horribly even if I wash my hands as soon as I'm done.

I used to know an older gentleman who was allergic to black pepper. Now, most of you are probably thinking he just didn't like it. Nope, his new lady friend thought that too and used some when cooking for him and didn't tell him. She ended up driving him to the ER. This was before EpiPens. Surpringly enough, they ended up married.

I'll agree that a lot of "allergies" are simply dislikes or fads, but please don't ever assume that because someone could die.

To a chef, well any reputable one when the word allergy is spoken it's very serious stuff, peoples lives are at risk and we can't take it upon our selves to second guess, ever. Saying that, those people that have allergies do make it known to us, and we work around it if we can. Others have a card they're issued by their Dr. that lists allergies and our regulars always provide us with one and have on file. Saying that a high % of people that say their allergic is pretty much poppycock.

 

[medtran49]

Your allergy is rather strange. I wonder why the skins of those particular fruits should be an issue? Does squash skin or cucumber skin have the same problem?

No. With the pumpkin, I always just figured it was something to do with the pumpkin guts drying on my hands and arms as we cleaned them. We always did quite a few, several each. But, then DD got old enough to start cleaning and carving on her own and the same thing happened to her. We don't know about her children because we switched to carving the fake pumpkins once they started making the almost real looking ones. DD won't eat eggplant because it's 1 of her ewww foods so we don't know how it affects her or her kids because they are the same way about it.

 

[madebyyouandi]

You are so right. The gluten thing makes me quite angry. There are people who are genuinely gluten intolerant and its a very serious thing for them. But it is a rare condition. Large companies are cashing in, as you say.

If you're self-diagnosing, it's most likely not an allergy; however, the best explanation I've read asserts that the turn over time in modern bakery has reduced the amount of time that yeast interacts with the dough and that might -- might -- be the reason there's an increase in gluten sensitivity.

Yeast doesn't break down gluten, so I doubt this is true. What's interesting to me is that we rarely consider how fundamentally changed food in a short amount of time: From the Wright Brothers to the Apollo landing was 66 years, how much has food been revolutionized in the past hundred?

 

[madebyyouandi]

That was a mean thing to do. Offering one thing that is "gross" is funny, but not entire meals. If someone came to to Texas from someplace else, I might make a batch of "calf fries," which don't taste bad, and tell them after they eat a couple what they just ate. Then we all have a laugh, and eat some good, mainstream Texas food.

CD

Kinda, but foreign people do put themselves out there by saying, "ew" to so much. Jellyfish, natto, sea cucumbers, crickets. I think what they were looking for was me to refuse or take a bite and react, kinda like to your calf fries or what people do when they eat insects in wet markets (in Asia).

I'll tell ya, the one thing really got me was fermented sushi. It's a traditional dish in the north that the grandma in the house loves. It's sushi rice and certain fish that's left to ferment... I really should go into acting.