Weekend Diversion: Night Of The Ponies
Pedway, First Store Open At Block 37
Around Town
Around Town
Red-Light Cameras Not So Special?
- Michael Ruhlman doesn't pussyfoot around on the subject of food allergies in his blog essay "A Nation of Culinary Sissies." [Ruhlman]
- The Reader's Julia Thiel and Decider Chicago's Emily Withrow team up to cook another recipe from the Alinea cookbook. If either one had bothered to contact the "cool kids," as Thiel wrote, this one would have told them to stick with the crackers. [Reader]
- Even a seasoned food writer like Jeff Ruby is in awe of foreign grocery stores. [Chicago Mag]
- What was supposed to be a re-opened Sweet Thang in Roscoe Village turned out to be a reincarnation of the much maligned Sweet Occasions. Now they're bouncing paychecks and closing up shop. Former employees are staging a protest and press conference in front of the store this afternoon. [Drive-Thru]
- Recipe resource website Cookstr launches (via) [Cookstr.com]
- Also launching, Delish, a cooking and lifestyle site a la Epicurious.
- Mikes Gebert and Sula with Part Two of "There Will Be Pork." [Sky Full of Bacon on Vimeo]
- Finally, continuing Chicagoist's Salute to National Vegan Month, here is one of my favorite food essays from Rynn Berry, in which he debunks the oft-repeated notion that Hitler was a vegetarian. [Rynn Berry]
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Sissies my ass. I have been to the ER in complete anaphylactic shock twice because of food allergies.
My ex, who is Asian, believe it or not is allergic to MSG. His face gets swollen like a canteloupe if he has something with too much of the stuff in it.
In my life, I have noticed that people who don't have food allergies are very insensitive about the subject. It's as if they think we're 'faking it' because it's just beyond their belief that anyone could be allergic to something as innocuous as food (and some of the things I'm allergic to are pretty damn innocuous too)
One of my allergists told me that he had a patient who was so allergic to seafood that all she had to do was walk past a fishmongers and she'd go into anaphylactic shock.
Ingrid: I suggest you read Ruhlman's essay before venting. He doesn't discount that there are actual food allergies. What he's calling BS on are the rising # of folks claiming allergies when they're most likely fussy eaters. e.g. claiming lactose intolerance, only to eat cheese at the end of a meal.
I did read the essay, and I am aware of people who say they are "allergic" to dairy when they don't know the meaning of the word "allergy".
But there have been times when I've been to restaurants and have asked to have an ingredient not added (and I'm never a pain in the ass about this...it's not something that would require any more than not putting something on the food at the last minute), and I get the "eye roll", or they go ahead and do it anyway and I have to send it back and it causes hard feelings and then they'll try to get away with scraping it off.
So, I guess what I'm saying is that just because there are some jerks out there, doesn't mean we're all being pussies. All restaurants have to take allergies seriously because tragic results can occur.
I can't even tell you how many times food has not been labeled properly, or all of the ingredients are not listed on the menu and then I've had problems.