Safe Travels in Ireland - Foreword

Jason and Kayleigh here, with another international travel post! This time, Jason and I spent a week driving all over Ireland to see as much as we could in such a short amount of time. With a huge online community for Irish with celiac's (coeliac's) disease, and supposedly the place with the most occurrences of gluten intolerance in the world, we decided to go without looking anything up in advanced. No emergency restaurant names, no emailing locals beforehand- we would try our luck with chatting strangers up and quizzing waitresses.

Even though most people assured us that he would be safe eating pretty much anywhere, it...was not quite the case. Most of the time, the chef at a restaurant was able to answer questions, but we ran into some occasional oddities when the menu itself did not have gluten free labels. Like being assured that an item was gluten free, then receiving a side of bread with it. Or being told that the Guinness beef stew had no gluten. On more than one occasion, Jason was handed non-gluten free biscuits at tea time after establishing that he was intolerant. We managed to make it through the whole trip without being glutened, but it was only by being alert ourselves.

Tips for traveling to Ireland? Ask your hotel/B&B about making a gluten free meal when you book, and ask them about safe restaurants in the area to get dinner. Look up a place or two near where you're staying, just in case. Quick snacks are a little easier- all grocery stores and most convenient stores had fairly large gluten free selections. On top of that, a 2015 mandate states that all allergens must clearly be stated on nutritional labels, so you can usually find wheat or barley- based ingredients at a glance. Most often the allergen ingredients are marked in bold lettering throughout the ingredients list, so be sure to read it carefully. Additionally, be aware if the item is shipped from overseas that it may not have the allergens clearly called out yet as international suppliers have not fully caught up to the regulations.

The good news, though, is that there are plenty of pubs and traditional eateries that understand dietary requirements and are willing to work with you to find a dish. If you're going into a place without a labeled menu, though, there is a chance of cross contamination, and you likely have only 2-3 dishes to choose from. The labeling can be a bit confusing with some menu’s marking a little C next to items, but with no key to tell you if that means it is celiac friendly, or contains gluten. It’s just a good idea to ask your waiter regardless, as we did encounter both items mislabeled but also plenty specials of the day which ended up being gluten free which expanded the menu.  So ask around if you're in the mood for something in particular.

Safe Travels in Japan- Foreword

Jason here. Kayleigh and I are back from our fantastic two weeks in Japan. It was an amazing experience getting to see the modern sites of Japan like the Tokyo electronic district Akihabara, and the fashion district of Harajuku, but also the various museums, gardens, temples, and shrines. The food was definitely no exception. It really did not matter where we went, the service was always great and the food presentation was fantastic. It never dawned on me before, but we have not really spent much time discussing presentation on this blog before. I feel like the dishes we have had in the past have all been fairly standard with maybe a simple garnish or two. Japan seems to be the opposite. Nearly everywhere we went took great lengths to present the food. There was also more of an emphasis on enjoying the meal rather than trying to quickly eat and get out. For instance, it was a common occurrence to order smaller dishes throughout the meal, rather than everything all at the start.

Seemingly contradicting the previous statements, restaurants felt a lot more streamlined. Now granted it could be because we entirely misunderstood social situations, but it was common practice to call the waiter/waitress over and ask for the check, or to order a new dish. Many places brought the check out immediately after each order and left it on the counter. Most of the time you paid at the register at the front. This made the meal feel extended, and the waiting around to pay and get change almost nothing.

Kayleigh here. The experience of dining really was something different. Like Jason said, menus tended to consist of smaller dishes that you would mix and match to make your meal out of. So instead of ordering a roasted chicken that comes with a salad and two sides, you could pick whatever you thought would go well together. I actually think that may have made things easier for us, since the wait staff could construct a gluten free meal for Jason without having to substitute sides or parts of the dish.

If you are anything like us and have a very limited understanding of the Japanese language, then there are a few tools that will be essential. First, bring a card in Japanese explaining what gluten intolerance is and what you can and cannot eat. There are several companies devoted to creating allergy cards in all sorts of languages, but we settled on printing out the information on this blog onto an index card- we thought that it did a great job mentioning all the most common gluten-containing foods, and it ended up working one hundred percent of the time for us.

For when you just want to pick up something prepackaged, come prepared with a way to translate the ingredients on the label. We used a translator app on our phones, but you could just as easily use a thorough pocket dictionary or a written list of words to check for. Unfortunately, you will not find any warnings if they have been processed in a gluten-containing facility, and there are several ingredients that can contain hidden gluten- starch syrup (found in sweets) and food starch (blanket term for any blend of flours and starches) being the common tripup terms. Do a bit of research before traveling to become familiar with what you need to look for, and make sure to check for the hiragana or katakana word as well as the kanji. Finally, if you find something you like that doesn't poison you, take a picture or save the wrapper! It will save you from having to search through the shelves, trying to remember which labels you had already checked and which were safe.

Oh, and it seems to be commonly spread around the internet that you may be kicked out of a restaurant when you explain your allergy. We were met with nothing but kindness and excellent hospitality wherever we went, and it probably helped that we researched a dinner restaurant for each day we were there, plus a few more just in case (we turned to convenience stores for breakfasts and lunches most days). Even so, we were very politely turned away twice over two weeks of constantly eating out, so it can happen. Just remember that gluten intolerance is not nearly as widespread an issue, so the restaurant may not have the knowledge or ability to make a safe meal for you. Really, it was better that we got turned away than Jason got glutened.