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SURVIVAL LESSON EMERGENCY: FOOD ALLERGIES

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JasCruz
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SURVIVAL LESSON EMERGENCY: FOOD ALLERGIES

Postby JasCruz » July 12th, 2006 5:57 pm

My boyfriend and I will be in japan for a couple of weeks in august and it recently occurred to us that we need to know how to express our food allergies to people when we go out to eat. My boyfriend is severely allergic to nuts of all kind; eating just a touch can lead to something horrifying and large amounts can be fatal.

My food allergy is less intense, affects my skin and is only triggered by a significant amount of any spicy pepper. Nonetheless it would be extremely helpful if we knew how to express this to a waiter or chef when ordering food in Japan. I'm sure that a lesson on this topic would be invaluable to many other travelers. Pretty pleeeeeeease, can you make a Survival Lesson related to Food Allergies? :D

many thanks,
jas

Bueller_007
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Re: SURVIVAL LESSON EMERGENCY: FOOD ALLERGIES

Postby Bueller_007 » July 19th, 2006 4:33 am

JasCruz wrote:My boyfriend and I will be in japan for a couple of weeks in august and it recently occurred to us that we need to know how to express our food allergies to people when we go out to eat. My boyfriend is severely allergic to nuts of all kind; eating just a touch can lead to something horrifying and large amounts can be fatal.

My food allergy is less intense, affects my skin and is only triggered by a significant amount of any spicy pepper. Nonetheless it would be extremely helpful if we knew how to express this to a waiter or chef when ordering food in Japan. I'm sure that a lesson on this topic would be invaluable to many other travelers. Pretty pleeeeeeease, can you make a Survival Lesson related to Food Allergies? :D

many thanks,
jas

Expressing allergies in Japanese is a cinch, so it seems unlikely they'll devote a whole lesson to this. It's the same as English:
〜にアレルギーがある。(~~ni arerugii ga aru.) "I'm allergic to ~~."

So you might try this:
彼はナッツにアレルギーがあるんですけど、入っていますか。
kare wa nattsu ni arerugii ga arun desu kedo, haitte imasu ka.
"He is allergic to nuts. Are there any in (this)?"

Japanese cooking doesn't use much in the way of nuts though. So he's probably fine.

There's not much spicy pepper in Japanese food either.

You'll want to stay away from ramen shops though, I think.

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Jason
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Postby Jason » July 19th, 2006 11:07 am

Since this could be very important for a lot of people out there to know, I'm stickying this thread. :)
Jason
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JasCruz
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many thanks

Postby JasCruz » July 19th, 2006 3:14 pm

wow, thank you so so much! you've been extremely helpful

Bueller_007
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Re: many thanks

Postby Bueller_007 » July 19th, 2006 4:15 pm

JasCruz wrote:wow, thank you so so much! you've been extremely helpful

Incidentally, to make sure that I'm not inadvertantly going to kill your boyfriend, I did a google search for "Japanese food nuts", and it appears as if some Japanese food contains ginkgo nuts. (銀杏, "ginnan" in Japanese) It's unlikely that Japanese people would consider these to be "nuts", which is basically a catch-all term for "foreign nuts". Apparently, they often appear in chawanmushi (茶碗蒸し), which is a kind of egg custard.

I have absolutely no idea if people with allergies to peanuts, etc. are also allergic to ginkgo nuts, but it's something to keep in mind. I sincerely doubt you'll come across many ginkgo nuts in your time there though.

There's also "marron" (マロン), which means "chestnut", and usually assumes the form of a disgusting sweet paste. You'll mainly see it as a doughnut topping at Mister Donut. You'll want to avoid this regardless of allergies.

JasCruz
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Postby JasCruz » July 19th, 2006 4:36 pm

hahah thanks B! you rock!

Airth
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Postby Airth » September 7th, 2006 3:55 am

I was wondering how you got on. Did you encounter any difficulties?

And Bueller, what are you talking about? Marron paste is one of the most delicious things on the planet! Bring it on...

Bueller_007
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Postby Bueller_007 » September 7th, 2006 8:28 am

Airth wrote:I was wondering how you got on. Did you encounter any difficulties?

And Bueller, what are you talking about? Marron paste is one of the most delicious things on the planet! Bring it on...

How can I describe marron...

Where's a "puke" smilie when I need one?

Jason
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Postby Jason » September 7th, 2006 8:58 am

How's this?
Image
Jason
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Bueller_007
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Postby Bueller_007 » September 7th, 2006 9:25 am

Jason wrote:How's this?
Image

Hahahah.

It's pretty good, but it's not quite "projectile" enough.

untmdsprt
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Postby untmdsprt » May 12th, 2007 7:22 pm

How about if someone is diabetic?

Ulver_684
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Postby Ulver_684 » December 2nd, 2007 4:51 am

Jason wrote:How's this?
Image


Jason-san! :wink:

That picture is discusting! :orz::blob:

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