Hello, Molly,
A quick note in response to your question: I can usually eat freely from the
menu at Chinese (and many other Asian) restaurants, and as a result, I love
Asian food! You asked about General Tso's chicken, egg rolls, and orange
chicken specifically, and I've eaten all of these safely at one time or
another. Here's the catch: ALWAYS ASK. If necessary, ask to see the labels
for the foods; once they understand the problem, most restaurant staff would
rather have you follow them to the kitchen door and let them ferry labels
over, than risk having an ambulance visit disrupt other diners' meals!
It helps to be familiar with what the most likely dangerous ingredients are
in things. For example, the things you mentioned are "bready", and thus
suspect--but they're not particularly suspect for casein, which is
unfamiliar and most often found in sausages and things like that. So, AFTER
explaining to a kitchen manager (ask for someone with a ServeSafe
certification; they have to have someone, although in some states they can
count someone who's not on site) what the issue is, I'll often help simplify
things by saying (for bready things), "Make sure there's no milk, whey, or
cheese on the ingredients list." I also make sure they understand that my
food needs to be prepared separately, on a freshly cleaned counter, with
fresh gloves, and I explain why. It's tedious--it's often 15 minutes or more
before I can order--and at first it was very hard for me to be assertive
enough. After a while, though, I finally figured out that the psychological
discomfort of this kind of exchange was a far better option than not
breathing, so I'm over worrying about bothering the staff. I just leave a
good tip at the end and deal with it.
To gain familiarity, I recommend visiting an Asian grocery and reading
ingredient labels. In the US, products are supposed to be labeled in
English, so this is at least a good way to get familiar with what's likely
and what's not.
Also, the tip about lactose intolerance being fairly common among Asian
people is correct; I'll look up a reference later if anyone wants. As a
result, there's one family-owned Chinese restaurant near me that even makes
it possible for me to eat directly from the buffet, something I'd never do
anywhere else! They do have a few dairy-containing items, as most Chinese
restaurants do (those little crab rangoon puffs, for example), but all the
dairy is on its own separate bar, after the rest of the buffet so food never
travels from that bar back to the others, and separated by a divider!
A couple other random notes:
Some Asian food, particularly Southeast Asian food, has been heavily
influenced by French cuisine, and is more likely to contain dairy.
Traditional Chinese and Japanese foods are generally safe. Thai food is
often good, too, as they use coconut milk rather than cow milk, even though
there's a clear French influence there. Just be sure to ask everywhere, no
matter how safe you think it is.
A line I've found helpful in getting people to understand is to say, "I can
eat the cow, but not anything that came out of a cow," along with the rest
of my explanation. They usually laugh, and that laugh usually means they
just "got it."
The flip side of not being careful enough is sometimes restaurant staff
being too careful and missing the point. I often have someone come back from
the kitchen after checking ingredients and say, "No, that had eggs in it."
(Or soy, or fat, which seem to be the top confusing ingredients.) I have to
explain that eggs don't come from cows, so that's OK.
I also carry a folded sheet of paper with a brief explanation of my allergy
and the precautions I need written in several languages. I did the Spanish
one myself, but used freetranslation.com or friendly restaurant staff during
slow times for the others. That way, if I'm eating somewhere where the
kitchen staff doesn't think in English, I can use the written explanation to
help communicate clearly.
OK, stopping this long post now!
Weavre Cooper
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