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Dear List,

It seems that China will be receiving a number of 
American celiac travellers this summer and fall! 
I've received some more information since the 
last summary on the subject of China travel:

I.
Victor Dolcourt forwarded the text of his pocket card:

For medical reasons, I am not allowed to eat any 
products made with wheat or barley, and nothing 
that contains wheat flour or all purpose flour. 
No Soy Sauce. No Oyster Sauce. No Wheat Noodles. 
Pure rice or bean or tapioca noodles are OK as 
long as they are boiled in fresh water. My food 
needs to be cooked in a fresh wok. But it is OK 
to eat maize/corn or maize/corn starch, rice, 
potatoes, vegetables, meat, etc. Š as well as 
soups and gravies thickened with maize/corn 
starch or potato starch.

If you would like a copy of the Mandarin 
translation, I shall have to send it to you as an 
attachment.

Another person said the Triumph card had worked very well for them.

II.
Regional differences in cuisine are considerable. 
My own niece, for instance, just returned from 
Shanghai. She encountered next to no soy sauce.

III.
Thanks to the list member who prompted me to ask 
our Chinese contact about the wheat content of 
soy sauce used in China. As we know, the American 
version of a given cuisine may be quite different 
from food in-country. According to my contact, 
Chinese soy sauce uses proportionately much more 
soy than the kinds sold in this country. 
Furthermore, he says, the Chinese use rice in 
place of wheat whenever possible. I shall have to 
do further investigation, but it seems possible 
that there is a commonly-available wheat-free soy 
sauce in China. I shall report success or lack 
thereof when I am back in the States in mid-May.

Tamari sauce, of course, does not have wheat and 
is a fair substitute for soy sauce-different 
though, in that it is sweetened.

IV.
Pollution is a large problem in China. Fresh 
water fish, for instance, may be contaminated -- 
not with gluten, but with chemicals you'll want 
to be careful about. Furthermore, the Chinese 
themselves use bottled water.

A couple who had travelled in Yunnan (my primary destination) reported:

We did not eat any fresh salads - much too risky. 
We're regular salad eaters at home, but we had 
lettuce-like leaves sauteed with other foods, so 
we still enjoyed eating greens & veggies (many of 
which aren't grown in the US). We used the 
peeled, boiled or cooked theory for just about 
everything we ate, and we washed things in clean 
water before peeling. For example, we saw 
beautiful strawberries, but weren't even tempted 
because we had cycled by fields (of not just 
strawberries) fertilized with fresh night soil. 
Freshwater fish come from rivers and lakes we 
wouldn't want to swim in, so we tried to avoid 
eating fish. Chinese make good use of and recycle 
everything, but trash and rotten stuff still gets 
discarded into streams and rivers.

V.
You can order gluten-free packets of soy sauce from this vendor:
http://www.kitch-n-kaffe.safeshopper.com/

VI.
People reported that some restaurants would cook 
to order and accommodate celiac needs while 
others would not (kind of like the U.S., no?). 
Being in the company of someone who speaks 
Chinese and has local knowledge is obviously a 
huge help.

VII.
People rave about the freshness and quality of the vegetables in China.

The basic message I got from those who'd been 
there is that China's a wonderful place full of 
great people, and that no one should allow food 
concerns to prevent their going!

best regards,
Mary B.
NYC
-- 

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