<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
Hi!
Thank you very much for all of your responses to my June 24 post
regarding travel to Hong Kong, Xian, Beijing and Tokyo. Your comments
have been very helpful. In brief:
Check the archives for the May 19, 1998, At last! Hong Kong summary.
Many great suggestions. Somehow I missed it when I searched. Thank you,
Chris!
Another sincere thank you to Jennifer for sending me a file attachment with
a Mandarin CSA restaurant card translation which was hand written by her
friend, Sun. With their permission I have forwarded a copy to Thomas'
web site. Thomas has another Chinese translation on his page but he was
not certain if it was Cantonese or Mandarin:
http://members.aol.com/zoeliak
The Lonely Planet Phrasebook said that Mandarin and Cantonese, although
spoken differently, are written the same! I was able to find
translations for "= I am allergic to soy sauce" and "I am allergic to
MSG" in these phrase books. There was no translation for "intolerant",
so I settled for "allergic to".= You could either photo copy these
phrases to a translated restaurant card or simply point to the
translation in the book. I found the phrase books at my local
bookstore. Note that these books are filed in the reference section of
the store, not the travel section.
For a Japanese version of the restaurant card, go to:
http://hometown.aol.com/zoeliak/japanese.htm
Regarding taking vitamins and food through Customs:
If your bags are inspected and your vitamins are not in their original
containers you run the risk of having them confiscated. Sue cautioned
that one should be careful with pills - drug smuggling is quite an item
in that part of the world.
Diane suggested that I get a letter from my doctor explaining that I am
celiac, have an "allergy" and the food, vitamins, etc. are MEDICAL
SUPPLIES. I will need to have the letter translated into Chinese and
Japanese. I don't know if I will have time to have it translated before
I leave, but the letter is a great idea.
Rose Mary said that it would be wise to check the embassy and the
airlines regarding restrictions on importing food. Other places to check
are guidebooks for the destination countries or the nearest consulate.
Someone said that Asians don't suffer from Celiac disease so they may
not understand our request even if we show them a translated restaurant
card.
Regarding food availability:
Deb said that raisins, microwave popcorn or almonds are available in
supermarkets in Hong Kong. There is a health food shop in HK called
Health Gate. They have breads from ener-g and cookies from Pamela's,
rice crackers etc. Their telephone number is 852 254 52286 and fax is
852 285 40770. Ask for Yolanda.
Soy sauce in HK has wheat in it - unless you go to Olivers deli or the food
section in Seibu Department store or Supercity food store to get Tamari.
Health Gate has a wheat-free soy sauce but hard to find a gf one there.
Go to the up-market hotels - the chef at the Mandarin is good.
Someone recommended the Eaton Hotel in Kowloon, the breakfasts had enough
variety that you could eat well and last through until dinner!
Chinese white sauce is gf, made with corn starch and no soy sauce (but
be careful of MSG.) Someone also suggested that I just hold up the
bottle of soy sauce on the table and politely say no.
HK also has lots of NON Chinese restaurants.
In Hong Kong they usually will speak enough English to help with
ordering. And as for the mainland - take a lot of food with you. They
eat a lot of wheat in the north - dumplings, noodles etc.
Ruth said that in Japan she found brown rice cakes easily, bought peanut
butter and lots of dairy products in the supermarket and ate plenty of
sushi, including the fresh ginger and horseradish. She learned the
characters for wheat and rice so she could study labels in the stores.
There are also lots of packaged cookies that are just rice. They're
very light and not very filling but still a treat.
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