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scott adams <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Yes, Vietnamese food is great, and they do use a lot of rice products.
> However, they still use soy and fish sauces in most of their dishes, both of
> which can contain gluten. They also make a vinegar/hot pepper sauce which
> traditionally contains rice vinegar, but most places use white vinegar. Make
> sure you order all dishes without soy sauce, fish sauce and vinegar.
Ummm. This post has confused several people, and they aren't reading
all the way through, which makes it worse.... You are also needlessly
condemning people to absolutely tasteless food...
When you say "can" or "may" - please give an example of a brand that
does. Also - "I reacted" doesn't cut it... I'm one of the local
gluten "sniffers" - I react to minute traces of gluten that wouldn't
phase a lot of people. However, I also have the same type of reaction
to beef and milk - which many of you don't. I would hazard that many
of us, with the typical "leaky gut" damage of celiac, react to a lot
of strange things....that may not always be gluten! This leads us to
make assumptions, and needlessly limit our diets, and the diets of
other sufferers, when they take our rantings at face value :-(
I'd like someone (Scott?) to find me *one* brand of fish sauce as
used in Vietnamese cuisine which contains gluten, and I'll shut my
mouth. Worcestershire sauce (a poor American copy of nam pla) usually
contains a wheat-based soy sauce. I've been using nam pla in my
kitchen for 11 years now, and have yet to find a bottle of Vietnamese
manufactured fish sauce containing anything other than anchovies,
salt and water (and I've shopped a *lot* of Vietnamese markets!)...
unless I don't know something about anchovies ;-)
Also, many soy sauces from Southeast Asia, unlike their Chinese/
Japanese/Korean counterparts, *ARE* safe! Ask to see the bottle of
soy sauce that they are using! I've been using Golden Mountain soy
sauces in my kitchen for a couple of years now - they're from
Thailand, and much less salty and less expensive than the wheat-free
San-J. I was in heaven when I found out that my local Thai restaurant
uses these sauces in their kitchen...now I can eat many more things
on their menu...
What is more likely to trip people up is something another poster
mentioned - that many of the manufacturers (if not all) of fresh rice
noodles have started using wheat starch instead of corn starch for
texture. I haven't seen this trend spread to the dried noodles
though, so *ask* if the restaurant is using fresh or dried noodles.
Easy ways to make it through the minefield? Go shopping. That's
right. Take some time and wander through the local ethnic markets and
look at the base ingredients. You might learn something (horrors ;-),
and you might just expand your culinary horizons (meat, rice and
veggies can only be disguised so far, unless you add to the kinds of
things you're using for disguise ;-)
The number one enemy of the person on a restricted diet is ignorance
- if you don't know what the base ingredients are, you can make some
awful mistakes. On the other hand, if you are savvy about the basic
ingredients, it's possible to eat well almost anywhere (note that I
said *almost* - a pizza joint still won't cut it... although I had
some lovely salads at Balducci's last time we were in Boston ;-)
The number two enemy on this diet is either fear or stupidity... and
very often, fear leads to stupidity. We get afraid to try new things,
then get bored, or feeling deprived, then get stupid. (Stupidity, in
this context, is knowing better, and doing it anyway...) Like the
celiac who got bored, and hungry, and, rather than take the time to
go to the HFS 2 blocks away, ate half a pound of her husband's
cookies, then couldn't understand why her GF diet wasn't working,
since "almost" everything she ate was okay! (I kid you not, I was in
a support group office when this call came in!)
karen
A much happier camper in Los Angeles, since the 3 days of brown rice
and acidophilus worked...
Karen M. Davis, Davis & Associates 818-892-8555
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The first rule of magic is simple. Don't waste your time waving your hands
& hoping when a rock or a club will do. (attributed to McCloctnik the Lucid)
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