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Dear List Mates,

I have just returned from an 11-day business trip to Shanghai and Beijing,
and I am glad to report that I was able to enjoy meals from a large number
of restaurants with no ill effects.  I was able to manage quite well with no
Chinese-speaker for restaurants that did not serve Asian food, and I was
fortunate to have at least one Chinese-speaker for Asian restaurants. Most
Asian-style restaurants were fairly up-scale and had good control over the
ingredients. European and American style restaurants were the same except
they were usually more moderate in price. Tony Roma's - not a place I would
generally recommend in Shanghai - had difficulty getting it right initially,
but they were accommodating with a burger patty, salad and baked potato.

Several of our Chinese-speaking engineers were able to assist me prepare a
pocket card which proved to be indispensable: *http://tinyurl.com/3dsj4u *(
http://home.comcast.net/~vhdolcourt/china_card/china_card.doc).  I needed
this card for every Asian meal. The restaurants would not cook custom meals,
but they would identify which foods met the criteria. In Shanghai I was able
to eat approximately 80% of the dishes from the Shanghainese and Thai
restaurants. In Beijing, the number dropped to about 20% as northern China
is much more wheat-based and uses soy sauce in many of the dishes. I did
have some luck with Sichuan dishes in Beijing, many of which had simpler
sauce that did not use soy or oyster sauces. Shanghainese cuisine - whether
in Beijing or Shanghai - is light, tasty and just moistened with sauce. The
Shanghainese are not heavy soy or oyster sauce users.

Of course, I stayed away from all noodle and dumpling dishes. In Beijing,
chow fun was fried rice, not noodle. For the trip I brought along and really
depended upon Laura Bars, Nectar Bars, TJ trail mix and TJ "All Fruit Bars"
- ends and pieces. We did a self-guided trip to Zhouzhuang, and a Chinese
member of our customer's team told all of us to bring all of our food
because she would never eat anything there. We found a well-stocked,
multi-ethnic supermarket on Nanjing Xi Lu in Shanghai for food and bottled
water to take to Zhouahuang.

You have to be very choosy where you eat in China and what you eat - cooked
foods, salad is OK in good western-style restaurants, and so is fruit which
is served with nearly every Asian meal - watermelon, Asian pear,
dragonfruit, kiwifruit, and some times cherry tomatoes.

Our group flew United Airlines, and they accommodate a GF diet although
there is no way to put it on your frequent flier profile. Some of the people
in our group complained about United's food, but I thought the GF food was
good tasting, albeit a bit on the plain-side. The airline choice was my
customer's, and I accommodated them.

Should you go to China? Definitely and by all means! We were there in time
for the Moon Festival, and Tiananmen square was absolutely packed with
people in the evening.

Vic-Sunnyvale, CA

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