Food allergies and asking questions

We have recently experienced someone that wasn’t sure about my food allergies, and they wanted to ensure that no matter what I was going to be safe when they were around. It is so different when there is someone that is asking the right questions when there are so many people that make assumptions and figure that they know everything.

This experience came about as we were meeting up with someone that my husband met online, and they were coming to Toronto for a visit. Of course, after lots of conversations we said that we would like to meet for diner but there were going to be come challenges given my food allergies. For me, I am someone that has the word “others” on me medica alert bracelet because of all the food allergies that I have, and they cannot all fit on the bracelet. One of my major allergies is shellfish so eating out can be a major issue because of how much shellfish is available in restaurants. Yes, for me, calamari is one of my allergies, it’s a soft shell but I still react to it.

So, we knew that it was going to be a challenge to find a spot that I felt safe and it also met everyone’s likes. At first, we found one place that might have worked, but then after seeing that there was an event there earlier in the day and the menu was a little confusing, we decided it was time to figure out another location that might be a little safer for me. We decided to go to a chain that I haven’t had any issues so far so we figured that would probably be the best bet. The nice thing is this couple that were visiting understood that having dinner with me was going to be a bit of a challenge.

Something that meant so much to me was when this friend asked if there was any issue of bringing a souvenir with some salmon skin on it because he wanted to make sure that it wouldn’t cause any issues for me. Knowing that someone would ask that question meant so much to me because it showed they cared about me and my food allergies and they wanted the experience of us meeting to be a good one.

If you have a chance to meet someone else and they have a food allergy, please make sure that you do your checking to make sure that the entire experience is good for everyone.