• About
  • General tips and advice
    • Lost in Translation
    • Bubble Girl
  • Flying High
    • Nuts on a Plane
    • Beans on a Plane
    • Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
    • Snacks on a Plane – Part 1
    • Snacks on a Plane – Part 2
  • Holiday in Spain
    • Red, Red Sangria
    • Eat (Paella), Pray, Love
    • Tapas-stry King
    • Under the Sea
    • Hot Potato!
    • Eye of the Tiger Nuts
    • I Left My Heart in San Sebastian
  • A Land Down Under
    • Coffee-blanca – Part 1
    • Coffee-blanca – Part 2
    • Joy
  • The Italian Job
    • Yumbo Italiano
    • Under the Tuscan Sun
    • Florence and the (waffle) Machine – Part 1
    • Florence and the (waffle) Machine – Part 2
    • The Food Merchant of Venice
    • The Trip to (South) Italy
    • The Trip to (South) Italy – Part 2
    • When in Rome
    • From Rome with Love
    • Roman Holiday
  • Once Upon a Time in China
    • Hong (King) Kong
    • Princess of China
    • Big (Food) Trouble in Little China
  • Far (South) East Movement – Malaysia
    • Easy, Breezy, Beautiful… Kuala Lumpur
    • The KL Breakfast Club
  • My Big Fat Greek Holiday
    • Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat
    • Meat Me Halfway
    • Greece’d Lightnin’
  • There’s Something About Munich
    • Beerfest. Prost!
    • Don’t Stop the Munich
  • The Allergian’s Recipes
    • Homemade Granola/Toasted Muesli
    • Jackie’s Self-Saucing Hot Chocolate Pudding
    • The Green Smoothie
    • Chocolate Chip Feather-Light Muffins
    • Healthy Bran Muffins
    • Pepita Bars
    • Quinoa Granola

An Allergian Abroad

~ A blog about travelling, with allergies.

An Allergian Abroad

Tag Archives: Peanuts

Quinoa Granola

13 Monday Jun 2016

Posted by allergianabroad in The Allergian's Recipes

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Allergies, Allergy, Cow's milk, Cow's milk allergy, dairy allergy, dairy free, Food allergies, food allergy, gluten free, Gluten intolerance, Lactard, lactose free, Lactose intolerance, Lactose intolerant, Milk allergy, Nut allergy, nut free, Nuts, peanut allergy, peanut free, Peanuts, soy allergy, soy free, vegan, vegetarian

Nut free, lactose/dairy free, gluten free option, soy free, vegetarian, vegan option

I’ve recently started eating this yummy quinoa granola for brekky – it’s great with some plain yoghurt or even on its own. It’s super easy and quick to make!

IMG_4383.JPG

Ingredients:

¾ cup uncooked quinoa

¾ cup raw pumpkin seeds / pepitas

½ cup sunflower seeds

¼ cup (or I use a bit less) honey (/maple syrup for GF option)

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ teaspoon coarse salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

¾ cup dried cherries/cranberries/raisins (optional)

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 180°
  2. Combine quinoa, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds
  3. Heat honey (/maple syrup) in a microwave-safe bowl for 20 seconds
  4. Combine the olive oil, cinnamon and salt and pour over the top of the quinoa mixture
  5. Mix well
  6. Spread mixture in a baking pan
  7. Bake, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes (or until golden), stirring frequently
  8. Once finished, stir in cherries/cranberries/raisins
  9. Cool for 15 minutes and store in an airtight container.

 

Post your creations to Instagram and tag @allergianabroad, telling us what you think!

Don’t Stop the Munich

28 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by allergianabroad in Allergies, Milk Allergy and Intolerance, Nut Allergy, There's Something About Munich, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Allergies, Allergy, Dietary requirements, Europe, Eurotrip, Food, Food allergies, food allergy, foodie, Germany, Hazelnut allergy, Hazelnuts, Lactard, lactose free, Lactose intolerance, Lactose intolerant, Munich, Nut allergy, Nuts, peanut allergy, Peanuts, Travel

In my last post, Beerfest. Prost!, I promised you more on the foodie culture in Munich.

 

Munich really surprised me in this department. Spain, Italy and Greece, where we had just spent the past month and a half, very much had food as a central part of our adventures (in fact, I’m desperate to go back to Italy literally just for a bowl of pasta), but these are not exactly countries with foodie cultures. The food is excellent and authentic, but eating out is not an ‘experience’ as you would describe it as such in, say, a typical Melbourne café. And then came Germany, which apparently is vastly different in this respect.

 

It all began on our first morning in Munich, when we left our apartment on the lookout for a brekky spot. The evening before, when lugging our (well, really, my) oversized suitcases, backpacks and carry bags to our apartment, I had spotted what looked like a cool café and just had to go back.

 

Using my not so great sense of direction, we eventually found it – Kaffebar Aroma: a funky décor, low-stooled, big mugged café. It was just what I felt like and just what I had been missing the past few weeks. Despite the fact that my various dietaries pose quite a few restrictions on eating brekky out (i.e. brekky features lots of eggs, dairy and avocado), I still love going out for a good ol’ breakfast. But breakfast in the former countries we had visited usually consisted of coffee and a croissant (which I’m definitely not complaining about, but basically breakfast options were pretty minimal). So, I was pretty excited to find this café, with a fully-fledged breakfast menu. Especially, that is, when I looked at the menu and noticed that they had ‘on tap’ lactose free milk! This was a fantastic discovery for this lactard, after having missed a good milky coffee for the last 2 months. This is hard enough to find in a Melbourne café, let alone in the middle of Europe (or so I would have thought). The staff were nice, the food was good and the coffee was just pure deliciousness. It even ticked the BF’s criteria: big mug = bigger portion sizes.

 

Whilst I don’t like to frequent the same place too often when travelling, given we were living in an AirBnB apartment, Kaffebar Aroma became our local morning coffee stop. Who says you don’t need coffee before beer…

Kaffebar

Kaffebar Aroma interior

Kaffebar

Kaffebar Aroma low stool exterior

We also went to a nearby bakery one day, which had enticed us inside by the colourful and delicious pretzel display in the window. We were deciding what to buy, and discussing my nut allergy with the staff, when a German local interrupted us. He kindly informed me that just down the street was a bakery which caters for allergies. Fantastic! Once we eventually found the place he was referring to, we were helped by their friendly staff into buying a selection of pretzels and pastries which were Allergian-safe. And let’s just say: Munich’s pretzels are significantly better than the much-anticipated-yet-highly-disappointing New York pretzels!

Pretzels everywhere!

Pretzels everywhere!

My final great discovery was made when we were at the local grocery store, stocking up on some supplies for our apartment. They had a whole ‘dietary requirements’ section in the little store, packed full of lactose free, gluten free, etc items! I had a ball. *note: one of the Cadbury-equivalent, plain dairy milk chocolates, Milka, (which I saw in Munich and Amsterdam) contains hazelnuts.

 

At every other place we ate at in Munich, my allergies were pretty easy to deal with. All staff understood well, dealt with them appropriately and I never felt that it wasn’t taken seriously.

 

Even at Oktoberfest, there was plenty of food options (generally, pretzels, schnitzel and chips are pretty safe options). I usually ate at the food stalls outside the beer halls and the staff working there were also really friendly and helpful.

 

A few other food recommendations:

 

Hey Luigi: This place was right by our apartment. We ordered the veal schnitzel, which is served with roast potatoes and salad. This was seriously delicious and was a huge serving of food (which the BF loved). I would definitely recommend this place – cool atmosphere, nice staff and is open late!

Hey Luigi

Hey Luigi

L’Amar: We ate lunch here one day and I had a really great bowl of pumpkin risotto. This was like a delicious home cooked meal (that I had really missed for the past 8 weeks or so)!

IMG_8292

L’Amar

So that is all for now..

Next stop.. Amsterdam!

Guten appetit

Pepita Bars

01 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by allergianabroad in The Allergian's Recipes, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Allergy, baking, coeliac, dairy free, Food, food allergy, foodie, gluten free, glutenintolerant, lactose free, Nut allergy, nut free, Nuts, peanut allergy, peanut free, Peanuts, recipe, soy free, vegan, vegetarian

Nut free, lactose/dairy free, gluten free option, soy free, vegetarian, vegan

 IMG_3979.JPG

My new favourite snack are these deeelicious pepita bars. As a nut Allergian, these are a great alternative to a muesli/nut bar!

 

I’ve made two different varieties of these – honey vs sugar – they were very different and both really tasty. Either way, choose your weapon and get that oven baking!

 

Ingredients:

2 eggs (or egg substitute)

2 cups dark brown sugar or 1 1/3 cups honey

3 tablespoons flour (GF if required)

2 teaspoons baking powder (GF if required)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

2 cups of pepitas/sunflower seeds/sesame seeds (2 cups of whatever you fancy, really).

 

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 160° and line a flat pan with baking paper.
  2. Beat the eggs until foamy.
  3. Add the sugar and continue beating.
  4. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Beat this into the mixture.
  5. Stir in the vanilla and seeds/pepitas.
  6. Pour the mixture into the pan and bake for approximately 30 minutes or until the mixture is brown and crispy.
  7. Cut into squares or rectangular bars while warm and store in an airtight container.

 

I usually get about 24 bars out of this mixture.

 

Upload a photo of your bars on Instagram and tag me at @allergianabroad!

 

Happy baking 🙂

 

The Allergian Abroad

 

Get Me to the Greek

26 Thursday Nov 2015

Posted by allergianabroad in My Big Fat Greek Holiday, Nut Allergy

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

greece, Greek travel, Nut allergy, Nuts, peanut allergy, Peanuts, Travel, vegan, vegetarian

As well as all the incredible scenery that Santorini has to offer and all the things to see/do, the food itself is not too shabby. We had some of our best meals of Greece (and, I’m almost willing to say, of Europe!) in Santorini. πολύ νόστιμο! Welcome to this Allergian’s food tour of Santorini. Be prepared to eat your heart out!

 

We begin our journey at Pelican Kipos. We stumbled upon this restaurant by accident – and luckily we did! This was definitely our fave restaurant of Greece and is in close competition to Trattoria Za Za’s in Firenze. Firstly, for the ambiance – this place has a lovely courtyard, outdoor area, full of trees and greenery (you’ll feel a bit like you are on a tropical island). But, more importantly (because really all we care about is the food, right?), the food was outstanding!! I ordered roasted lamb with potatoes and vegetables, served in a ceramic pot. I received a massive piece of lamb, which was so deliciously soft and juicy. This was, forks down, the best lamb I’ve ever tasted. We just had to go back a second time, so that the BF could enjoy it too. It is a bit on the pricier side (by Greece standards), but oh so worth it.

Pelican Kipos (2).JPGPelican kipos.JPG

We also went to Pelican Kipos for breakfast one morning, as we just HAD to try the waffles which we spotted the night before (and waffles are my weakness). These waffles were thick delicious waffles, which we loved! Pelican Kipos also has every type of breakfast combo imaginable!

IMG_8196

The next stop on our ‘great restaurants in Santorini’ tour is Nikolas. Our hotel recommended this restaurant to us and, upon arriving to a long queue out the door, we knew we had to wait. We were told it would be about a 25-minute wait, but luckily we were called after only a few minutes. We were served by the owner (let’s call him Nik). Nik was really helpful and was particularly great with my allergies. He told me a story about an Allergian who had eaten at his restaurant (without informing them of her allergies) and had an allergic reaction in his restaurant! Because of this, Nik was so petrified of this happening again that he took extra care with me. He ran me through the menu and oversaw the cooking of my meal. I ordered the roast chicken with potatoes and carrot in a lemon sauce, which was really delicious.

 

Finally, we had a great gyro at Nick the Grill [a different Nick to the one above], which is rated the best gyro in Fira town. This was actually one of the few places I found in Greece that served lamb gyros. This came as a huge surprise to me, because I would have expected lamb to be the basic meat there. It was great!

 

Our hotel also recommended we have breakfast at Mama’s House. We went there one morning and, whilst “Mama” was hilariously joking around with us, the service was far too slow. It was, however, very entertaining watching one waiter literally running from table to table to save time (I can’t say that I’ve ever seen this before).

 

I also treated myself (cheating on my lactose intolerance) to a frozen Greek yoghurt at Chillbox. This was one of those places where you choose your toppings, but this was a bit more Allergian-friendly in that the store puts all the toppings on for you (rather than a DIY Allergians’-worst-nightmare sort of a situation). So I had a box of frozen Greek yoghurt, both vanilla and natural flavours (I’m a rager) and it was too good!

Chillbox.JPG

One thing to try in Santorini (or in Greece more generally) is the Greek coffee. The BF tried this at Pelican Kipos with our waffles and, apart from the fact that he did not drink it properly (I didn’t know you could drink something ‘incorrectly’ but basically he ate the ground coffee that was at the bottom of the cup), he would definitely recommend coffee lovers give it a try.

 

As previously mentioned in my post Meat Me Halfway, allergies didn’t seem to be particularly common in Greece and there was a bit more of a blasé attitude towards allergies than I experienced in other countries. But at proper restaurants (as opposed to casual gyro takeaway style places), waiters always dealt with it appropriately and, due to the nature of the foods I ordered, I never felt unsafe or unsure about what I was eating.

 

We didn’t eat at all in Oia Town, but there were heaps of nice looking restaurants lining the streets (with amazing views). You will also find plenty of restaurants through the weaving streets of Fira Town, particularly on Erythrou Stavrou (where Nikolas is).

 

One thing to note is that there wasn’t an abundance of restaurants serving other cuisines (or maybe that was just because I had my Greek food goggles on). Therefore, if you can’t or don’t eat meat/fish, it is probably worth doing your research first as to restaurants you can go! Pelican Kipos, for example, has a very extensive menu.

 

We hope you enjoyed our food tour today. Thanks for stopping by! The next stop on my Eurotrip was Athens!

 

Until next time…

 

The Allergian Abroad

Joy

25 Sunday Oct 2015

Posted by allergianabroad in A Land Down Under, Nut Allergy

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Allergy, Nut allergy, Nuts, peanut allergy, Peanuts

cupcake 7

Joy.

So very appropriately named. Joy is a little chain gourmet cupcake store in Melbourne that I’ve just discovered.

Joy is one of those cutesy boutique stores (2 in Melbourne CBD, one in Chadstone shopping centre and one in Doncaster) with every cupcake flavour under the sun. Each one looks more delicious than the last. Salted caramel… red velvet… dark chocolate… rhubarb… lemon meringue… jam donut… cinnamon sugar… you name it – they’ve probably got it.

cupcakes 2

I first went to Joy to get a co-worker a little birthday treat. As I began gazing at all the delicious bundles of Joy in front of me (knowing full well that Allergians don’t really get to indulge in such treats), I saw a big sign with familiar lettering – NF, DF, GF, V. I don’t know why I even thought to ask, but for some reason I did:

Allergian: “when you say ‘nut free’, what exactly do you mean?”.

Expecting the normal answer of ‘well, there’s no nuts in the cupcakes, but there may be traces and…’ I then noticed that the all-familiar normality of cakes/desserts littered with nuts was non-existent. There were in fact only one or two cupcake flavours with nuts, and these were banished away to the corner (just the way the “NF, GF, DF, often taste free cupcakes normally are!).

Nice lady behind the counter: “The NF cupcakes are entirely nut free and are made in an entirely different factory.”*

Ok ok I know what you’re thinking. That’s too good to be true and doesn’t ever happen, right? Yeh – I didn’t believe it either. Anyways, for whatever reason I didn’t treat myself that day (and my jeans probably thanked me).

But a few weeks later, I was doing some shopping in Chaddy and walked past this joyful cupcake stall again. I thought I’d treat myself (shopping is cardio right?). I asked the lady behind the counter again, in case this store was different to the Melbourne CBD store.

Well – you betycha – I received the same response. Entirely NF. No traces, no risk of traces. I think it’s interesting that Joy doesn’t market themselves as the highly allergy-friendly place that they are. Whilst I cannot judge their cupcakes against those of other similar stores, based on the number of people in their stores, they either clearly make great cupcakes or there are a lot of people with allergies.

So I took the plunge. Even though I eat at restaurants that serve nuts and eat packaged foods which say “may contain traces of nuts”, this seemed too good to be true. It was way too foreign to be ordering a cake/dessert at one of these boutique dessert stores.

I thoroughly enjoyed my cupcake (ok fine I had two, but who’s judging?). I ordered a salted caramel and a dark chocolate and they were so gooood!

As I bit into these delicious cupcakes, and brought joy to the little girl in me (who had missed out on all the deliciousness that most little kiddies get to enjoy), I realised just how easy it was for this little cupcake store to bring joy to us Allergians. THANK YOU JOY – I thought you deserved a special mention!!

cupcake 3cupcake 5

* Disclaimer: I’m not sure whether this is the same for the other types of Allergens. Please make your own enquiries before consuming!

Greece’d Lightnin’

23 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by allergianabroad in My Big Fat Greek Holiday, Nut Allergy

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Allergy, Food, greece, Greek travel, Nut allergy, Nuts, peanut allergy, Peanuts

The next stop on our adventure was the lovely little town of Ios.

Ios town is full of bars, shops and restaurants. The interesting thing about Ios is that  (just about) no one actually lives on the island. Those Greeks who do reside on the island actually come from surrounding areas, largely Athens, for the tourist season and return to their home once the summer is over. And for every Greek person working on the island, there are probably 5 tourists working in Ios (predominantly Australians). This pretty much means that the whole island is dedicated to, and full of, tourists (again, largely from Australia). This gave Ios a strange familiarity, despite never having been before.

IMG_8013

The view of Ios Town from our hotel room.

IMG_2421

Mylopotas Beach

We arrived in Ios on the 12th of September, which was around the time of the last wave of people to the island for the year. Shops and restaurants were already starting to close up and the island had started to die down (though there were still plenty of people). My advice: if you want to feel the buzz of the place, try get to Ios slightly earlier, and definitely not after, 15th September to ensure you don’t miss out on what the island is all about. For example, Far Out beach club, one of the top party venues, had pretty much died down by this time of year.

However, if you are around in September and feel that the place is dead, do not fear. The crowds will miraculously appear at about 1.30/2.00 am and continue well into the night. Unlike in, say, Mykonos, where the streets were always packed full of people, Ios Town is dead quiet until people are ready to party (including during the day). Most people spend the day sleeping, by the hotel pool or at the beach.

There isn’t a whole lot to see and do in Ios. We spent most of our days by the pool or at Mylopotas Beach (by Far Out beach club), meandering through the town checking out the tourist shops [one massive sucker for souvenirs right here], bar hopping in the evening and, of course, eating! There are also a lot of water sports offered on Mylopotas Beach. Greece was about half way through our Eurotrip so it was the perfect chance to unwind, relax & recuperate (mostly our feet), save some money (our daily spend was well below the rest of the trip’s) and get prepared for the final jam-packed month of our trip (cue: Oktoberfest).

Now.. a bit about the food in Ios.

I know that I probably shouldn’t publicly admit to having Italian food in Greece (who does that?) but here goes… when the thought of another gyro made me cringe because of the recent burst of gyro consumption and we had begun reminiscing of our days in Italy, we luckily stumbled upon Ciao Bella, an Italian restaurant complete with a chef from Florence. How could we turn it down? The restaurant had a cosy set up – seated on cushions on the floor – and had lovely staff. Luckily, the food was delicious [and no, I’m not just saying that] and exactly what my body needed to prepare itself for some more gyro-packed days. I ordered some sort of a tagliatelle pasta with beef and spinach.. coupled with a perfecto serve of sangria [yes, I visited 3 countries in 1 night], it was a very tasty meal.

IMG_2430

Our meal at Ciao Bella

IMG_2431

Our meal at Ciao Bella

We also ate one night at Global Gourmet, which is in the main town. I ordered the lamb chops and roast potatoes. The lamb was super tender and juicy and, though a little bland, was really enjoyable. While I didn’t have dessert, I eyed the BF’s delicious Greek yoghurt and honey, which seemed like a winner.

IMG_2195

My meal at Global Gourmet

Finally, we had our fair share of gyros while in Ios and, as always, each one was better than the next. There was one place (and I cannot for the life of me remember the name) that stays open all year long. The gyros at this place were pretty damn good. I think Pleasure is supposed to be one of the best.

There are lots of different cuisine options in Ios – I frequently spotted Mexican, Thai and Italian. There seemed to be something for everyone, though it is a bit tricky to research good eats or, even more so, locate them. There are plenty of cheap casual gyro-type restaurants, which are all cheap, deliciously fattening and drool-worthy.

In Ios, bar/club hopping is a must do. There are bars/clubs scattered throughout Ios town and you will often find that one minute a bar/club is packed full and the next it is empty (as everyone has moved onto the next place). There are also more chilled places where you can sit all night along the main strip, as well as more sophisticated/elegant bars along the outskirts of the main town (near the main road).

Definitely visit Orange Bar. They have the most amazing selection of shots, such as cappuccino, mint aero, maltesers, baclava, keylime pie and bounty. I, of course, could not have these because there were some nutty ones, but they are supposed to be incredible and taste like the real thing!

IMG_8033

The shots at Orange Bar.

One bar to experience while you are in Ios is Slammer Bar. Now you are probably going to think I’m crazy, but I promise you I’m not making this up. At this mysterious place, Slammer Bar, if you choose to order the Slammer shot, you will drink a shot and then the barman will give you a helmet to put on and will hit you over the head [very hard, in fact] with an item of your choice. I did not take part in this activity (my head is way too precious), but it was mildly entertaining watching highly intoxicated people have their head slammed with a fire extinguisher, obviously thinking it was a good idea at the time.

That’s all for now from me folks.

Next stop: the stunning Santorini. Get excited!

Until next time…

The Allergian Abroad

Meat Me Halfway

23 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by allergianabroad in Milk Allergy and Intolerance, My Big Fat Greek Holiday, Nut Allergy

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Allergy, Cow's milk, Cow's milk allergy, dairy allergy, greece, Greek travel, Lactose intolerance, Milk allergy, Nut allergy, Nuts, peanut allergy, Peanuts, Travel, vegetarian

I had a ball eating in Greece. I hadn’t eaten too much Greek food before visiting Greece, but realizing that the Greek cuisine pretty much consists of various forms of meat, I knew it would be a winner.

The next 9 or so days involved eating far more gyros than I’d like to admit. But when they taste that good and cost 2 euro (about AU$3.50!!), how could I pass it up???

The gyros in Greece (pronounced “iros” [… or something like that]) comprise your choice of meat, some salad, tzatziki and chips in a delicious pita bread. I always ordered the chicken, because, to my surprise, lamb gyros weren’t all that common in Greece. I had to leave out the tzatziki (because of the lactose), so it probably wasn’t quite as delicious as it otherwise would be, but it was still pretty darn good.

I found that wherever you went, the gyros were amazing. You don’t need to go to some fancy restaurant to get good food in Greece – and in fact, I think the less fancy, the more authentic.

The two best gyros I had in Mykonos were at Tropicana (surprisingly, given it is essentially a bar) and at Saki’s Grill House (which is known to be the best gyro in Mykonos). The Saki’s Grill gyros were huge and the pita bread, in particular, was to die for. I’d definitely recommend a visit! The Tropicana gyros tasted delicious and could be enjoyed while lounging on the beach soaking up the sun!

tropicana

Tropicana

IMG_7942

Saki’s Grill House

We also decided one night to splurge a little. The BF and I met up with 2 other friends and we went to a restaurant for a feast. Many of the restaurants offer these giant mixed plates to share between 2. We got chicken shashlik, chicken wings, sausages, hamburgers, pita, dips, chips and more. It was 26 euro for 2 people (about $38 for 2) which was pretty good value because we were popping afterwards! Apologies for the awful photos and, no, this wasn’t the full platter.

10415572_10152595331361387_5596043112798013683_n

Our feast

platter

Our feast

The thing I loved about this restaurant [and sorry I can’t remember the name], apart from the delicious and never-ending plate of food, was the ambiance. I remember it so clearly. You sit outdoors in the heat in a giant space cluttered full with tables, people, food and chatter. It was a hullabaloo, an organised chaos, an exciting pandemonium; it was wonderfully atmospheric.

Let me talk a bit about my allergies in Mykonos.

I don’t think that allergies are particularly common in Greece. Generally, when I gave my beautiful Greek nut translation sign, people thought I was a little bit crazy. I’d say that Greek people had a bit more of a blasé attitude towards allergies as compared to those in Italy and Spain, but that was possibly because of the nature of the food, in that there was probably no way that there would be nuts inside a gyro and therefore they thought I was crazy for asking. I wouldn’t say that they were careless about my allergies, but just that it wasn’t taken quite as seriously. I did, however, usually get a better response to my allergies when I was eating at hotel restaurants/bars (eg at Paradise Beach), where the staff are probably more accustomed to dealing with allergies.

This being said, however, I felt like I didn’t need to worry as much about my allergies because it was always pretty obvious what I was eating. You could see the gyro meat being cut off the spit in front of you, or you knew that you were eating plain meat without any sauce. There wasn’t anything snuck in there. I had also done a bit of research with my Greek friend, who gave me the low down, and so I knew that nuts are not particularly common in the Greek cuisine, but are quite common in Greek pastries/desserts (eg Baklava).

What I did love about Mykonos was that I got to enjoy dessert. Say what? OK well not dessert, per se, but let’s just call it that. You’ve all (hopefully) read about my disappointment in not being able to enjoy the exciting desserts in Spain and Italy, which generally consisted of nutty or potentially nutty delights. In Mykonos, when lying on the beach in the scorching sun, a delicious ice cream is exactly what one craves. Paradise Beach has a lovely little set up where you can get just about anything (there are restaurants, bars and also a little canteen-ey type place where you can get all sorts of snacks). I went to go look at what ice cream options they had and unfortunately faced a whole lot of gibberish (Greek) ingredients. Until I found the packaged Häagen-Dazs ice cream tubs – complete with English ingredients. Woohoo!

These were mini tubs and there were heaps of different options to choose from. Whilst there were 1 or 2 that contained nuts (but not peanuts), most of the flavours were nut free. The first one I had was crème brulee, which was beyond amazing. The ice cream had chunks of caramel inside, dripping with crème brulee sauce (which tasted a lot like real crème brulee). The second flavour I tried was the chocolate fondant. Wow was it good! It was chocolate ice cream with chunks of brownie, drenched in chocolate sauce. It was definitely worth cheating on the lactose intolerance front! Who needs an Italian hot chocolate or some sort of delicious Spanish pastry when you have Häagen-Dazs ice cream!? Ok I realise that for most non-Allergians, this isn’t all that exciting and it’s probably no comparison, but I’ll take what I can get.

Haagen Daaz

My love affair with Häagen-Dazs 

Generally, the biggest dietary challenges in Mykonos would be 1) vegetarian and 2) dairy allergy / lactose intolerance.

For the vegetarians – I’m sure you would know to expect (almost) nothing but meat in Greece. There’s always the salad option though, and of course lots of cheese. Being an island, I’m pretty sure there were some fish/seafood dishes/restaurants on offer, but meat was the overwhelming majority.

For those allergic to dairy / the lactards – the Greek cuisine is full of dairy – between the tzatsiki, the halloumi, the Greek yoghurt and the feta, there’s plenty of it. That being said, however, it is easy to avoid these things and you can almost always leave the dairy out. There’s always something else to eat.

Some final words about Mykonos:

Ouzo. It’s the Greek specialty liqueur, more particularly, an anise-flavoured aperitif. AKA, if you don’t like liquorice, do not try this. My friends and I bought a bottle and were told to drink it 1 part ouzo, 3 parts water. I smelt the bottle and (as an avid liquorice-hater) could not bring myself to drink it [I think I was still scarred from the limoncello and grappa in Italy]. The far more daring 3 guys I was with took on the challenge and drank their shots of Ouzo and I got to enjoy the looks on their faces once they were downed. Classic!

That’s all from me folks. Next stop: Ios!

Until next time…

στην υγειά σας

The Allergian Abroad

Roman Holiday

16 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by allergianabroad in Milk Allergy and Intolerance, Nut Allergy, The Italian Job

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

dairy allergy, Italian travel, Italy, kosher, Lactose intolerance, Milk allergy, Nut allergy, Nuts, peanut allergy, Peanuts, Pork, Roman travel, Rome, Travel

I hope you’ve all read my previous post filled with restaurant and dessert recommendations in Rome. Definitely worth a visit!

Luckily for me, eating in Rome (and Italy in general) is pretty easy and my dietary restrictions aren’t so restrictive. But I do have some tips – hopefully I can share some wisdom about a range of dietary requirements.

Nuts:

I only had two real problems with nuts in Rome. The first, and really the most important problem, was my unfortunate, extremely dismal ability to part-take in (what many people would consider to be) the best part of every meal – dessert.

This really isn’t a Rome problem – it’s more of a global problem. Dessert just isn’t really that considerate of nut Allergians. I’m used to this though, so this wasn’t such a big disappointment. I did, however, get to enjoy a delicious crème brulee and some Lindt chocolate (see my post here), get to enjoy watching the BF try any and every delicious dessert imaginable (see my post here), and get to save on the calorie front. Really – it could be much worse.IMG_2124

IMG_7738

The BF’s dessert adventures in Rome

Ice cream truffle

The BF’s dessert adventures in Rome

Secondly, I faced a problem at the Vatican Museum. This was surprising really. After all that cultural and historical explosion that is the Vatican Museum, my friends, the BF and I were ready for a good feed. We went to the Vatican Museum food area, which kind of had a sort of canteen thang happening. It felt like a school cafeteria. Anyways, I asked the man behind the counter whether anything had nuts in it and, after checking, told me that I shouldn’t eat anything. I think there were lots of nuts used or something like that. While it is obviously pretty much impossible to find a kitchen that has zero nuts present, most places say something along the lines of ‘there may be traces present because our kitchen has nuts’. But when a place tells me not to eat their food, I will always listen. So that made things a little bit tricky, given we hadn’t finished the Museum. So I resorted to some packaged fruit salad and crisps, which seemed like the only safe options.

So just a warning to people with nut allergies going to the Vatican Museum – probably best to bring your own food. There also may have been a fancier restaurant somewhere in the museum – I’m not sure.

Lactose/dairy:

In Australia, whenever I order pasta of some kind, I ask for no cheese. This is because in Australia, pasta almost always comes served with parmesan cheese on top. And once your pasta has cheese on it, there is no way of getting it off. The melting and the stringing and the dispersing.. believe me – I’ve tried many a time.

But I quickly learnt in Italy that this whole cheese-on-top-of-the-pasta thing was an Australian (or international) invention, which did not originate in Italy. Sort of like the linguine thing (I didn’t find any linguine in Italy, so, again, this must be an international invention). So what would any ordinary person do… they would stop their silly request for “please no cheese on top”, because I had had enough funny looks from waiters [why is this extremely uncultured girl asking for no cheese on her pasta?].

But apparently the Italian status quo is a bit different in Rome. It was my second meal in Rome and I ordered pasta (with no cheese-less request). And what do you know – my pasta came out covered in cheese. It was quite unfortunate really. So I scraped it off as best I could (the melting… the stringing… the dispersing) and ate (what was left) around it.

What’s the moral of the story? Don’t be too embarrassed / think you are silly for asking questions relating to any of your dietary requirements or allergies. A funny look from a waiter is much better than only being able to eat ¼ of your food or, worse, a reaction of sorts.

Pork:

My dietary restrictions only faced one real problem in Italy – pork. There is heaps of pork used in Italy (which I do not eat) and it often features in my fave spaghetti bolognese. This meant that I always checked what meat was used before I ordered something. I had one hilarious exchange with a restaurant hostess near the (under renovation) Trevi Fountain. She didn’t speak very good English. I asked her the standard question and she didn’t understand what I was saying. After a few attempts, I had to resort to basics. Keep it stupid simple, so they say. I pointed at the spaghetti bolognese on the menu, said “moo moo” or “oink oink” and, whilst lifting my shoulders, held my hands out in the typical inquisitive stance. It really was an all time low in language barriers. She responded with “moo moo” (laughing hysterically, of course) and I enjoyed my pork-free bolognese.

Kosher:

Finally, for those who are Kosher (which I am not), there are quite a few Kosher restaurants in the Roman ghetto. When I visited the area, I ate at Nonna Betta which is supposedly one of the best. I ordered tagliolini with ragu and “Grandma betta’s sauce” and it was delicious! For a list of some other restaurants in the Roman ghetto, see here.

IMG_7836

The meat menu at Nonna Betta

Nonna betta

My meal at Nonna Betta

So it’s safe to say that there is something for everyone in Rome, and Italy in general. You’ll almost always be able to find something you can eat, which is a nice change for us Allergians (* cue the last resort search for a McDonalds, as occurs in some countries). And if you can’t – there’s always Queen’s Chips Amsterdam where you can get a massive serve of hot chips in a cone with one of a variety of sauces dripping all over it (see my previous excitement about this here).

IMG_7761

Queen’s Chips Amsterdam

So that’s about all for Italy. Our next stop was the amazingly stunning Greek Islands! γιορτάζω!

Until next time…

The Allergian Abroad

When in Rome

01 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by allergianabroad in The Italian Job

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Allergy, Italian travel, Italy, Nut allergy, Nuts, peanut allergy, Peanuts, Travel

Rome. Oh Roma.

Rome continued our streak of delicious food, jam-packed touring, hot summer days and nights, and drinking vino with every meal.

Rome was a tough one on our feet. My poor little feet. They just didn’t know what was ahead of them.

We decided to stay near Termini station at the lovely Al Viminale Hill Inn & Hotel. This was a great location – easy to get to from the station (perfect for lugging the increasingly heavy suitcase, the ever expanding number of carry bags and my consequent impressively enlarging bicep muscles), located along a strip of restaurants and easy to get to anywhere in Rome.

IMG_9197

In case you don’t quite believe me, this was our collection of bags by the end of the trip.

But.. really, when I say “easy to get to anywhere”, I mean “get those walking shoes on because you’ve got a long trek ahead of you”. No one really warned us, but the public transport in Rome is pretty much non-existent and exceptionally confusing (the one time we took a bus we ended up in the entirely wrong area), so it’s usually easier to walk. But when we looked at a map in Rome, we didn’t quite grasp just how far away things were. It seemed like we could walk to just about anywhere. But what may have seemed like a short walk from the hotel to a tourist site sometimes ended up taking us almost an hour.

What this meant was that once we left the hotel in the morning, we were gone for the day. It would take too long to come home in between our day adventures and dinner, so we would end up getting dinner wherever we were out and about and then continuing on into the night. My poor little feet.

Despite the pain inflicted upon my feet, I think that walking really is the best way to get to know a city. Getting to know the streets, stumbling upon awesome sights/restaurants/shops, and seeing all the different areas is one of my favourite parts of a holiday. Especially when you stay in a place for long enough to feel like you have “your street” or “your coffee shop” etc. This was something that really resonated with me in Florence.

Despite the walking, Rome is such an incredible city. You can be walking through the middle of the city and suddenly stumble upon some ancient ruins. Or some giant building that looks like a wedding cake. Or a Colosseum! The city just oozes with history and culture that I don’t think is replicated anywhere else in the world. It is also jam packed full of tourist attractions, one of the world’s great museums (Vatican Museum), great food, shopping streets, cafes / gelaterias and talented entertainers (like an awesome group of musicians who play on Piazza Navona).

Some ancient ruins.

Some ancient ruins

The "wedding cake" building.

The “wedding cake” building

The Colosseum

The Colosseum

Performers at Piazza Navona.

Performers at Piazza Navona

In Rome, we filled our 6 days with the following (and then some):

  1. The Colosseum + Palatine Hill (go on a tour of the Colosseum and make sure you also see the outside at night!)
  2. Vatican + St Peter’s Basilica (I was amazeddd by St Peter’s Basilica)
  3. Seeing the wedding cake building (National Monument to Victor Emmanuel II) (we actually stumbled upon this building and didn’t realise until later that it was the infamous “wedding cake building”)
  4. Trevi Fountain (although for us, this was really just a monument of scaffolding)
  5. Capuchin crypt (only if you can deal with a bit of gore.. it’s a bit creepy to say the least)
  6. Piazza Navona (I loved sitting in Piazza Navona at just about any time of day people watching, admiring the fountains, and watching the performers)
  7. The Pantheon (visit at night too)
  8. Walk along Fiume Tevere
  9. Check out the viewpoint at Gianicolo park
  10. Mouth of Truth
  11. Campidoglio
  12. Spanish Steps (a great place to chill, rest your legs and people watch)
  13. Porta Portese flea markets
  14. Visit the Roman ghetto
  15. Walk along Via Guilia (a street full of palaces)
  16. Pincian Hill / Piazza Bucarest / Piazza del Popolo
  17. Eat great food
  18. Drink vino with every meal
  19. Splurge on every dessert imaginable (food allergy dependent)
  20. Shop your heart out
St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter’s Basilica

Piazza Navona.

Piazza Navona

The Pantheon.

The Pantheon

Spanish Steps.

The Spanish Steps

We ate plenty of delicious Italian food in Roma, with my allergies/dietary requirements being pretty easy to deal with. We ate at a few places that had been recommended to us, and some that we stumbled upon during our journeys, but overall had some great meals. I didn’t have any nut run-ins, but I do have a few stories to share, as well as some great restaurant recommendations, so stay tuned for my next post about beautiful Rome!

Healthy Bran Muffins

17 Sunday May 2015

Posted by allergianabroad in The Allergian's Recipes

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Allergy, dairy allergy, egg allergy, Lactose intolerance, Nut allergy, Nuts, peanut allergy, Peanuts, soy allergy, vegetarian

Nut free, lactose free option, dairy free option, soy free, egg free option, vegetarian

As I’ve recently started full time work, I’ve started looking for some new snacks for either mid-morning (when lunch time hunger creeps in a bit early) or as an afternoon pick-me-up (when the lethargy kicks in).

I found this recipe for delicious bran muffins. The mixture goes a long way (I halved the recipe and it made about 15-20 muffins) and is really quick and easy to make. The smell of the muffins baking is to-die for and the taste is pretty damn good.

Bran muffins

So here goes:

Ingredients:

  • 1 packet of Bran Flakes (350g)
  • 3 cups brown sugar
  • 5 teaspoons of bicarbonate soda
  • 2x 500ml carton of buttermilk. This can also be replaced with lactose free yoghurt or soy yoghurt. For a half recipe, I used 3x 140g tubs of vanilla lactose free yoghurt
  • 1 cup oil (I used olive oil)
  • 5 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 eggs
  • Optional – 2 cups raisins/sultanas

Directions:

  1. Mix all the dry ingredients together
  2. Separately, mix the oil, eggs and buttermilk/yoghurt together
  3. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients
  4. Pour into muffin tray
  5. Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes at 200°

Share your creations on our Instagram page – @allergianabroad !

← Older posts

Recent Posts

  • I Am Sterdam June 25, 2016
  • Quinoa Granola June 13, 2016
  • Don’t Stop the Munich March 28, 2016
  • Pepita Bars March 1, 2016
  • Beerfest. Prost! January 27, 2016

Allergies

  • Milk Allergy and Intolerance
  • Nut Allergy
  • Seafood Allergy

Like us on Facebook

Like us on Facebook
Follow An Allergian Abroad on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Instagram

Philippines does Pasta 🙃 and great pasta too! ✌🏼️🍝☀️ #food #foodie #foodstagram #foodpic #foodpics #foodphoto #foodphotos #foodphotography #travel #travelpic #travelpics #travelphoto #travelphotography #travelblog #travelblogger #pasta #italianfood #italy #italian #boracay #philippines #pukabeach #puka #goodfood #ilovefood #foodporn #nutfree #nutallergy #peanutfree #peanutallergy
No words to describe how good this giant pancake was 😬 courtesy of Sunny Side Cafe in Boracay, Philippines 🙃 #food #foodie #foodstagram #foodblog #foodblogger #foodpic #foodpics #foodphoto #pancake #giantpancake #breakfast #brunch #sunnysidecafe #boracay #philippines #travel #travelpic #travelphoto #asia #cafe #melbournefoodie #melbourneblogger #melbournetraveller #nutfree #peanutfree #ilovefood #foodporn
Summertime in Boracay 🙌🏼☀️⛱ #food #foodie #foodstagram #foodblog #foodblogger #foodpic #foodpics #foodphoto #foodphotography #pie #burger #travel #philippines #boracay #melbournefoodie #melbournetraveller #melbourneblogger #carbloading #summer #beach #getaway #nutfree #nutallergy #peanutfree #peanutallergy
Filipino feasting in Manila 🙌🏼 #food #foodie #foodstagram #foodpic #foodpics #foodphoto #foodphotography #filipino #filipinofood #philippines #manila #travel #foodblog #foodblogger #travelblog #travelblogger #goodfood #foodporn #australianfoodie #australiantraveller #australianabroad
An epic feed at Mamasita ~ chicken wings, pineapple duck flautas and roast potatoes 😋 #food #foodie #foodstagram #foodpic #foodpics #foodphoto #foodphotography #foodphotos #foodblog #foodblogger #mamasita #mexican #mexicanfood #melbournefood #melbournefoodie #melbournerestaurant #melbournecbd #goodfood #ilovefood #foodporn #foodcoma #nutfree #nutallergy #peanutfree #peanutallergy #foodallergies #allergies #foodallergy #allergy @mamasitamelbourne

© 2014 An Allergian Abroad. All Rights Reserved

  • Disclaimer

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy