Traveling with Allergies

I am so sorry I haven't been able to post anything since I have been traveling!!!  For some reason, in Argentina I couldn't log-on to this site.  But, never fear, here I am, with some tips for eating whilst traveling and some amazing photographs of some of the food I tried in South America.

First things first:  I was in Argentina for two months.  They are a culture heavily influenced by the Italians and Germans.  Therefore, they are very much a bread, pasta, pastry & pizza culture.  Eating here with a gluten & lactose allergy was challenging.  A typical "porteno" breakfast is a medialuna (pastry/croissant) with jam and some tea.  Obviously this was a problem.  So, I ate loads of fruit for breakfast - apples, bananas, oranges.  While I realize I was seriously lacking in protein in the morning, this was for a fairly short period of time, and I just dealt with it.

Lunch - ok so sandwiches are huge in Argentina.  Again, this is a problem.  While gluten-free isn't new here, there really aren't too many options.  My typical lunch was anything from rice to arabian food to a quarter of a chicken to mongolian BBQ.  So, there are choices, but you have to be aware of what ingredients go into the food your eating.  This is where your pro-active research needs to come into play.

Dinner - Fortunately, the people I stayed with in Buenos Aires were amazing and worked around all my annoying allergies.  Vegetable soup was a staple in our house.  STEAK!  The steak is world-renown in Argentina and for good reason.  I NEVER got one that was over or under cooked.  It was always perfectly medium rare.  Yum.

Dessert - You need to be very creative with dessert.  In households the typical dessert is fruit, which I love.  The first night I was there we had a whole baked apple and it was fantastic.  When you go out it is pies and pastries and cake, but there usually is a fruit dish available for dessert. 

HOWEVER, while traveling in El Tigre (the delta in Buenos Aires) we happened upon this charming German restaurant (only accessible by boat taxi).  There was this dessert listed and I had no idea what it meant in Spanish or German for that manner.  So, we asked and it's whipped egg & champagne.  I had never heard of such a thing and it was... AMAZING.  For the record it's called:  Sabayon.  I looked for this dessert over and over and only found it in a couple places throughout Argentina.



One last note:  BE WARY OF STREET FOOD!  Street food is amazing!! MOST OF THE TIME!  Try everything and have fun, just be very careful and probably carry some pro-biotics with you.