On a recent night, we took our son and daughter out to dinner in Washington, D.C., where they both worked this summer. We let them bring along some friends, and we all settled at a table in an Italian restaurant my daughter had chosen.
It was a small place, and the waiter, an older Italian gentleman, was busy. His English wasn’t great. We took a few minutes perusing the menu, which was your standard fare. I ordered the eggplant parmesan, my husband ordered chicken parm, my son a pizza, and daughter something called Pasta Jambalaya.
Comments
Hi Bella,
I read & re-read your recent article "With Food Allergies on the rise,
dining out is a puzzle".
It seemed to be "flavored" with barbs at individuals who suffer with
food allergies, even those with life threatening ones.
My youngest son has food allergies. He was born with them, the most
life threatening being peanuts, but he's also allergic to milk & eggs
and some fish. What has this meant to him? He has to be very careful
where he goes as well as where he eats. He is 19 years of age and just
recently I took him to a Red Sox game that featured a peanut-free
section. With the amount of peanuts and peanut shells all over, if it
weren't for the four special days a year at the ballpark he would have
never been able to see a live game at Fenway- Now there's a story- a
professional baseball team that cares enough to offer that type of
seating four games a season so that fans with peanut allergies can
take in a live game at Fenway Park!
Over the course of my son's life he has had to be overly cautious and
he has missed many social activities. Food allergies are a serious
disability and not the mere inconvenience to others that you seem to
think. I constantly warn him that if he kisses a girl who has eaten
peanuts or peanut products, he could die. It has happened. My son
carries an EpiPen and two Benadryl tablets everywhere he goes.
When the food allergy individual in your article announces to his
friends who bent over backwards to find a cake he can eat, that he
doesn't like chocolate, your commentary/conclusion is that YOU only
have one allergy: "people like that". You mock the individuals who run
restaurants and have concern for their patrons "Does anyone remember
the days when you'd go into a restaurant and the only choice you had
to make was well done, medium, or rare? Scrambled or over-easy?"
I never expected that was going to be your article's conclusion, that
you're allergic to "people like that". It was a very insensitive
article and it appears that you believe the food allergy disabilities
affecting others are an inconvenience in your life, puts a crimp in
your dining pleasure. What's next? Writing an article about
handicapped parking spots and recalling the good old days? "Remember
when you could just pull in to the closest parking spot and there
weren't all these handicapped spaces?"
Oh my son with the food allergies? He doesn't like chocolate-