What's this all about then, eh? Starting a Food Allergy blog

Photo clearly not taken at this time of year in Sydney. Phew!

          

Hello! So my name's Jel and after over 36-odd years of managing food allergies whilst living in Sydney and after years of trying, testing, trawling through sites, blogs, videos and all else on the internet, it’s pretty safe to say that I’m not alone in my neverending quest to find safe things to eat.

There are so many of us out there who have spent our lives navigating ways to eat out with as little complication as possible and for many of us, that meant a lot of awkward conversations and explanations with people and wait staff about what you could and couldn't eat and then often having to deal with very visible exasperation and confusion. Of course, some were kind and did try, but ultimately, after enough years of embarrassment and anxiety, it became much simpler to just stop trying which then meant restrictions on the types of places you could go with friends and family, effectively limiting their options as well.

Or it meant eating the same thing over and over because it was as safe and exciting as you could get while still getting to go out with people. In my experience, that was being Steak-and-Chips or Bowl-of-Rice-before-detour-to-Maccas Girl for years. And even Maccas, whose Junior Burger had served me well and safely since I was little, sent me to the hospital once because someone wrapped a Cheeseburger in the wrong wrapping.

And, of course, it definitely meant no dessert, unless you could get some jelly or a bowl of fruit or something similar. Hurrah for the bowl of strawberries dusted in icing sugar at City Extra that used to be my closest dessert option for ages. This certainly explains why I'm so obsessed with desserts now!

It's only been in the last decade or so that things have felt like they have really turned around. Depending on how long you’ve been in the food allergy game, options have mostly grown as the world has opened itself up to more alternatives. Honestly, it is one of the best times to be alive and eating with food allergies thanks to growing allergy awareness and our good friend, the Internet.

When I was younger, without the internet, it wasn't so easy to just look up allergy-friendly recipes so the idea of alternatives weren't much of a thing outside of specialty books, which I, and many others, would never have seen. There wasn't a great deal of understanding out there about it either. I simply learned what to avoid as carefully as possible and went on my merry way, very occasionally treating myself to a home made anzac biscuit without any egg, or some banana cake without milk or some butter-less shortbread. The notion of further alternatives just weren't really a thing.

Things were pretty much running this way till about 2006, when a kind family friend gave me some dairy-free chocolate Easter eggs. The concept of dairy-free chocolate had simply never occurred to me before and that incidentally led to my brother remembering that his friend ate Oreos because they have no milk in them. I was blown away. Not since my friend Ange's legendary butter-less shortbread idea back in 1998 had I really considered any foods like this. Hell, they'd practically been erased from my mind as options.

From there, the concept of broader alternatives really began to dawn on me and it's here I have to give extra props to the chef at the QI for hearing my allergy list one day about a year later and suggesting the 'vegan menu'. My world expanded a hundredfold that day and gave my experimental baker friends something to work with!

Since then I've been pretty amazed to find myself getting to try and eat foods I'd never imagined before and the journey continues on! First evers are amazing. In the last year alone, I've had my first ever scones, my first ever hot jam doughnut (see attractive portrait below) and my first ever pain au chocolat. I'm still not quite sure whose life this is, but I'm loving it!

This is me, eating my first ever hot jam doughnut, in 2018.

I can imagine that a lot of other people were perhaps far more alternative-savvy than I was growing up and didn't wait till they were 23 before getting to taste chocolate for the first time! Especially now, there are an abundance of blogs and sites that provide great recipes and alternatives for allergy sufferers and I'd really love to put together a one stop shop of links for people to check out because some of these sites are incredible and really tackle a lot of the difficulties I mentioned above.

But for those people (or people who know or care for people) who still get worried when someone suggests a place they've never tried before; or for those who just haven't the entrenched desire to learn how to bake anything more complicated than some bikkies and cake; or anyone who would like to be able to just head out for some brunch or a nice dinner out without having to face the anxiety of it all, I want to put up info on places here in Sydney (and further afield!) that have some genuinely delicious allergy friendly options, sometimes in places you wouldn't suspect.

To start, I'll be putting up places I know well so the information is more reliable but I do want to test out as many places in Sydney as I can (afford, ha) so that the list is as extensive and useful for as many people as possible. If anyone has any further suggestions, they are more than welcome!

Considering how unique everyone's situation is, I think that it's safest to point out that anyone thinking of trying out anything new should do so fully aware of their health and the severity of their allergies and conditions and with full guidance from your GP and specialists. As a lot of the places I mention will have been safe for me, I'm linking my full allergy profile in case that helps. By the way, if anyone wants to talk any of the conditions listed, feel free to get in touch!

For now, cheers to anyone reading this - every time I find something new to eat, I get a bit nutty with joy and if even one person finds something on here that makes them get to experience that, it would be awesome!

Happy Allergy Eating!