Post by kickingfrog on Feb 16, 2011 12:12:26 GMT
(Air France and )China
Posted by Carolyn on 8/9/2006
GF board
I’ve just come back from china, and thought I’d report back on all things GF.
Air France:
On the way there were appalling, way back ok…..
On the long haul to china I was given 2 breakfasts – a bit confusing seeing as we flew out at lunchtime. 1st meal – had an omlette and mushrooms which were ok, but the rest of the meal was still frozen – fruit, yogurt and water! They refused to heat it up to defrost, or give me fresh water! And 2nd meal was chicken and peppers (supposed to be a breakfast….), with mushy almost defrosted fruit and partially frozen water. By this point I’d given up and was eating the biscuits I’d brought with me.
The way back was ok, and everything was the temperature you’d expect, and this time I got 2 lunches. Only gripe I could really make was it was airplane food!
Had 2 short trips to Paris, and was given gluten containing crisps on the way there, and a sandwich on the way back – which were doled out to people sat near me.
China:
Not the best place to go if GF!! I was on a conference, so mainly had buffets when out there. The Chinese didn’t understand what gluten was however, and so I lived mainly on rice and sweetcorn. I ‘employed’ one of my friends as a taste tester for ‘ok’ looking things to see if they could detect any soy sauce or any other flavouring, and gave those things a try sometimes eg. Meats not in a sauce. Went on a tour after the conference and so was eating in restaurants, the people not understanding gluten still – I stuck to the rice diet. But I was caught out once by some potatoes and was quite ill – typically the day before we were climbing up a mountain!
So my advice – if you go – take the cards as they seemed to help a bit….., but we were always given something battered and something in a soy sauce looking sauce. Be very careful, and I hope you like rice!! Which I am not eating for at least 3 months now.
**********************
Posted by carolyn on 1/12/2006, 22:11:39, in reply to "moving to Shanghai"
GF board
I went to china for 2 weeks in the summer, to Wuhan and Xian. I found it ok, a 100 times better tahn I expected, and had only 1 gluten incident. I was there for a conference for the 1st week, and that food was all buffet style, which was tricky but I managed with no accidents!
We went out to restaurants a couple of times. I took a translation card with me that I found on www.celiactravel.com/restaurant-cards.html
I gave that to the waitress upon arrival, and it did cause a bit of commotion! They seemed to understand it, after being read by every person in the place. When they realized we spoke not a word of Chinese they brought loads of different dishes out for us of their choice (8 huge dishes for 4 of us). I decided to trust them, and had no problems these times with being glutoned. And it cost only £1.20 a head. Fantastic!!!!! However, one day we were given a plate of something battered that I didn’t eat as didn’t trust it would be ok.
We went on a tour after the conference, and were provided food at different restaurants every day. I explained to the tour guide, and I did manage. I found that if I avoided anything in a brown sauce I was ok! If in doubt stick to rice.
I was glutoned one day however, and it turns out it was from some sugar coated potatoes. These were the BEST potatoes I had ever tasted at the time, however several hours later they defiantly were not! I found out the next day that they had been coated in wheat before being cooked. So, if you come into contact with anything like that avoid at all costs!
I found their understanding of gluten to be very poor, but everyone I came into contact with was incredibly helpful and couldn’t do enough for you.
As for alcohol – their main drink of choice is beer. Could see no cider and very few places had spirits. If you ask for white wine they may give you rice wine, which I personally didn’t like in a large glass, paint stripper came to mind! The cocktails were nice in my hotel, and we found red wine one night. When you go into a supermarket you’ll see that there’s a huge selection of water. Try them all – I found most were horrid so takes a few attempts. I think I found the best was from the coca cola company.
So basically – stick to rice as the main part of your diet, you will get sick of it after a while though – breakfast, lunch and tea was a bit much. So ... i hope you like it!
Have a fantastic time.
I hope I haven’t scared you, as you will be fine. And if you are there for a while you will adapt and cope with it very well.
....Hope the flight goes well, think that was the hardest part of all!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by Carolyn on 8/9/2006
GF board
I’ve just come back from china, and thought I’d report back on all things GF.
Air France:
On the way there were appalling, way back ok…..
On the long haul to china I was given 2 breakfasts – a bit confusing seeing as we flew out at lunchtime. 1st meal – had an omlette and mushrooms which were ok, but the rest of the meal was still frozen – fruit, yogurt and water! They refused to heat it up to defrost, or give me fresh water! And 2nd meal was chicken and peppers (supposed to be a breakfast….), with mushy almost defrosted fruit and partially frozen water. By this point I’d given up and was eating the biscuits I’d brought with me.
The way back was ok, and everything was the temperature you’d expect, and this time I got 2 lunches. Only gripe I could really make was it was airplane food!
Had 2 short trips to Paris, and was given gluten containing crisps on the way there, and a sandwich on the way back – which were doled out to people sat near me.
China:
Not the best place to go if GF!! I was on a conference, so mainly had buffets when out there. The Chinese didn’t understand what gluten was however, and so I lived mainly on rice and sweetcorn. I ‘employed’ one of my friends as a taste tester for ‘ok’ looking things to see if they could detect any soy sauce or any other flavouring, and gave those things a try sometimes eg. Meats not in a sauce. Went on a tour after the conference and so was eating in restaurants, the people not understanding gluten still – I stuck to the rice diet. But I was caught out once by some potatoes and was quite ill – typically the day before we were climbing up a mountain!
So my advice – if you go – take the cards as they seemed to help a bit….., but we were always given something battered and something in a soy sauce looking sauce. Be very careful, and I hope you like rice!! Which I am not eating for at least 3 months now.
**********************
Posted by carolyn on 1/12/2006, 22:11:39, in reply to "moving to Shanghai"
GF board
I went to china for 2 weeks in the summer, to Wuhan and Xian. I found it ok, a 100 times better tahn I expected, and had only 1 gluten incident. I was there for a conference for the 1st week, and that food was all buffet style, which was tricky but I managed with no accidents!
We went out to restaurants a couple of times. I took a translation card with me that I found on www.celiactravel.com/restaurant-cards.html
I gave that to the waitress upon arrival, and it did cause a bit of commotion! They seemed to understand it, after being read by every person in the place. When they realized we spoke not a word of Chinese they brought loads of different dishes out for us of their choice (8 huge dishes for 4 of us). I decided to trust them, and had no problems these times with being glutoned. And it cost only £1.20 a head. Fantastic!!!!! However, one day we were given a plate of something battered that I didn’t eat as didn’t trust it would be ok.
We went on a tour after the conference, and were provided food at different restaurants every day. I explained to the tour guide, and I did manage. I found that if I avoided anything in a brown sauce I was ok! If in doubt stick to rice.
I was glutoned one day however, and it turns out it was from some sugar coated potatoes. These were the BEST potatoes I had ever tasted at the time, however several hours later they defiantly were not! I found out the next day that they had been coated in wheat before being cooked. So, if you come into contact with anything like that avoid at all costs!
I found their understanding of gluten to be very poor, but everyone I came into contact with was incredibly helpful and couldn’t do enough for you.
As for alcohol – their main drink of choice is beer. Could see no cider and very few places had spirits. If you ask for white wine they may give you rice wine, which I personally didn’t like in a large glass, paint stripper came to mind! The cocktails were nice in my hotel, and we found red wine one night. When you go into a supermarket you’ll see that there’s a huge selection of water. Try them all – I found most were horrid so takes a few attempts. I think I found the best was from the coca cola company.
So basically – stick to rice as the main part of your diet, you will get sick of it after a while though – breakfast, lunch and tea was a bit much. So ... i hope you like it!
Have a fantastic time.
I hope I haven’t scared you, as you will be fine. And if you are there for a while you will adapt and cope with it very well.
....Hope the flight goes well, think that was the hardest part of all!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------