Jane Galt is mischievous:
Not thirty minutes later, in the Japanese restaurant, I confirmed this opinion by unblushingly informing the waiter that I am allergic to seaweed, and asking them to make the rolls without it. Now, in fact, I am not allergic to seaweed; I just hate the taste of it. But “allergic” produces more willingness to help me out by making the rolls without seaweed than “I hate one of the major components of your national cuisine, please cater to my philistine tastes”. I have used this line with great success in many other restaurants.
I hate hate hate tomatoes, but I try not to special order things even in fast food restaurants because having worked in one I know that it messes their juju. Besides, it’s easier for me to take my own tomato off. But removing sliced and diced tomatoes is a lot more difficult. So when I’m eating somewhere with sliced and diced tomatoes but an unmotivated staff (Taco Bell comes to mind) I have been known to pull the “allergic” card. I think it makes them slightly more attentive and also makes it so that I don’t have to say “no tomatoes” on each thing I’m ordering or if I forget they won’t.
The misspelling in the title is an ode to my younger self who couldn’t understand how allergic could be spelled any other way.
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2 Responses to No, Please, I’m Illurgic
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I have both a “food intolerance” and a “food allergy” to the fruits of anything in the nightshade family; bell peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, etc. The specific compound is something destroyed in heavy food processing (I can eat pizza and ketchup and campbell’s tomato soup for example, but the peppers and tomato in a lot of other “soups” and items just don’t work).
The difference between an “intolerance” is given in some detail here, and there is some overlap as well (both can cause nausea as one example).
I don’t think any less of anyone who pulls the ‘allergy’ card, but it’s helpful for people to know what sort of problem a food is giving them. People who say “onions give me gas”, for instance, may actually have problems digesting the onions!
While I rarely make special food requests, I always will ask for “no pickle” fast-food hamburgers and other sandwiches. I loathe pickles with a passion difficult to convey in words, and just taking the pickle off a burger isn’t enough as the taste permeates everything.