Greetings from Chattanooga

[quote]Originally posted by NaomiR: Chattanooga
Hi, Naomi! What a small world, eh? I am actually leaving Chattanooga to move home to Huntsville, AL at the end of January. As far as restaurants locally: I am extremely careful when I eat out, and, unfortunately, eating at restaurants is very difficult due to the fact wait staff as well as managers generally are highly misinformed and uneducated on the subject. Desserts are the worst, as many pies, etc. (cheesecakes especially) will contain crushed pecans/almonds/nuts/peanuts in the crust that are not listed. Big River Grille is very good about telling you how everything is prepared (he could at least get the grilled cheese, very good!). Applebee's is out: marinates all steaks, etc. in soy sauce for 3 days, too risky that proteins will not be eliminated during cooking. Cracker Barrel is perfectly OK (can't go wrong with butter or lard, I suppose) and their catfish is fried in soybean oil. The desserts, however, are off limits. Management informed me (amazingly enough -- they were educated on legume allergies!) that nuts are in desserts that are unlisted and it would probably be too risky, which I already knew. This is actually a really long conversation for a post. Why don't you give me a call at my office and we can discuss restaurants and any other questions you may have about living with PA. (That way I won't take up so much room on the board). I work for Senator Ward Crutchfield (I'm a Paralegal and Computer Systems Engineer), and you can reach me at 756-6700.

Hi, Tina! I guess living with the peanut allergy, as far as the dietary restrictions, for me is like being born deaf: you cannot miss what you have never experienced. I have never known the luxury of being able to eat anything set before me, therefore, it is normal for me to be unable to do so. Living with it is not very difficult. My friends were always helpful. Of course, now that they are married with children, they STILL read the ingredients to everything although none of them are PA, which they completely blame on me (they said they would be much happier living in oblivion of what they are actually consuming). As a small child, I lived in Morristown, TN and everyone there thought it was a big joke. It was really a matter of being careful, and knowing which adults' judgment to trust (which ended up being no one's -- I wanted to read the ingredients for myself). Thanks for your posting. We should all get together!!