The Reluctant Raw Foodist

I am very lucky if I find anything at all to eat when out, other than greens. I tend to make a mixture of what there is on offer. I have been known to sit in a restaurant just drinking water (no salad and no plain cooked food on menu or out back) while my friends ate their food. This sounds a bit dramatic  but I do tend to react quite violently to the wrong food so it is not really worth it to me. If I know there will be nothing to eat then I eat something before going out if I can. Long days, especially unexpected ones, away from home can be a problem and I have to find some fruit or something. 

Recently I went with The Biogenic Amine Woman to Ottolenghi’s  on Ledbury road, Notting Hill, London and I ate some soup and some broccoli salad (both cooked)  without much reaction but I don’t know about any other food there. I just happened to find it on the menu and I asked a lot of questions.

I do occasionally now eat at The Wild Food Cafe in Neal’s Yard Covent Garden blog here .  I can have a green juice there and I do sample some of their food especially the raw stuff. I find them particularly helpful and therefore worth a very positive mention on this blog as they will try to adapt some of their dishes for me, which is very kind of them.  

I used to go to Inspiral in Camden High Street, London but sadly they make a lot of their raw food from cashews (high histamine) and I cannot eat cashews. I think they have become quite commercial now. 

I do find that some restaurants do add things without remembering the ingredients. I have to be sure there really is no yeast, no stock cubes etc as I can react to these. 

In an italian restaurant I might try a plain pasta with some fresh lemon juice. I did ask for a little tomato sauce in one restaurant recently but I reacted almost immediately. I spent the next 20 minutes or so doubled over in pain in the toilet. I will leave the rest to your imagination. I was driving my car that evening and I found it very difficult to get home as I felt so ill. 

 My friend works there as a waiter and he went to investigate and then told me that the sauce was made from boiled up meat bone stock kept for some days on the stove and added to every night and put in the fridge when the place was closed (histamine alert)  - so really they should not have described the meal as vegan! 

I am really very limited in what I can eat out as most fast food cafes serve bread with everything (yeast so histamine, bloating sickness etc) and most restaurants well, you can see from my last paragraph I need to be able to trust them to make me something and they are often less willing if very busy of course.

So with all this in mind. I tend to focus on enjoying the company of the people I meet with rather than the food. x