Indian Meals and Nut Allergies

My girlfriend has a nut allergy and we go for curries, I would only take her to very decent places though because of that, not some of these cheaper curry houses, she just stresses her nut allergy when ordering and it's been fine so far. They should be able to accomodate you, however some places are less accomodating than others. She carries epipen at all times.

Las Iguanas in Nottingham really ****ed us around, she ordered a burger and they would only give her the actual meat and nothing else, it took us ages to get her something she could have, even though the menu didnt say these included nuts, where as other items on the menu did.

Remember you don't have to have a curry you can have a sizzler or similar. Don't listen to these people saying you have no chance because they're wong. At the end of the day though don't risk it if you are not 100% confident, there are still very few places I'll take her and she definately won't eat takeaways.
 
Don't eat, just have 10 big bottles of cobra instead.
To be honest I am a freak for curry, I love it, i'd risk it. I've eaten curry every day for weeks before, it's so good!

Oh god I want a curry now, time to find an open curryhouse :D
 
There are always risks, if you're talking about the 'may contain traces' disclaimers. Paying heed to that every time you eat would mean you could only eat about three different ingredients!

However indian restaurants are obliged to know what is in their ingredients list, and as long as nuts or nut oil are not on the ingredients list for a given meal on the menu, then I eat, and I've never ever had a problem eating in Indian restaurants using these tactics.

Occasionally I've been unlucky and eaten Yorkie bars with traces of peanuts or cornflakes with a flake of crunchy nut in them but as I said, I have to live my life and take that chance.
 
I couldn't bear to have allergies - it'd seriously suck. Do you reckon it's mother nature trying to tell you something? ;)

I am of course only jesting. Hope that you're able to enjoy the meeting - maybe just have some popadums or steak or non indian cooking?
 
Freefaller said:
I couldn't bear to have allergies - it'd seriously suck. Do you reckon it's mother nature trying to tell you something? ;)

I am of course only jesting. Hope that you're able to enjoy the meeting - maybe just have some popadums or steak or non indian cooking?
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What was mother nature trying to tell you when she took all your hair away? :D Genetic deficiencies suck :(.
 
My ex-girlfriend has a severe nut and fish allergy. We we're at a family meal once and she had a severe reaction off chicken that had been cooked in peanut oil. It was a buffet style service and was supposedly all nut free. I didn't realise how serious allergies are until I saw this. It's better to be safe than sorry, so don't risk trying something your not 100% sure is safe for you.

Having any form of food allergy really does suck!
 
As has been said, you pretty much cant guarantee that any food is free from traces of nuts. And some people are so allergic to it, its safer not to give any guarantees of it being nut free just in case. There is a reaction, then "you said it was nut free" etc etc. See you in court.

We pack down frozen fish, and we've been advised to put "may contain nuts" on the label, just in case.
 
I'm allergic to nuts, and have made an interesting discovery during some reading up - groundnut oil used in cooking isn't a problem. The high temperatures kills the allergens (or whatever triggers allergies) during cooking. I've never put it to the test myself when cooking at home, but I've stopped worrying when eating out.

Most curries I'd imagine would be OK - I tend to leave the almonds in a Tikka Masala as I don't like the nutty texture anyway, but never have any issues.

I actually went out for a Mexican last night, and ordered the only dish on their main menu that didn't include nuts explicitly in the description, and I was fine.

That said - it all depends how sensitive and severe your allergy is, I'm fully aware that some people can't be on the same aeroplane as someone munching some nuts without a reaction.
 
timbob said:
I'm allergic to nuts, and have made an interesting discovery during some reading up - groundnut oil used in cooking isn't a problem. The high temperatures kills the allergens (or whatever triggers allergies) during cooking. I've never put it to the test myself when cooking at home, but I've stopped worrying when eating out.
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Denaturing antigens eh?


Sounds like a brilliant experiment for my Biology coursework next year.

"Determine and Describe the effect of temperature on nut allergy antigens specifically within delicious curries"



Man they would be the tastiest marks I'll ever get.
 
I have severe allergy to nuts too, I've gone into anaphylactic shock from sitting next to someone eating nuts and kissing my gf 20 minutes after she'd eaten a dish that she didn't even know had nuts in.

Despite this I still manage to regularly eat curries. Partly through being sensible and learning about the dishes and partly through sheer boredom of bland food. I had never had a curry or chinese or any asian food until I was around 21, at which point i basicly got fed up and risked it whilst being as careful as possible.

My advice:

- Go to reputable restaurants with helpful staff who understand English fluently. I've lost count of the number of waiters who don't understand when I ask them if the dish contains nuts and just say "no"

- With Indian food choose the hotter dishes, nuts are generally only used in milder dishes like kormas and massalas.

- Learn which dishes typically do and don't have nuts on

- If you order naan make sure they don't stack all the nan breads together as I've had my garlic naan sitting on top of a peshwari naan before

Also as timbob says it is likely you aren't allergic to ground nut oil. I found out I'm not after eating some fish and chips from a chip shop, returned the next day for more and read a sign stating they cook everything in ground nut oil. DIdn't know the explanation though till timbob posted.

And of course don't do what i've often done and forget your epi-pen.
 
All this talk of nut allergies made me dig my epi pen out earlier. It's in my rucksack which, although I rarely carry it everywhere with me, usually lives in my car, which is usually wherever I am.

It's 3 years out of date. Oops!
 
Loads of people seem to have an allergy to nuts now, it seems to have exploded over the last 5 years or so, im sure 10 years ago i rarely ever heard of it? What happended, did food just start containing more nuts and more people realised they had it? Seems odd.
 
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