Treasure Maps

As part of our travel plans, I have several maps. I marked on them with circles places to visit, where we had day trips and brought our own food then with an X I have marked allergy friendly places to eat. These became our treasure maps. Next year, if we go again to these places the maps will have to be cleared again.
Allergy safer restaurants where harder to find, then mark on my maps. I asked questions, read over restaurant websites, and ask cooks and staff about cross contamination. One cook over the phone said “he would make my pizza in a separate pan if you want me to.” His tone suggested that he didn’t really understand allergies.

Another pizza shop was very open about how they always kept their utensils and cooking equipment separate. They deal with allergies all the time and have a table they keep milk free.

Websites are also are good way to see how truly allergy aware a restaurant or bakeshop is. I have seen wheat milk or nut free, on a web site, and then on another page, they sell products with said allergens. On the same websites, information about cross contamination, that was not all that reassuring, if not dangerous. I looked for terms like dedicated facility or lines to determine if I trust a product.

We traveled, with a lot of planning, and my treasure maps. We are generally willing to drive about twenty minutes out of our way, for a dairy free bakeshop, or a super allergy friendly restaurant.