Holiday BBQers! What's on the menu?

[MongGrel]

Decided to do one on each of em, and eat a few other things.

 

[KeithTalent]

Nice, have not had a barbecued hot dog in ages! Could certainly go for one.

KT

 

[Sho'Nuff]

There needs to be a unwritten social rule that states that if you're allergic to goddamn everything, you need to bring your own food to events.

I also refuse to believe there are people in this world that are allergic to all goddamn spices and gluten and whatever chemical they can make up that they're allegic to simultaneously.

Because at that point, I'm more convinced they have Lupus than an allergy.

I tend to agree with your first point. If a kid is sensitive to so many things it should be the parent's responsibility to provide the child's food. Moreover they should not impose the same dietary restrictions on everyone who happens to be in the vicinity of the child just to make the child feel "normal."

Unfortunately the mother of this particular child is a pseudo-hippie that feels like everyone should bend over backwards to make sure her children are in the forefront of everything. Never in my life have I seen children dominate a household like our guest's children did. Anytime one of the little shits did not get exactly what he wanted he would start whining horribly, after which mommy would come over a soothe him for a half hour. To his credit the dad wanted to teach his children some sense, but his wife thwarted him whenever he took action. Basically she undermined his authority over his children at every instance. If my wife ever did that to me there would be an argument of epic proportions. But the dad simply took it.

I'm not sure what aspect of that family irritated me more over the weekend. The whining bitchy kids. The granola helicopter mom. Or the dad who was too much of a wuss to stand up to any of it. Made me sick. Also made me sad because I realized that I would probably never invite the dad (who is an old friend) to visit with us ever again. At least not willingly.

As to your second point - the child in question is legitimately allergic to a lot of foods. Dairy, eggs, gluten etc. give him very angry plaque psoriasis. Giving him eggs will produce psoriasis that is so bad he will end up in the hospital if an epi pen is not administered. I feel bad for the little guy. But his parents are ridiculous.

 

[dabuddha]

Only did spare ribs and smoked wings this year. After smoking, I deep fried the wings to give them a nice crunch

 

[Kaido]

There needs to be a unwritten social rule that states that if you're allergic to everything, you need to bring your own food to events.

As a person with severe food allergies, people who act entitled like this (expecting others to meet their special needs with no advanced notice) annoy me to no end. The root of it is a lack of personal responsibility; these people expect the world to cater to them. I've worked in the food industry & have no illusions about what goes on behind the scenes. Unless the restaurant is specifically advertising allergen-friendly dishes, you have no guarantee that the food will be safe, therefore it is your own fault if you willingly ingest food that you haven't personally verified is safe. Technically sure, a restaurant should cater to your needs, but if it's something that is going to literally make you sick if you eat it, that's not something that should really fall under their jurisdiction since it's a busy production environment, not a sealed-off cleanroom where they carefully ensure that allergens don't get into the food like in a food manufacturing plant for processed items.

That's not to say that companies aren't stupid, either. Dominoes Pizza got in a heap of trouble with the Celiac community when they released their gluten-free pizza crust...sure, technically the crust is gluten-free, but it's prepared on shared tables, cooked in shared ovens, cut with shared utensils, so there's lots of cross-contamination. I have a friend who ends up in the hospital if she eats anything with gluten, so that's a pretty rotten thing of Dominoes to do - advertise that they have a gluten-free product that isn't really gluten-free by the time it gets to your plate.

So it's a buyer beware world out there for people with food allergies. The name of the game is be courteous & come prepared. There are a very limited number of local restaurants that can deal with my food allergies and I usually build up a relationship with their workers, like my local sushi restaurant knows to always use gluten-free soy sauce, no crunchies (wheat), etc. And if you're going to show up somewhere, bring your own food if you don't know if it's going to be safe ahead of time. Common sense. Not so common haha.

 

[slag]

In my son's school, they asked the kids to stop bringing PB&J sandwiches to eat at lunch because one of the kids had a peanut allergy and the kid would eat the sandwiches, even with his allergy because he loved the taste, and to stop that, they asked everyone to stop letting their kids bring PB&J so the kid wouldnt get ahold of them (I think he would go through lunchbags or trade for them or something).

Absolutely the wrong way to combat this. PB&J sandwiches are a staple food of kids in his age range. I was livid with their "solution" to the problem. That was a couple years ago and kids can now bring pb&j to school again. I hate it when we are forced to change what we do because of someone else's problem.

 

[Kaido]

In my son's school, they asked the kids to stop bringing PB&J sandwiches to eat at lunch because one of the kids had a peanut allergy and the kid would eat the sandwiches, even with his allergy because he loved the taste, and to stop that, they asked everyone to stop letting their kids bring PB&J so the kid wouldnt get ahold of them (I think he would go through lunchbags or trade for them or something).

Absolutely the wrong way to combat this. PB&J sandwiches are a staple food of kids in his age range. I was livid with their "solution" to the problem. That was a couple years ago and kids can now bring pb&j to school again. I hate it when we are forced to change what we do because of someone else's problem.

I'm on the fence about stuff like this. My knee-jerk reaction is "that's the dumbest decision I've ever heard of" - making everyone miss out on PB because of one kid. On the flip side, imagine you're the parent - are you going to risk sending your kid to a school where he could literally die because some other kid brought in an allergen? What are you going to do, lock him in a bubble at home & not go to work in order to babysit him all day? That's not realistic.

One grade school in my area has an allergy table where kids are sectioned off if they have allergies, so there's no cross-contact from friends. It blows if you're the kid cutoff from his friends at lunchtime, but at least you get a pretty balanced result - other kids can still bring PB&J's in if they want to. I think that makes more sense - you have to learn how to live in a world that isn't catered to you, might as well start young!