Visiting 40 Countries With Multiple Life-Threatening Food Allergies

“Give me a peanut and I’ll turn blue, I can’t even eat the things you do” — Mika

What death looks like to some

Introduction

To all six of you who follow my blog posts, you may have noticed I mention my “allergies” quite a lot in these country reports. “Then there was this food, but due to my allergies I didn’t dare eat it” has been a common report in some of these countries, particularly ones in Southeast Asia and Africa. I may have hammered in the point that I cannot eat Southeast Asian food, at all. However, throughout my travels, there have been a few places where I did partake in the culinary adventure. Including one time in the dreaded Southeast Asia.

Food allergies are a fucking pain in the arse. Nobody can understand what it’s like having multiple of these. They are absolutely no joke. While they have led to a lifetime of being left out from eating cake in birthday parties and perpetual disappointment when my best friend gets me something I can’t eat because they “forgot I was allergic”, these are minor inconveniences compared to what would happen should I accidentally eat the problem foods.

So, what gives? What am I allergic to, and how have I managed to stay (relatively) safe in so many countries when eating is essentially Russian Roulette for me?

Explaining my Allergies

In short, I am allergic to Fish, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, and Soymilk. What does this mean, exactly? Well, I’ll go through each allergy individually and discuss the ramifications of this.

Peanuts

I have had this allergy all my life. I am deathly allergic. If my food even has a trace of peanut, I will react. Severely. I could potentially have an anaphylactic shock, which is essentially when I swell up and stop breathing. It is considered a grade 1 medical emergency in the UK. That is the highest grade. Even a literal heart attack is grade 2. Death could happen in 15 minutes should this type of reaction occur. However, my history (so far) has typically included being violently sick rather than puffing up. Allergic reactions are unpredictable. They can be mild one time, then deadly the next, then mild the next next. So it’s best I just do not have a trace of peanut in any of my food, ever.

What this means is that most American snacks are off-limits (they often contain peanut butter), a lot of Asian food, particularly Malaysian and Indonesian food with their love of satay sauce, and a lot of African food where peanuts in spice blends are common.

Tree Nuts

These include almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, pistachios, cashews, and macadamia nuts. These do NOT include coconut, nutmeg, pine nuts, or chestnuts. Although some tests and trials I’ve done have indicated a partial tolerance to some of these nuts, I just avoid all of them. The worst I’ve had from eating Tree Nuts is terrible diarrhoea. Tree Nuts are encountered less commonly than peanuts, but can still crop up in confectionary and desserts.

Soy

90% of people with soy allergy outgrow their allergy. I was in the 10% that didn’t. Lucky me. Now this one’s a bit bizarre, because I am only allergic to some forms of soy. Soy lecithin and soy flour seem to be fine. Soy sauce is an unknown. But more concentrated forms, such as tofu, miso, tempeh, soy paste, and in particular, soymilk, cause problems. Although I had this allergy all my life, it took me till age 21 to realise I had it. Many reactions I assumed were caused by nuts were actually caused by soymilk, a link I made in retrospect after being hospitalised by a vegan yoghurt. This allergy is perhaps slightly less serious in that I am unlikely to die from it, but it’s still highly unpleasant. The initial symptoms of a soy reaction are identical to those of a more serious allergen.

Alas, the rise of veganism has made soymilk far more common in Western cultures. But obviously, having a Soy allergy which potentially includes Soy sauce essentially KO’s just about every Asian cuisine ever.

Fish

Now we reach what is the most frustrating and most destructive of all my food allergies. Fucking fish. The most insane thing about this allergy is that I suddenly developed it out of nowhere in everyone’s favourite year, 2020. After 23 years of eating fish regularly — sometimes daily — I suddenly had a mahoosive allergic reaction after eating kippers for dinner. For the context of this blog, it means I could eat fish for my first 19 countries, but not after that. I am NOT allergic to seafood such as shellfish, prawns, lobsters, squid, clams, or oysters. But I am allergic to tuna, salmon, anchovy, haddock, hake, cod… basically if it has fins I’m allergic.

This allergy has been extremely limiting, especially when thrown on top of all my other allergies. Fish is a staple food all over the world. It crops up everywhere, including in places you’d never expect. I can kiss Japanese cuisine goodbye. Thai and Vietnamese food is absolutely off the menu, since almost all of it contains fish sauce. Fish is extremely important in Africa. I mean need I say more, it’s fish. It’s fucking everywhere! If you want to know just how limiting this allergy is, I can’t even have fries if they’ve been fried in the same oil fish was fried in! If there has been any fish in the kitchen, it’s likely contaminated everything. My other allergies were manageable, but this one has destroyed my chances of eating so many cuisines.

Fish is one of the most potent allergens known. It takes a milligram to trigger a potentially life-threatening reaction. And once sensitised, the allergy is lifelong. Whoop-de-motherfucking-do.

But despite possessing what I can only describe as the allergy curse, I have still visited 40 countries without incident. Some of these were even in Southeast Asia. So, how did I do it?

How Did I Survive 40 Countries With the Allergy Curse?

Because I have mostly travelled by cruising. That’s the short answer. When you travel by ship, you get three meals a day, and a buffet that’s open most hours of the day. There is absolutely no shortage of food from the ship that I can have. Over the years, I have found a variety of ways to tactically time meals. Sometimes, that is not possible, in which case I’ve had to take food off the ship. But some countries ban food taken off the ship. So yes, there have been a few cases where I had to not eat at all. But that doesn’t matter on a cruise ship. You’re in most places for at most a few hours anyway, so it essentially amounts to a skipped meal. I can stuff my face with all I can eat once I’m back on the ship.

So, with that out of the way, I will dive deeper into how I have survived in each region and location with my allergies.

Europe

Europe is pretty easy. Most people speak English, and the cuisine is not full of landmines. At least, not compared to other places. Europeans generally have a pretty good understanding of allergies and their severities. I have been able to safely eat in France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Greece, Germany, and more without issue, both before and after I developed the fish allergy. In some places I have had to use Google translate (looking at you, Spain), but once they understand what I am saying, we’re good.

The places I’ve had a bit more issue with are mostly Scandinavian. Nordic cuisines are a little more fish-centric. Since they are so far North, historically fish has been their most reliable food source. With countries such as Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, I have avoided eating off the ship since I developed my fish allergy. These places were fine before I was allergic to fish. As long as I didn’t have desserts, I would usually not come across nuts.

The country I have had the most difficulty in Europe with is Iceland. Most of Iceland’s food contains fish, due to how far North it is. Almost any delicacy or dish from Iceland, some of them quite infamous, contain fish. The day I bathed in the lagoon way out into the country, I took two bread rolls off the ship and those were my lunch. I was back on board at 7:30pm, and had a late dinner. I was pretty hungry by the end of the day.

Americas

The USA is obviously easy regarding the language barrier. But its desserts are not. 90% of them contain peanuts or peanut butter. PB has a huge place in Americans’ hearts (literally), and they love to slather it on everything. However, given the extremely high understanding of allergies there, I will likely not run into issues. As long as I don’t eat any candy from dodgy shops in San Francisco. Food is very well labelled, so even if I do eat candy I know what I’m getting if it’s wrapped. I ate food off the ship several times in the USA. Including meals in New York, Clam Chowder in San Francisco, and even some street nachos in Hawaii. All fine.

Where I struggled more with was… well every other country of the Americas I visited. I just did not trust the food at all. That meant I did not eat any food at all in Guatemala, Mexico, and Colombia. With Guatemala I came prepared with my own biscuits from the ship due to the length of the tour. Some of these places had food stops, and I just didn’t eat anything.

Oceania

Australia and New Zealand were easy, as their cuisines are also highly Western and so was their understanding of allergies. I ate off the ship numerous times in Australia, and never had a problem. Which is good, because Australia actually strictly bans food taken from the ship. In Australia, I had meals in restaurants, on the street, and even in a rotating restaurant 80 storeys high. They handled my allergies excellently.

What I found most surprising though, was that my allergies were even understood in Samoa. I actually ate food from a shack in Samoa! It was a vegetable I’d never heard of: taro. Eating here was certainly a risk for me. I did not want to have a reaction on the edge of a very remote island. But, all was good. With Tonga, all I had was fresh fruit, because that’s all that was on offer anyway. I had a proper meal on the ship before heading out again.

Asia

Now we are tackling the big one. Asia. Fucking Asia. Now, this is where I had to be extremely careful. Of my forty countries, six have been in Asia. One of those was Turkey. The other five were Southeast Asia. Allergy hell. In the Philippines, I did not eat anything at all. I was too busy trying not to get mugged.

In Hong Kong, I also never ate off the ship. Nothing. Not a bite. Day 1 I ate a huge breakfast on the ship, explored most of the day, ate a big lunch when I got back on, then did not eat dinner till 9, back on the ship, between the Symphony of Lights and the Chinese Show. Day 2 I also ate a huge ship breakfast, then just didn’t have lunch that day.

I was able to do the same in Vietnam. Huge breakfast in the morning, then no food till after the tour, when I had a big lunch, before heading out again.

Singapore was the exception. On day 2, I did eat off the ship. But this was an exceptional case: I was in the Raffles Hotel. This is one of the most luxurious and iconic hotels in Asia. They would never want to tarnish their reputation by having someone die on their premises. Even though their signature Long Bar literally involves flicking peanuts as a tradition, I just simply did not drink there. We elected to eat in the Courtyard. The main danger here was the intense heat! I explained my allergies extremely clearly to the waiter, and had him repeat them back to me twice. I think even this guy was a little nervous, but this made sure he would absolutely get it right! I ordered the Mee Goreng. And my god. It was absolutely delicious. I really got a taste of what I was missing. It was like a colourblind person seeing colour for a few minutes. This honestly made the whole troubled trip to Singapore worth it in the end.

Malaysia, I just avoided all food and ate on the ship. Save for a packet of “Salted Egg” crisps which was mostly chilli-flavoured. These were packaged and ingredients labelled, so I was fine eating these. I did also drink some mulberry juice because there was simply no way I could run into trouble there. There were Chinese cakes at one point that looked like they might be safe, but when I asked the chef she didn’t speak a word of English, so I had to give that a miss.

Finally, Turkey. Now here, I could have eaten on the ship. But I did take a risk here. I knew it was a risk. I ate kebabs from a restaurant that I knew also grilled fish. While I was fine, the way I approached this was, of course, explain my allergies to the restauranteer. When the food came, I licked the kebabs first to check for a reaction. When there wasn’t one, I ate the smallest NIBBLE and waited for a reaction. When there wasn’t one, I just slowly took larger and larger bites until I was taking normal bites and eventually eating normally.

Africa

I did not eat food off the ship in Africa. I did not exactly want to have an allergic reaction in the middle of the desert, or in Senegal. This meant when we went into the hole in the wall in Senegal, I just sat that out while Devo ate all the wonderfully delightful grilled meat that was probably covered with peanuts. In Mauritius, even though I was out all day, I just didn’t have lunch that day.

I wish I could say South Africa was the exception, but to be honest, I never did need to eat any food off the ship here. My days here just worked out that I could eat meals on the ship between various adventures.

And there we have it. The TL;DR of this is that I survived 40 countries, including five in the worst region for my allergies, because I travel by cruising, and this has meant in most places I have not needed to eat off the ship at all.

Missing out

One thing a lot of people say is “wow, you really miss out. Eating the food is half the experience!” To them I say I have to disagree. I would not say the cuisine of a place is half the experience. It’s an important facet for sure, but I wouldn’t say it’s half. There’s still drinks I can indulge in. And for me, the culture is the most important facet. Meeting people. Seeing sights. Learning. History. Having a story to tell. These are the most important things of travel for me. I know, everyone’s different, and for some the food really is the most important aspect of travel. But for me, due to my allergies, it is not. Food takes quite a backseat, and in most places I have not experienced the food and likely never will. What this does mean is that I can appreciate other things more. I have no choice, I have to.

I am aware that all too often I do miss out. There have been times on guided tours where there was a meal included, and I could not participate. A recent trip in Spain involved a Tapas meal. One of the bowls contained tuna, and everyone was mixing and matching. So that one piece of tuna knocked out the whole lot for me. Other times there has been a language barrier or a place where I just didn’t trust the food and didn’t want to have a reaction, such as Guatemala. In these cases, I have had to sit these meals out. But I don’t just sit there like a lemon watching enviously as everyone else eats (except in Senegal). What I tend to do is go on my own little explorations. I might scout out the area, take some additional photos, or take the time to talk to locals. Those that were eating may not have had the chance to talk to the local that I got to talk to, or shop in the place where I shopped. That kind of thing.

In short, I do things. I experience the place in other ways to make up for what I lose in cuisine experiences. But yes, I would have obviously liked to have experienced the tastes of Malaysia, Senegal, Guatemala, and the likes. But hey, you don’t miss what you never had.

The One Incident

I know I mentioned earlier that I have never had an incident while travelling. This is not entirely true. I did have one allergic reaction. But this happened on the ship. The Sky Princess to be specific. This happened on the last day of a Canaries Cruise I did, the one that added Portugal (#20) to my list. And it was to a burger of all things. If you want to know how sensitive my allergies can be, get this. I reacted to the bun, which had touched the meat, which had touched the grill, where fish had been grilled. Three degrees of separation, and I still had an allergic reaction. I was violently sick and had to spend much of my last day in the medical centre, which is not a place you want to end up on a cruise ship. Especially on your last day.

I sailed round the world on Cunard and did not have a single incident. They take allergies very seriously on there, and I felt incredibly safe. In order to stay safe on the ship, I have had to ask for the same waiter every day, so that he has gotten to know my dietary needs. I’ve had to pre-order food the night before, so they have been able to check and prepare it with any modifications necessary. Walnut trimmings omitted, sans soy sauce, etc. I do sometimes wonder how much easier my life would be if I didn’t have to worry about this shit though.

Future Travels

Finally, I want to talk about how this will impact my future travels. Because I don’t just want to cruise forever. I want to branch out a bit. I want to do some of my own travels. I want to actually fly somewhere. But, there are some places I feel are pretty off-limits for me due to my allergies. I don’t see how I’d ever be able to do Japan, Indonesia, or Thailand without cruising. Obviously cruises have already ticked off some difficult countries, such as Malaysia and Vietnam, but what this does mean is I can’t explore these countries fully. I would have trouble staying in Vietnam or Malaysia. The same is true for a place like Indonesia. I guess that trip to Bali is off-limits?

Japan is probably the toughest one. Allergy to fish and soya renders all Japanese food hopeless for me. If it doesn’t have fish, it has soya. If it doesn’t have soya, it has fish. If it were just the soy allergy, I’d be fine. Hell, if it were just the fish allergy, I’d be fine. Very few people are unfortunate enough to be allergic to BOTH! But hey, that’s how the cookie has crumbled. Japan has to be done on a cruise.

I would love to travel to the hardcore regions of Africa, or Central Asia someday, but with my allergies I really do not know how safe these would be. These places have limited understanding of allergies, and I certainly can’t speak their languages. I think if I were to go to these, I would at least need to prepare cards that have in their languages what I can and can’t eat. I’d have to oversee the food prep process to make sure nothing could be contaminated. It would be pretty tough, but in some places at least I’m sure it could be doable.

Final Words

It might seem like I have essentially been running away from the problem. But that’s because the “problem” is not something that can be solved. It’s something that could kill me. Strict avoidance and carrying two EpiPens at all times is the only way to navigate food allergies. And at the end of the day, I have to prioritise and ensure my safety. So if that means I don’t eat any food in the country at all and wait till I’m back on the ship, that’s what I have to do.

Really, I have to strike a balance. I don’t want my allergies to limit me in my travels, but I also have to recognise they are life-or-death, and I can’t be stupid with them. And this comes with accepting that some places I might just not be able to visit without the safety of a cruise ship.

But you know, for 28 years I have lived in hope that one day they will find a cure for allergies. I always live in hope that one day there will be some drug or pill or therapy or anything that will help free me from these shackles, and I will be limited only by what will literally give me food poisoning.

But until then, I will have to just keep cruising and stay the hell out of Thailand.

***See my Country List to discover where I have visited***