Egg, peanut and nut allergies. What to eat?

Hi:

We are visiting Japan this March with my 7-yr old who is allergic to eggs, peanuts and tree nuts such as almonds, cashew nuts, etc. We will be visiting Tokyo, Kyoto, Nikko, Nara and Kamakura.

1. How is the allergy awareness in restaurants? Can I trust the waiter when he says that the food is safe?
2. Are there any Japanese foods that he should specifically be avoiding?
3. My son loves seafood as well as meat. What can you recommend that won't contain eggs, peanuts and treenuts?
4. Does the batter for tempura typically contain eggs? What kind of oil is commonly used? Peanut oil?
5. How about sushi? Are there types of sushi that contain eggs, peanuts and treenuts?
6. Is there some packed ready-to-eat brand of food that I can carry when we are out on a day trip?

Please advise. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Regards,
D

1. How is the allergy awareness in restaurants? Can I trust the waiter when he says that the food is safe?

I'd say that allergy awareness is fair. Chain restaurants do a pretty good job listing the food allergens in each dish on their menus, but you'll need to learn some Japanese to figure it out. Non-chain restaurants, on the other hand, are hit or miss. Best to come prepared with some Japanese phrases to tell the waiters (hopefully someone more fluent can provide these for you).

2. Are there any Japanese foods that he should specifically be avoiding?

Some things that you should avoid:

All fried food (tonkatsu, tempura, kushiage, etc.)
Okonomiyaki, Takoyaki
most baked goods
most Japanese sweets that aren't mochi based
Oden (eggs are cooked in the broth)

3. My son loves seafood as well as meat. What can you recommend that won't contain eggs, peanuts and treenuts?

Yakiniku (Japanese style korean bbq) should be good. Most sushi should also be good.

4. Does the batter for tempura typically contain eggs? What kind of oil is commonly used? Peanut oil?

Tempura batter and almost all fried foods contain eggs in the batter. The oil used varies by restaurant.

5. How about sushi? Are there types of sushi that contain eggs, peanuts and treenuts?

Just yakitamago (fried egg), and a few others that use raw egg. Almost everything else should be fine.

6. Is there some packed ready-to-eat brand of food that I can carry when we are out on a day trip?

Check out the convenience store. Lots to choose from there.

hi!
1 At restaurants we call "fami-res(means restaurants especially good for families with various generations)," they have menu lists which show allergic substances in the dishes. So, if they have such menu book, I think they are reliable.
2 and 4
Generally, if you see a photo of the menu book, you can judge whether it contains eggs.
But as you mentioned, you should be careful about "tempura." It contains eggs and as we Japanese like tempura very much, we have tempura everywhere.
As for oil, "Salad oil" is widely used in many restaurants. It contains peanuts oil.
I don't know if the oil causes allergic reaction.
3
We have very very fresh and delicious seafood, so if you don't mind, please try "sashimi"--raw fish and other raw seafood.
5
About sushi, we have "tamago"--egg-cake on small amount of rice, "chawan-mushi"--pudding-like dish. I think you can see easily. Because they are yellow like scrambled egg.
We use soy source for sushi, is it ok to eat soybeans?

6
In Japan, we have convenience stores everywhere. So, you can buy packed ready-to-eat food anytime, everywhere. Also they usually show the name of allergic substances on the label or packages.
I hope this will help you. bye!

Would these printable allergy cards help, perhaps?

http://justhungry.com/japan-dining-out-cards

There isn't one for eggs, but there is a "fill in the blank" card, if you cam discover the kanji for "eggs".

Hi there. I have a grown son who was allergic to eggs for a long time. I'm a Japanse resident, if that makes a difference.

First of all, I wonder why our trustworthy Yllwsmrf suggests that the child should avoid Japanese sweets. For kids with egg allergy, Japanese sweets are one of the rare genre you can turn to to enjoy sugar.

Unlike Western sweets, a lot of them don't use eggs at all. And unlike other Asian sweets, a lot of them don't use nut oil, nor even any kind of oil, and that makes them very easy to digest.

In particular, most of the mochi (sticky rice) based Japanese sweets usually contains only rice, sugar and bean paste which are ideal for kids with allergy. You can also try "karukan" which is traditional sweets from Kyushu that tastes like sponge cake but is made from potatoe and not eggs.

As for awareness, thanks to the media, most people know that food allergy can sometimes even kill people. So proper chefs know what you're talking about when you say you have allergy.

But you should also make it clear about how severe your allergy is. Is it alright as long as the allergen itself is not included? Or do you need to avoid broth as well? Or do you even need to make sure that no allergen is used in the same cooking tools?

Don't hesitate to spend your money on reliable hotels and concierges who can make sure you have these necessary information written on a bilingal card. Don't let any anonymous internet user like me translate them for you.

You can also look for "shizen-shokuhin-ten" (natural food stores) not to be confused with "kenko-shokuhin-ten" (health food stores that are more about suspicious suppliments). The natural food stores have a lot of knowledge about food allergy and carry allergen-free food.

All in all, rather than to remember the names of foods you can eat, carry around YOUR information about food you cannot eat and try to talk to the chef or manager rather than the waiter or some part-timer, so that they would make sure they omit the allergen. Mostly, you don't use nut oil in Japanese cuisine (although sesame oil is used), but not everything is authentic.

Anyway, have fun and Bon Appetite!

First of all, I wonder why our trustworthy Yllwsmrf suggests that the child should avoid Japanese sweets. For kids with egg allergy, Japanese sweets are one of the rare genre you can turn to to enjoy sugar.

No worries, let me try to explain better. Japanese sweets varieties are almost limitless so its a little hard to generalize, but I was referring to non-mochi based, cake-like sweets as some of those recipes include eggs in the batter. Basically avoid anything that looks like cake or cookies unless you can verify that it doesn't include eggs in the batter.

Yllwsmrf, I guess you were refering to the hiyoko or dorayaki type cakes, then. I was refering to what they mainly sell at wagashiya, especially nerikiri and all the other old-fashioned stuff.

Anyway, Japan is full of food from all over the world and even inventing new ones. It's hard to distinguish what is Japanese and what is not, I agree.

It's important to note that this thread is read often by travelers to Japan, and there is incorrect information in it.

Japanese sushi is not always safe to eat for an egg-allergy person. The sushi with the cute little colored sprinkles on top of them will make you very sick . . . some sushi places will sprinkle these FISH EGGS on top of every item, particularly rolled specialties. While it looks nice, to the person allergic to eggs it can be deathly.

That is a good point. Some types of sushi (chirashi, kid's plates, etc.) may be garnished with furikake or thinly sliced omelet cut like confetti. The small flakes that davej mentioned are not fish egg, they are made of chicken egg, so definitely avoid that if you see it.

When people say they're allergic to "eggs", they usually mean chicken eggs and not fish eggs or even duck eggs, but sure enough we all do need to have that clarified when we talk about food allergy.

Similarly, it's easy to avoid chicken eggs when eating authentic edomae nigiri-zushi, but the other poster does make a good point that we tend to forget that a lot of people on this forum cannot tell the difference between nigiri, chirashi, edomae and otherwise.

Thanks for pointing that out.

6. I would suggest onigiri. They are available in many variations from convenience stores. Just avoid the tuna-mayo ones, they usually have a blue label.

Tuna-mayo is my favorite onigiri and even if I cannot read the Japanese label, I just find it by color every time. Some onigiri contain sesame seeds, but I haven't come across any that contain nuts.