Gluten Free Sapporo And Osaka

[LeonieGwen]

Hi I've been reading with interest everyone's posts about gluten free eating in Japan. I am going there to visit my daughter and Japanese SIL in February 2008 and it will be my first time to Japan and my fist time international travelling since diagnosis.

I am wondering if anyone has heard of any Japanese people themselves having Coeliac's? If so can anyone put me in touch with them or their society. also after understanding restuarants in Sapporo and Osaka. My daughter and Yasu wil be helping me with ingredients on food thankfully but it is the restaurant and snacking thing that worries me. I wil have the gluten-free cards to give restauranters etc

also having stop over in Hong Kong and need simialr restaurant advice for there.

thanks

LeonieGwen

[kenlove]

Hi,

In the health food stores you can find wheat free shoyu (soy sauce) but it is sometimes easier to bring it from home. There are of course hunderds of other things to eat but the biggest problem I had was cross contamination with oils or pans in some places. My friends who own restaurants in Tokyo would go out of their way to find things I could eat besides the obvious

but often I would get glutened by the best intensions. I think in 2005 there were only 27 people in Japan who had Celiac (from Jikei Daigaku) but I was at a lecture there last march which noted the rapid increase of wheat allergies among school children -- must be that western diet of McD's and fries.

Snacks are hArd to find there outside of the fruit and veggie markets.

One other thing is to be careful of soba. If you can find juwari or 100% soba -- buckwheat, its not a problem but it is hard to find. DOnt let them use the same water to boil those noddles that they used for other soba and make your own sauce . I kept small thing of paramasan in my pocket instead of using wheat laden soys anbd soba sauce. -- the 100% noodles are great though -- just have to make sure they are 100%

good luck

ken

Hi I've been reading with interest everyone's posts about gluten free eating in Japan. I am going there to visit my daughter and Japanese SIL in February 2008 and it will be my first time to Japan and my fist time international travelling since diagnosis.

I am wondering if anyone has heard of any Japanese people themselves having Coeliac's? If so can anyone put me in touch with them or their society. also after understanding restuarants in Sapporo and Osaka. My daughter and Yasu wil be helping me with ingredients on food thankfully but it is the restaurant and snacking thing that worries me. I wil have the gluten-free cards to give restauranters etc

also having stop over in Hong Kong and need simialr restaurant advice for there.

thanks

LeonieGwen

[missy'smom]

Hi,

I`m actually in Japan right now and have had a successful gluten-free trip. I`m headed back to the U.S. soon and will post when we get back(in a week or so) on my experience and list a source that we used to obtain gluten-free food.

Take care and check back in.

[missy'smom]

I'm going to break this up into more than one post as I have the time and energy.

Airplane: We checked several airlines before going and found out that

Korean Airlines- has a gluten-free meal available but I wasn't able to obtain a ample menue

Japan Airlines-(which we chose) has a gluten-free meal and gave me a sample menue an some idea as to the ingredients used, I was always served first along with the kids and first class, Following are the meals as best as I remember.

To Japan-fish with a tomato sauce over rice, broiled potato slices and steamed broccoli, mixed lettuces with radish slices and a wedge of lemon instead of dressing, another salad with cottage cheese scoop and asparagus, chicken piece, tender and flavorful, maybe marinated in wine, again with lemon wedge instead of dressing, fruit, banana

snack- small ham sandwich with lettuce on specially gluten-free bread, with a hint of banana puree in it for flavor and moisture(It was good and I was surprized to get it)

second meal-chicken on rice with tomato sauce, the rest very similar to the first meal

Return trip- fish with tomato sauce and baby new potatoes-the canned type, boiled or canned spinach-no seasoning, canned muchrooms-no seasoning, mixed lettuces with cucumber slices a good light vinagrette dressing, scoop of cottage cheese, unseasoned fish, asparagus, a dairy based gelatin with strawberry puree and kiwi,banana

snack- a few small pices of fruit, I was disappointed after the gluten-free sandwich going to Japan, everyone else got pastries, I supplemented the fruit with gluten-free rice cracker(senbei) and gluten-free cracker that I had brought along

second meal- beef or pork cubes in a clear cornstarch thickened sauce with veg over clear rice noodles, everyone else got breakfast food, same type of salads and fruit and a gelatin made of some nectar, maybe peach

overall the meals going to Japan were more flavorful and the attendants coming home seemed a little confused about my meals but they I did get the right ones and they were gluten-free

We also checked ANA also as we needed a flight in country going to southern Japan( we ended up using JAL so we could get milage points). The have two different allergen free meal one free of a few allergens and one free of something like 10 allergens. They have alot of detailed info one their website with sample menues and ingredient lists(all in English). The one free of more allergens was almost gluten-free but stil had some gluten so I contacted them and they said that I could send them info about what I couldn't have and they would accomodate me.

[missy'smom]

Before leaving we ordered food online from this company and had it shipped to the address where we were staying.

Open Original Shared Link

They specialize in products free of allergens. You will need someone who can read Japanese to use it, although we didn't try calling to see if they had an English speaking customer service rep. Not all products are gluten-free but many are.

We bought and liked everything from this list:

Hamburger steaks

Breaded fish portions

triangle rice crackers(senbei)

seaweed sprinkle rice crackers(senbei)

two flavors of rice sprinkles(furikake)

plum jelly things(ume)

quinoa miso

gluten-free soy sauce

sweet potato rolls

raisin bread

tonkatsu sauce

several other sauces

powdered instant pumpkin soup mix

foil pouch vegetable soup

foil pouch vegetable curry

foil pouch mixed simmered vegetable in broth/sauce

[missy'smom]

I didn't eat out. My MIL prepared meals and I ate at home. If we went out for the afternoon or to a restaurant with friends, I brought an obento from home. We bought an inexpensive skillet and brought it with us. My MIL found some gluten-free bread crumbs and brown rice flour that she used for chicken and pork cutlets. At home and for obentos I ate fish, ham, wieners, rice, miso soup(MIL makes homemade broth), seasonal fruits and veg, simply prepared and plain yogurt.

At a restaurant we politely told them that I had a wheat(komugi) allergy and had brought food from home and asked if they minded if I brought it in and ate it. My family ordered off the menue. They always said it was OK. The one time I ate at a restaurant was at a shabu-shabu restaurant and we chose one where the broth was simply konbu and water. We called ahead and made a reservation and told them I had an allergy. We brought my GFsoy sauce and ordered two nabe pots, one for the kids that they could put dumplings and other nonGF items in and one that was strictly for meats and veggies and took the usual precautions against cross-contamination.

For emergency meals, snacks enroute, which I didn't end up using except for just a little on the flight back. I brought gluten-free pasta, pancake mix, 2 sm. packages of crackers, a baby jar of jam, a tin of smoked tuna slices, and two Tastybite Indian meals.

For the morning we left I brought pancakes and ham that were made ahead of time and some fruit for breakfast as the plan was to get breakfast at the airport after our first connecting flight. Coming home I did the same thing and brought fruit, gluten-free bread and yogurt.

This was my first trip gluten-free.

Hope this helps you to have a safe and enjoyable trip.

[LeonieGwen]

Hi,

I`m actually in Japan right now and have had a successful gluten-free trip. I`m headed back to the U.S. soon and will post when we get back(in a week or so) on my experience and list a source that we used to obtain gluten-free food.

Take care and check back in.

[LeonieGwen]

Hi Missy's mum

thanks for your posts about the situation in Japan-I'm still hoping to find ways to eat out sometimes

cheers

Leonie