Celiac Travel Home > About the Chinese / Mandarin Gluten Free Restaurant Card
About the Chinese / Mandarin Gluten Free Restaurant Card
A friendly coeliac asked her Chinese colleagues to amend our original card...
Essentially I told my colleagues the following: I can't eat foods that contain soy sauce, oyster sauce, brown malt vinegar, any wheaten flour like wheat flour, gluten flour, bread flour, wheaten cornflour, some msg and other commercially made seasoning/flavourings, bread/cakes made with wheat flour, fried foods coated with wheat flour, soups thickened with wheat flour, or noodles containing wheat (e.g., wheat noodles, egg noodles).
They said that the original card was very good - but they created a list of foods at the bottom that often contain gluten (wheat, barley malt etc) that weren't on the original card (obviously they know what is in particular types of Chinese food).
You can download the chinese gf card with added foods here
I'll let you know how I get on. Last time in China I got really sick, even with the card (the mysterious clear glaze they put on everything even just plain vegetables I am sure is msg/wheat flour), so I'll see how I go this time!
A good tip though for people travelling there is that Lotus Root Powder is gluten free and makes quite a nutritious jelly when combined simply with boiling water (which they have available on all trains!). Apparently old ladies eat it for vitamins etc! And it's quite yummy!
