The waiting game

I may have briefly mentioned, in passing, that I lived in India for a while. Unfortunately, I had one too many bouts of dysentry while I was out there, and have had gut problems ever since... its okay, I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, except to say that I've now got a ton of foods I've developed intolerances to! The main one being Cows Milk (and byproducts of). This is a right pain in the arse (literally), because I'm a veggie, and EVERYTHING veggie seems to have cheese or milk in it! And if it hasn't got cheese in it, it's invariably got barley in it (another thing I can't have)!

I dread going to restaurants, because I've either got to eat "off the menu" [which I never want to do as I've heard too many urban myths/ legends/ stories about what kitchen staff do if you piss them off], or take 'pot luck' and suffer the consequences! Plus the fact, it can make your dinner companions feel a bit uncomfortable, while you're reeling off a list of ingredients the chef can't use! Needless to say, I try and avoid eating out where possible.

I also get really nervous about eating food that other people have cooked [except for Mrs Robbo who is really clued up with the whole 'cooking for people with allergies' nightmare]. Initially, my mum just couldn't get it, and would proudly tell me how she hadn't used wheat [which I haven't got an intolerance to!] or cheese in my dinner, but then tell me that she'd used butter, to make it taste nicer! [In fairness, as I don't often eat round there, she's never really had many chances to 'practise' cooking for me - but these days she's a lot better, and always makes me 'special' bread, which is yummy!] And let's not forget one of my dear buddies, who always offers me pizza when I visit ;o)

Anyway, much as I try and pretend that Soya Milk is okay, it's pretty disgusting really. You can just about tolerate it on cereals, but don't even think about drinking it on it's own... and try not to gag when it curdles if you're stupid enough to put it in tea or coffee!

A few months ago, I tried some goats butter and goats cheese. I seem to be okay with the goats butter (in very small quantities), but the goats cheese is a bit hit and miss!

After reading somewhere that people with cows milk intolerances are often okay with sheeps milk, I managed to track down a shop in Wickford that sells it... The Robbos kindly popped in there for me yesterday, and picked some up. So, this morning, I had the most GORGEOUS bowl of non-barley cereal with sheeps milk.... disgustingly full fat, but LURVELY.

And now I'm waiting to see what reaction I have! It's been about 8 hours, and so far so good!

Obviously this 'waiting' was no excuse for me still being in my jimjams at lunchtime - that was pure laziness! Oh, and Cuttsy's something to do on a rainy sunday