Fight idolatry; eat good food

Rod:

A new Asian grocery store recently opened up at Trinity Mills and Old Denton Road in Carrollton.

It's quite incredible.

They have fresh fish - i.e., live in the tank swimming tilapia, lobsters, catfish, dungeness crab, etc. - as well as a tabletop full of live crawfish, and all kinds of other fresh fish, shrimp, etc.

A cafe with Asian dishes.

A Tous Les Jours coffee and bakery shop.

A kiosk that makes fresh rice cake treats.

Gallon jars of Sambal Oelek (the 8 oz. jars cost only $1.29, too) and Kimchi.

All kinds of tofu and some exotic fruits and vegetables.

Plus, all kinds of things I've never seen - bags of whole dried anchovies and sardines, a plethora of different soy and fish sauces, kaboodles of noodles, etc.

The grocery store is part of an Asian shopping mall, with more stores ready to open. Between that and IndoPak just down the street, you can eat as Asian as you want to.

Lord Karth, I don't have diabetes, but I do get migraines, and through some trial and error have identified some of my specific food triggers, things that are guaranteed to bring on the absolute worst of my headaches.

The way I look at it, family and very close friends can always be told of such things that have health implications, provided one isn't trying to dictate the menu unreasonably. I've found it possible to have a good compromise between reasonable accommodation on their part and reasonable good nature/good manners on mine. For instance, if I can't eat the main dish there are bound to be some side dishes I can eat, and when dessert is served, if it's my unfailing enemy (chocolate, alas) I can simply say, "No, thank you."

This is more difficult in your situation, and it's also harder if you are dining with people you don't know well (something that doesn't often happen in my life, though it may in yours). But it is perfectly within the bounds of politeness to accept what is offered but only eat what you can. And you can always ask the hostess if you may bring something to share--that way, you'll always be sure that there's at least one item you can eat.

If I am entertaining someone who has specific dietary needs, I would prefer to know that rather than to have my guest be uncomfortable. But I recall a teacher who wouldn't allow snacks with gluten, sugar, preservatives etc. to be brought to a cast party after a class play because *she* was allergic to these things (and no, it wasn't the sort of allergy where just being around them was going to be a problem). None of the adults thought she was being reasonable to demand that the children not eat anything she was allergic to in front of her, and that's the sort of demand that, I think, goes too far.

But I do think that specific, health-based dietary needs are very different from voluntary ones. Where our society tends to blur the line is in seeing the latest fad diet as an absolute "health" concern; I attended a party where the hostess prepared a large amount of very good food, most of which was left as the guests, all on the latest "low-carb" diet, demolished the vegetable tray and left it at that.

I've gone on too long, but this is a delicate subject. To me, again from the "hostess" perspective, I'd prefer to accommodate real health needs such as a diabetic's along with any religious observations--as a Catholic, I know what it's like to have people assume you can overlook the Friday abstinence during Lent, when in fact you can't, so I'm quite sympathetic to the dietary religious observations of other Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, etc. and would always want to know about these restrictions from any guests I might ever have.