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Gluten Free / Celiacs wanted

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  1. #11

    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    HK
    Posts
    296

    Hi guys,

    Slight diversion from topic - but those of you who found out about gluten intolerance in Hong Kong - how did you find out? I did a blood test a couple of years back and it showed gluten intolerance but when I went to my doctor he told me that it was very unlikely I had it (despite my aunt definitely suffering form it).

    Anyone know where I can go and get a proper medical grade test and find out for sure?


  2. #12

    I do not have celiac disease, but my fiance does. He was diagnosed in Australia years ago. It presents a challenge, but there are actually a myriad of food sources out there.

    Stores selling GF items include as mentioned Marks and Spencers, Little Giant and Health Gate. Also Taste (upscale Park n Shop, last time I looked it had GF pasta among other things), Wellcome (GF rice/buckwheat pasta in some (not labelled as such, but ingredients are rice or buckwheat and water, in an orange bag, shell and macaroni shapes), some stores also sell GF corn flakes)), Gourmet, City Super, Great, Three-Sixty, Oliver's, Market Place by Jason's, Jusco, Healthy Delight, Green Earth Society shop in Sai Kung, and others if you look closely (i.e. Wing-on has Blue Diamond Nut Thins, many organic stores will sell GF items, I saw Pamela's products in one in Mid-levels). Some of these places group items together, most do not. Some also have special tags on the shelves to indicate an item is GF.

    Plus there are the normal Asian foods that are GF - including but certainly not limited to rice, rice noodles, rice crackers, mung bean noodles, sweet potato noodles, pure buckwheat soba noodles (be careful and read the ingredients because most also have wheat flour in them), papadum, rice paper rolls, and various flours (rice, sweet rice (aka glutinous rice, but no gluten), tapioca, chestnut, corn, garbanzo, etc for baking).

    As for restaurants, it does depend. We haven't bothered inquiring about GF items in Chinese restaurants, we just order what we think will be GF (same for Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Japanese, etc). I have a link to a Mandarin Chinese restaurant card, which looks like it has simplified characters but still might be understandable to local chefs. There's also a Cantonese card (PM me for link), which seems to have a much different format, not sure why. And there's a link to a handwritten card that seems to have worked for the person who posted it (PM me for link). My fiance isn't super strict, so he does eat soy sauce and isn't too careful about sauces in dishes. We're usually able to find something for him to eat at most any type of restaurant.

    Taco Truck in Quarry Bay makes their own corn tortillas out of pure masa harina (no wheat flour). Munch in Knutsford plaza has buckwheat pizza, but we usually make our own at home (if your flat doesn't have an oven, you can get a microwave cum grill cum convection oven or a tabletop oven). Ali Oli in Sai Kung sells a GF flour mix and has GF items in its freezer section, but I find it cheaper/easier to use a breadmaker and/or our oven. Ruby Tuesday has GF items marked on their menu (so I've been told), as does Life Cafe, Deli Lamma (on Lamma Island) and the Royal HK Yacht Club restaurant. Apparently the owner and staff at The Flying Pan can tell you what items are GF, although it's not marked on their menu. There's a new place called Green Waffle in Central that says they will be serving GF waffles soon (possibly by this week). La Creperie in Wan Chai serves pure buckwheat gallettes and great cider from Brittany, though pricey. Mosburger has "rice burgers" but my fiance says they probably use soy sauce in the patties. And Toi Hokkaido Rice Pizza has a rice "crust" although it falls apart easily.

    Unfortunately, I know of no local group dealing specifically with celiac disease. There is a local allergy group which covers food allergies (PM me for link), but that section of their site is only in Chinese. As for testing, a gastroenterologist should be able to do that for you after taking a thorough history and physical. Consulates often list local doctors on their site (the U.S. one lists two GI docs). They should order at least three tests: Total IgA; IgA antitissue transglutaminase (tTG); and IgA antiendomysial antibody immunofluorescence (EMA). If you're already on a GF diet, the results may not be conclusive. If the tests indicate celiac disease, they should do an intestinal biopsy to confirm the diagnosis. If you are diagnosed with celiac disease they may do other blood tests to look for various deficiencies.

    Thanks for starting this thread Jason, I agree that a good repository for information is much needed. Great tip about the GF sauce in KC! And thanks to everyone for sharing what they know about eating GF in HK, we're always on the look out for new opportunities. Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions!

    Aileen

    AsiaJason and jnettyb like this.

  3. #13

    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    833
    Quote Originally Posted by AsiaJason:
    I think it would be nice to form a group of like-minded individuals - so we can share tips, places (to eat), ideas, etc.

    *******
    Please, please please - if you're NOT a celiac - or NOT on a GLUTEN-FREE diet - don't muddy up this thread with responses. Please! With one exception - if you're NOT on the diet, but you *KNOW* of a group already formed - or other places to look for such a group (online or real-world), that might help myself and others.

    A kind thank you for understanding!
    *********
    Sorry - not wanting to hijack your thread but you may want to consider widening such a group to include those suffering from Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. I was diagnosed with Crohn's earlier this year (after feeling very unwell for at least 15 months) and the lack of support in HK for this incurable and sometimes debilitating condition makes life difficult at times.

  4. #14

    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    HK
    Posts
    296

    Hi guys,

    Would it be worth buying a domain ( I can get it ) and hosting a wiki to store all this information? There seems to be tonnes of it on geoexpat but it's spread out across loads of messages. Would be nice to keep it all in one place.

    If you guys are up for it - what should we call it? glutenfree.hk ? :-)


  5. #15

    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    New Territories
    Posts
    320
    Quote Originally Posted by MXZ:
    Would it be worth buying a domain ( I can get it )
    Thank you. Yes. I agree. And this is on my radar. Name sounds great.

    One of my strengths from my involvement in large-scale IT projects (and other fields would certainly be similar) is knowing that a project is 80% planning / 20% execution (roughly - you get the idea). The domain name is the "paint color" on the "dream house". Valid and necessary - but I have to get us going in a direction of getting a useful "system" in place. Domain name is important to grab up now..if you wish.

    I need input from people - both tech and non-tech alike to achieve the goal (which may evolve beyond me as well). Not only is the underlining structure important for the techs to figure out - it's our "customer" facing features that are important.

    Quote Originally Posted by MXZ:
    Would be nice to keep it all in one place.
    All good ideas. Yes, my idea is just that. Means of achieving it are varied however. And that's where I need help.

    That's what I want this thread to be about. Discussing online / offline ways of getting together.

    Ideas:
    My main motivation is this:
    - A restaurant and shop map that could be accessed by anyone - especially those on the go on their iphone or smartphone. Google maps are good for that.

    Take it one step further: Click on an icon on the map - and it leads you to a "wiki"-type article with reviews and info from people who have experiences there. AND allows anyone to add reviews and info easily. Or the reverse (from the wiki, click on a restaurant for the map). I think this is all easily done in google maps - but the wiki part - I'm not too sure on yet.... Any ideas on this?

    - I also think a "discussions" place is still necessary - like a forum like this one - for "Topics". These are important to the functioning of our "online" meeting. I just want something a little more specialized (as you say, less spread out), and of course taylored to our specific needs. Where more control over moderating is allowed. I've since found out they're doing some kind of upgrades to their "groups" section here which might address these desires - yet I'm unaware of what is being upgraded. See this thread: http://www.geoexpat.com/forum/thread107521.html

    I was recently experimenting with google sites (a master landing page) - with links to google discussions - and of course to google maps. I forget right now if the wiki fell in there somewhere.

    Also - my desire is to do as little IT Administration as possible (including technology setup / cost). I also want this to be DECENTRALIZED! Maybe a couple of mods for admin - but the site just runs itself for the most part. I do not have any desire to be a techie on this thing.

    Let the ideas keep coming in!

  6. #16

    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Posts
    14,414

    If you're on facebook why don't you create a facebook group instead?


  7. #17

    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    New Territories
    Posts
    320
    Quote Originally Posted by shilo507:
    Sorry - not wanting to hijack your thread but you may want to consider widening such a group to include those suffering from Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.
    Good idea.

    I think this could fit well within my goals of creating a central place for like-minded/(and body!) people to get together. See the post above. In a typical forum setup, there could be several "main" areas of discussion. One would be UC. One would be Celiac. Another Chron's. Etc. You get the idea. They are all certainly related in that our intestines are a problem.

    We all become experts with our own condition, and I would love to share info across similar groups. Even within Celiac - there's "Wheat allergies", "Celiac Disease" and "Non-celiac intolerance". We may have various symptoms in common, and certainly have some symptoms unique to our unique body, but we have a common goal of finding food and staying healthy.

    I think you can add additional tags to this thread. I've already added my maximum 5 - and all related to wheat, allergy, celiac. You could add those related to UC/Chron's.

  8. #18

    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    New Territories
    Posts
    320
    Quote Originally Posted by jimbo:
    If you're on facebook why don't you create a facebook group instead?
    Long time....:-) I'm ignorant to facebook's features (especially the newer "likes". I won't lie. I hardly use it. I understand it can bring us all together in a group, but short of that - how would a repository of info be available?
    And most importantly -
    How would it consolidate a map of shops and restaurants? - especially if those shops are not on facebook?

  9. #19

    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Posts
    14,414

    Indeed it is a long time.

    You can create a group in facebook and its like a mini website so you can put in links etc to restaurants and put pretty much anything you want on there.

    The shops don't need to be on facebook, you can just put details of the name and address and website address if they have one.


  10. #20

    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Posts
    4,043

    Why not just keep on here as this site is what I arrived in back in 2007 when I googled gluten free in HK.