
Gluten Free Antarctica - kawera
https://idlewords.com/2018/12/gluten_free_antarctica.htm
======
wanderfowl
As a vegetarian (by ethical choice, not medical necessity), I do my best not
to lose sight of the simple fact that _I 'm_ the problem here. When I walk
into a steakhouse with my carnivorous wife, they're helping me out by finding
something to put in my stomach. If I'm on a camping trip, I'm bringing my own
food, or doing my best to make it fair to folks who are helping me out. And if
I'm visiting for dinner, I try to make it clear that I'm happy to scavenge
sides, you don't need to do something special for me. Because, again, my self-
made diet choices are not your problem, but mine.

Celiac is real, folks who have it should be cut a break, and in my experience,
folks who actually _cannot_ eat gluten are just trying to make things work,
rather than being a dick about it.

But deeply screw people like this lady who make a voluntary diet choice who
use it as an excuse to bully others and make people cater to them. They
trivialize people's actual medical needs, breed a culture of "Yeah, sure lady,
there's no gluten", work against whatever cause they're in favor of, and
largely, they're why we can't have nice things.

~~~
nradov
One of my colleagues is a vegetarian. He went on a business trip to Texas and
his associates took him out for dinner at a steak house. After reading the
menu he asked the waitress, "Do you have anything that isn't meat?" She
thought for a moment and cheerfully replied "We have chicken!"

~~~
themodelplumber
That is funny. I had a kind of opposite experience, when I was struggling with
a bad reaction to gluten. My wife and I went to a burger joint in Utah called
"Mooyah" where I ordered a burger on a gluten-free bun. As soon as those words
left my mouth, the cashier asked, "allergy or preference?"

Stunned and wondering if I was being criticized, I said "allergy" only to
learn that if you say that, they have to clean all possible traces of gluten
off of their equipment before they make your burger.

"Allergy!" Then the action started. As I watched two employees vigorously wipe
down all this stuff just to make one burger, I felt alternately shocked,
amazed, well-served, and embarrassed. Others in the restaurant looked at me
like I was from another planet.

Anyway, that was one of the best gluten-free buns I've ever tasted.

~~~
bloak
"Allergy or preference?" is an interesting question. For many people the
answer would be neither: they suffer physical pain if they eat a significant
amount of wheat - half a slice of bread might be enough to produce symptoms,
for example - but it's not technically an allergy and it's not life-
threatening. You don't need to use different equipment for these people, but
you should carefully check the list of ingredients.

~~~
yakshaving_jgt
I wasn’t aware an allergy had to be life-threatening to be classified as such.
In fact, double-checking with a dictionary confirms it isn’t defined that way.

I grew up allergic to chlorine (swimming pools). The allergic reaction was/is
eczema. This was not life threatening. For the past 12 years I’ve suffered
from pollen allergy annually. Also not life-threatening.

------
dangero
I have Celiac disease. I try very hard to not be a burden to people, but in
some cases I cannot avoid it. Sometimes I have to skip a meal like when a
meeting includes box lunch of a sandwich. I’ve also learned about non-
perishables I can store in my work bag for when I get into a pinch. It’s not
that big a deal any more for me. Even skipping a meal completely is not
something to care about. It’s one meal! I’ll live. Short fasts even have
health benefits.

People like this woman irritate me because I get automatically associated with
her.

~~~
Cogito
For what it's worth, it seems this woman had specific dietary requirements,
though it's not specified if it was celiac or something else.

She herself was complaining about people who 'became' gluten free after
getting on the ship, and that this meant she had less food available to her.

~~~
Danieru
I imagine Celiacs refer to themselves as such, not "gluten free". Likewise a
Celiac in desperation would complain about fad gluten free eaters without any
respect to when they started fad following.

I think it is clear the lady mentioned is taking issue not because she has a
medical limitation, in which case the Russians have amble food to provide.
Rather she is, as the writer further points out, under the belief that her
digestive system functions better without gluten.

~~~
TACIXAT
I usually just say gluten allergy because most restaurant staff don't know
what celiac is. It's not accurate but it gets the point across.

------
Fomite
"The worst place to be hungry is probably at one of the Russian bases, either
Vostok Station on the polar plateau (with its slowly dwindling pyramid of
frozen potatoes), or Bellinghausen Station on King George Island. The
Shokalsiky's crew remembers docking at Bellinghausen during a period of severe
budget cuts in the 2000's. Forgotten by Moscow, the group of wild-eyed
scientists who emerged blinking into the light had been living for months on a
diet of canned peas and cabbage. The crew took pity, trading their stores with
the beleaguered marine biologists, and then had to subsist on cabbage and peas
themselves all the way back up to Vladivostok."

I _was_ a tourist in about 2002, at a Ukrainian station had been basically
abandoned. We did indeed end up trading all manner of things for their
station-made vodka which was...impressive stuff.

~~~
YeGoblynQueenne
Oh? Was your ship low on fuel then?

------
jholman
God, this is great. My personal favourite bit is "I am tempted to go full Slav
on Conor....".

If there are any would-be impresarios or producers out there, I propose the
following format for an adaptation of this that would permit a wider audience:
Audio is a word-for-word recital of the existing text (narrated by Maciej if
he wants the job). Video should be simply micro-vignettes of the scenes
described: the perplexed Russians (regarding gluten), the threatening Chief
Mate, the unstoppable eating of Rodney, the scalded hands of Bill. I think
it's got the possibility to be a cult classic.

~~~
voltagex_
Audio as a podcast would be just fine.

------
unicornporn
For those that do not follow the RSS feed of this blog, this was just one of
many posts batch uploaded or just updated yesterday. Here's the rest:

[http://idlewords.com/2017/02/social_media_needs_a_travel_mod...](http://idlewords.com/2017/02/social_media_needs_a_travel_mode.htm)

[http://idlewords.com/2017/09/anatomy_of_a_moral_panic.htm](http://idlewords.com/2017/09/anatomy_of_a_moral_panic.htm)

[http://idlewords.com/2018/10/portrait_of_a_campaign.htm](http://idlewords.com/2018/10/portrait_of_a_campaign.htm)

[http://idlewords.com/2018/10/the_great_slate.htm](http://idlewords.com/2018/10/the_great_slate.htm)

[http://idlewords.com/2018/11/politics_as_sport.htm](http://idlewords.com/2018/11/politics_as_sport.htm)

~~~
adambyrtek
These weren't posted yesterday, just the RSS feed for the blog had been
throwing errors for a while, and seems like Maciej has fixed the bug recently.

~~~
unicornporn
Oh, I see. I recognized some of them from before and figured they had just
been updated.

------
ars
"but the brochure warns us they can’t accomodate kosher or vegan diners.
(Keeping meat and milk separate in the tiny galley is impossible, and no one
could endure five weeks at sea with a vegan.)"

Interestingly DansDeals just recently organized a Kosher tour to Antarctica
[https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/trip-notes/join-
life...](https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/trip-notes/join-lifetime-
kosher-catered-trip-antarctica/) and
[https://www.kosherantarctica.com/](https://www.kosherantarctica.com/)

~~~
Moru
I'm guessing the problem is to cater for more than one or two different diets
on the same small ship. Some diets takes more space in storage and a separate
kitchen.

------
Cogito
Maciej, thanks again for these stories; I never knew if you were going to
circle back to lede and I really didn't care.

Was a fantastic read. I should figure out how to get notified of all your
updates, it's some of the most fun I've had reading, and reminds me a lot of
Douglas Adams' "Last Chance to See".

~~~
unicornporn
> I should figure out how to get notified of all your updates

Get an RSS reader.
[http://idlewords.com/index.xml](http://idlewords.com/index.xml) works
terrific!

------
kortilla
>or how close East Antarctica had come to a major oil spill had the ship been
crushed.

Goofy question, but how does Antarctica have an East region? What’s it East
of?

~~~
Pristina
where the sun rises, that is east, mon ami

~~~
ken
That explains what the _direction_ east is, from any given point. That doesn't
explain what a _region_ called "East Antarctica" might mean.

~~~
bacon_waffle
Except, of course, if that point is between the South Pole and the Antarctic
Circle some days of the year.

------
simonebrunozzi
"The best place to eat in Antarctica is probably Zuchelli, the Italian
research station in Terra Nova Bay"

Ah, at least for a moment I felt proud to be Italian :)

------
TimTheTinker
I haven’t finished the piece yet, but it’s really well-written and fun to
read. Thanks!

------
stupidcar
Or, A Subarctically Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again.

~~~
idlewords
I would go again in a heartbeat.

~~~
stupidcar
I was just making a dumb joke:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Supposedly_Fun_Thing_I'll_...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Supposedly_Fun_Thing_I'll_Never_Do_Again)

------
midgetjones
Maciej's writing was always fantastic, but this story in particular was so
well-written that I'm very excited for the next one.

Also, if you're reading this Maciej, there's a typo: indedidble.

------
Uhhrrr
"Why do the Russians never smile?"

This is just a Russian thing. Sometimes if you're lucky you'll get a bit of
eye crinkle.

~~~
Baeocystin
I'd say Russians smile plenty- among trusted friends and family. If a stranger
walks up to you smiling, it's pretty much universally seen as someone trying
to pull a fast one on you at best.

Speaking of Russians and smiling, I got to go the McDonald's in Red Square
shortly after it opened. The culture clash of the Russian staff being told
that they must smile to their customers made for some great people watching.

~~~
YeGoblynQueenne
I get a sort of cultural jetlag when I move between the UK, where I live and
work, and then France, Italy and Greece (where I'm from). In the UK,
shopspeople will smile at you by default. In Greece, Italy and France, people
will only smile if they have a reason to smile, and showing that they
appreciate your custom is not a reason to smile, I guess because it's taken
for granted that you're welcome to spend your money at their store.

So when I go back to the continent, I have to remind myself that, no, the fact
that the lady that sold me that magazine or that sandwich etc. didn't beam
back at me when I paid it doesn't mean she was being rude, or disapproving.
She just didn't feel like smiling.

It takes me a couple of times every time, to acclimate myself.

The funny thing is that both Greeks and Italians will smile and laugh _a
lot_... in the right circumstances (at the table, when you say a joke, when
you actually strike a conversation, etc). They just don't see smiling as a
necessary component of a service they are paid to provide.

~~~
err4nt
I wonder how I would be perceived in a place like that. I am introverted so I
don't spark up conversations with people, but I'm always polite, cheerful, and
express gratitude to people because the way I think about it, these are all
nice and they cost me nothing to give. I wouldn't want to be perceived as
insincere though. Is it okay to be a cheerful smiler in places where it's not
the custom to smile as often?

~~~
Baeocystin
Is it ok? Sure, in the sense that most people understand that foreigners are
going to have different mannerisms. But that doesn't mean that they'll take
your actions in the way you intend. It is still going to be a little stressful
for even the most understanding of local people, and as visitors it _is_ our
job to do our best.

That being said, putting forth even a moderate amount of visible effort into
doing things the local way will earn you social capital that you will need
when you inevitably make a mistake that is more severe than you'd expect. If
you can get to the point where you can laugh at yourself to smooth over any
misunderstandings, then carry on, you'll be fine most anywhere.

------
Pristina
i read through that pretty effortlessly. the person writes pretty well.

------
empath75
That was just delightful.

------
nathanvanfleet
Kind of non plussed by this fiction. What is the point of trivializing a
specific diet? Even if you don't have a doctor's note it's not really anyones
problem that you're eating gluten free; except of course maybe if you create
some entirely artificial situation in your fiction writing. I think this kind
of thinking has generated a lot of people pushing back at me when they should
just not care.

~~~
mattkrause
I think the point is to trivialize an adult having a meltdown over receiving
one piece of toast, rather than two....

------
vyodaiken
great

------
angryjim
Be a Man. Or even better, be a tough Russian.

Toughen up, right? That’s the message subtext here.

As someone who has been diagnosed with Celiac and who has a Celiac child I
find this dismissive additude OFFENSIVE.

I don’t know anything about Russian or Asian Celiac rates of occurance, but I
bet they aren’t that much different than the US. The only difference being
awareness and diagnosis.

~~~
mlevental
how many internet points do you win for being OFFENDED? is your CHILD also
OFFENDED?

~~~
angryjim
Do you disagree with the subtext here?

~~~
mlevental
the subtext of what? your post or the subtext your projecting on the article
or that of the article?

------
samuli
It is worth noting, that coeliac disease is a real thing, where gluten-free
diet must be strictly adhered to. These kinds of dismissive articles, which
treat gluten-free diets fads are extremely dangerous for those suffering the
illness, since it makes the general public not to take it seriously.

~~~
Niksko
The people you should be criticising are the fad diet people. It is they that
are bringing gluten intolerance into disrepute.

~~~
maxsteam
The advantage of the fad is that they have created much more demand for
gluten-free food. My son has an allergy to wheat so enjoys the fact that the
supermarket shelves are now stacked with suitable food.

~~~
thaumasiotes
Well, as noted elsewhere, they've created a lot more demand for food that is
labeled "gluten-free". They haven't created more demand for food that is
actually gluten-free, since they can't tell the difference; lots of people are
willing to humor these people by giving them the label they want without going
to the effort of taking the gluten out of the food. The same thing happens
with "locally sourced".

But unlike "locally sourced", food that has been mislabeled as "gluten-free"
is dangerous for celiacs.

As another side effect, the fad people do a lot of work to train everyone to
believe things like "people who claim to be gluten-sensitive are stupid". I
don't imagine celiacs appreciate that either.

~~~
cimmanom
My favorite thing is how food items that obviously don't and never would have
gluten are now slapped all over with labels that indicate they're gluten free.
Guess what? Your dozen eggs are now gluten free! So is a gallon of (cow's)
milk! And that bag of apples! And a head of fresh broccoli! And green tea! And
bottled water!

What's next? Advertising gluten-free toothbrushes and paper towels and
smartphone cases?

~~~
umanwizard
Reminds me of the legend (maybe true, who knows) of the salmon cannery that
marketed its naturally paler-than-usual stock with the slogan "Guaranteed not
to turn pink in the can!"

~~~
justtopost
Almost all farmed salmon is colored by dyes in food, or processing. Skipping
that step could be marketed as a somewhat legit health benefit. I have no idea
if the dyes are at all harmful, but many people are bound to like their fish
unaltered and 'natural'. Either way, brilliant marketing.

