Allergic to seafood (help!)

[jroloizia]

Hey everyone. I'm moving to Japan in August for a year and I'm slightly worried about the fact that I'm allergic to nearly all seafood (aside from clams and calamari). Am I totally screwed? I'd like to think that I'll be able to find plenty of non-seafood to eat, but I'm in need of some reassurance. What would you suggest?

I know that there was a post a ways back about creating an allergy card, but I'm more concerned with alternatives and dining/cooking suggestions here. Thanks!

-Jeff

[seanolan]

Honestly, you need to be REALLY careful what you eat here, and do NOT trust the servers to understand what "seafood" entails. They do not understand food allergies here, or so it seems. One of my friends is deathly allergic to seafood. He has a dozen horror stories of going into restaurants, explaining (in excellent Japanese) his severe allergies to seafood, and still being served foods that contain squid, crab, shrimp, etc. Without fail, the servers will say they didn't realize that he meant that particular seafood. Do NOT trust a server's word for whether a food is safe; ask the chef what is in it, and if you don't recognize a food, don't trust it. Seriously; my friend has been to the hospital too many times - seafood is ubiquitous here, from chunks of scallops in spaghetti bolognese to dashi (fish broth) being used as flavoring as often as chicken broth is in the west.

Sean

[JonB]

I never realised that the brown sauce that comes with tofu was fish based for years - sorry to my veggie visitors for getting it wrong for so long