Chinese?

[rachael]

Hi there, I have a 2-year-old son with HFI. One of our family traditions is a big platter of Chinese food around the holidays. Is there anything other than white rice that would likely be safe? He's crazy about crab rangoon, but I'm wondering if that's too risky (it looks like most have scallions and garlic). Maybe steamed broccoli and chicken?

[colormist]

Egg drop soup and white rice is my old go-to for safe Chinese.
I really don't think there's anything else, though. I tried almost everything on every Chinese menu and have yet to find a universally safe dish.

There are these deep fried chicken things that I've enjoyed. It's basically battered chicken breast that is deep fried. The batter is soft and fluffy. I can never find it when I switch Chinese restaurants, though. They change the name of it with each new restaurant.

In one restaurant it was called "Chicken Almond Ding" and another it was called "Wor Su Gai" (my spelling is probably wrong).
Here's a recipe I found online with a photo! allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/22410/chinese-chicken-balls.aspx

It's really yummy and perfect for small fingers.

Every Crab Rangoon I've tried was crazy sweet (in Ohio, Michigan, WV, and PA).
Broccoli would have too much fructose.
Steamed chicken would work.
Water Chestnuts are safe, too. Bamboo (I think) is safe, but skip the baby corn and carrots. Mushrooms are good. Really have all the makings of a decent meal here, if you can get the restaurant to skip adding the sauces!

[ukbill]

I cook chinese fried rice dishes with bamboo shoots, mushrooms and a few chopped tinned baby sweet corns thrown in to the mix.

Chicken, prawn, Tampa is good, Lemon chicken is good, seafood of all sorts mixes well with rice in a Wok stir fry.

Home made Black Bean sauce and Black Bean beef is good too.

Take any chinese recipe and remove the sweet things. replace with lemon (grated zest in small amounts is Fructose free and not too bitter) a few small pickled chilies chopped up will give a lot of fire and sparkle to the meal.

Improvise and you will be surprised how good it comes out.

Tempura batter.. corn flour with finely grated lemon zest and the juice of 1/2 a lemon then water and a touch of Kikkoman soy sauce to make the batter.

Dip slices of any meat in the batter and deep fry individually for a few seconds (until light golden colour for safe meats. like beef and fish. A bit longer for chicken, pork and fresh uncooked prawns)

I do them in batches. 5 or 6 dipped and dropped in close succession then stirred to stop them sticking together and lifted out as each comes to the right colour. (put them under paper towels in a warm oven to dry the excess oil and keep them warm until all are cooked.

[rachael]

Thanks to you both over here as well

The chicken balls look great, I'll have to try to make those. Good to know about water chestnuts, mushrooms, and bamboo; I wasn't aware that they were safe. Is lemon safe as well?

Maybe I'll try preparing some food ahead of time so he can join in the festivities but we'll know that what he is eating is safe. Takeout and restaurants make me very nervous, especially since he's still too young to be able to tell me that he isn't feeling well.

[rysmom14]

we stayed away from most take out/ fast food restaurants and really still do most of the time now too. I always just pack him a cooler anytime we leave the house. When we do go somewhere I will get my son (3ys) butter noodles and then I will add some things from his cooler, like turkey or a baby hamburger.

I thought jasmine rice is one of the better options as far as white rice goes. And the kikomoan's soysauce ( regular not low sodium) was ok. so maybe some chicken and rice with mushrooms, water chestnuts and bamboo. Sounds yummy to me. And personally, I would just make his at home and then bring it to the restaurant. I am worried that there would be a misunderstanding and he would be given something wrong.

as far as lemon, I think some people are able to have small amounts and other are not. ( I know that's not helpful at all we all want yes and no answers, me included) I haven't tried this with my son because he is so little. Its going to be one of those things I wait for until he is old enough to really tell me how he feels.

[colormist]

Lemon does have fructose in it and can make an HFIer very sick if we eat it regularly. If you're dealing with a little one, I would avoid it entirely!

[ukbill]

For fructose free lemon flavour use finely grated lemon zest. be careful though it can make a very bitter taste if you go too far with it.
Lemons like all vegetables have different varieties.

In some countries you can get avocados that HFI'ers claim to be safe.. I've not found any in the UK or in Australia and South Africa.. I have also had some lemons that are far too sweet.

Usually these are the lemons that are very "shiny" and smooth surfaced (I have found the same with cucumbers and scallions too).

In the UK I find the normal varieties of Lemons we have for sale are safe in the sort of quantities that are likely to be used. (1 whole lemon thinly sliced and put into a jug with ginger powder and hot water when I have a bad head cold) However the Limes we get are smooth skinned and (not certain if its psychosomatic or not) but they are far too sweet for me, unlike our lemons.. however tests done by food laboratories seem to show Lemons having a higher Fructose load than limes.

As always it depends so much on variety of vegetable tested and testing procedure as to the accuracy or relevance to us of "test" results.

I used to eat water chestnuts but recently the tinned varieties seem to be very sweet. Perhaps using different varieties? Or my taste buds getting more discerning with eating a far reduced Fructose load over time.??

I also used ot eat bean sprouts.. but not now. love their flavour hate their fructose load.

[ukbill]

Steamed Veg are never going to be safe for an HFI person.. all the fructose will still be trapped in the veg. boiling in LOTS of water is the only safe way to cook any veg for an HFI.

IF you want to make baked potatoes for an HFI.. soak them in water for a long time 1st then change the water and boil them till cooked through and put them in the oven to bake the outer shell and make it tasty.

However make sure you are starting with a (comparatively as none are truly 100% safe) HFI safe variety of potato to start with. most are far too sweet even after all the above, after peeling too.