My close friend, family, and colleague Jalop is very familiar with my long list of food allergies. You can too, if you’ve ever been on a flight where the flight attendants told you not to eat any peanut-containing products because someone on the plane had allergies. Yes, I am that person.
I love to eat and travel, but since I was diagnosed with severe allergies almost 15 years ago, both can lead to nightmares. Now one thing has improved is finding restaurants in and around destinations that can cater to my allergies (with the help of many apps), but the airport is where cause the most problems.
Most airports, at least the larger ones, have lots of chain restaurants to choose from, but almost all of them are banned because I have a food allergy. Grocery stores, often sponsored by some media conglomerate, will sometimes have the basics that I can pay three times more than anywhere else to buy, but they lean towards the side. snacking and missing a real meal. That is, if they have those kind of snacks.
For example, one fateful morning I arrived in Newark after a crazy weekend in New York City (it involved witnessing a hit-and-run with a stolen car, followed by the arrest of the aforementioned driver… while I was driving the press). I also came without snacks. I risked the fact that my flight home would only take a couple of hours, so I thought I could manage. My flight was delayed for almost three hours, and I wandered around the airport looking for something to eat. My choices are water and a naked fruit smoothie. I couldn’t find anything safe to eat other than that.
You know what I want to be able to find? Option. A hot meal. You know how great a hot meal is after you’ve made three connecting flights and been at the airport for 10 to 12 hours straight? Especially when it’s a hot meal that won’t put you on a steady stream of Benadryl, an H2 blocker, and potentially a week or two of steroids? I dream about this.
Also, can we stop selling peanuts?
