dietary preferences

I know that there is a high chance that I am going to come off sounding like an insensitive person and I know that there is the saying "walk a mile in someone's shoes" and all, but I think that when there comes to some things there has to be a line. Food allergies and preferences...there has to be a limit.

I have only one preference and rule for me. I can not handle anything too spicy. Not because I don't like the taste of things that are spicy, though the thought of eating something so spicy hot that your tongue burns for an hour afterwards and you really don't taste the food item in question but only taste the spicy sauce kind of boggles my mind. I don't eat spicy food because it usually has a bad effect on my stomach and gives heart burn. Yep, first stage of getting old...figure my next stage is to hike my pants up over my stomach and complain about the government while sitting on park benches. However, I don't ask people to cook with less spice. If they do, I am thrilled; if they don't, I eat whatever else is left on the table. If I am ordering something in a restaurant and it is made to order, I will ask for less spice or even order something that is not spicy at all; I won't ask a buffet situation to make me a new plate of something that has little spice.

So that being said, we have a head supervisor big wig in camp that is lactose intolerant. I think he is minorly lactose intolerant cause he can eat things that are cooked or covered in butter but he can't drink milk or eat cheese. Not sure if that counts as lactose cause I always figured that if you are lactose intolerant that means you really can't eat anything that comes from milk. So all dairy (butter, cheese, milk, yoghurt) are out of your diet. What do we do to accomodate his needs out in camp? When I make a sandwich, or anything is made on the line, we have to make a serving or two without any dairy in it. Mashed potatoes are done without milk in them, only butter or margarine; I leave out cheese on the finished product of the sandwich that I make (which makes for an interesting grilled cheese and ham sandwich that is for sure) and so forth. However, what gets me is that I usually make him a sandwich, put it aside and keep it warm and soft away from the others and when I offer it to him he often goes "no, thanks, that is alright". If you are having something done for you specifically to meet your dietary needs, I figure even if you are not going to eat it all you take it, say thank you very much and walk away. Even if you throw it in the garbage after taking two bites of it, take the darn item. We have even gone so far as to order in lactose free milk for him. It took us nearly 2 months to get it in since our supplier out of Yellowknife really didn't carry lactose free milk that much but we finally got in 12 cartons of the stuff. We had it put in the kitchen cooler because we knew if it went out to the main fridge that the other geo-techs and herbivores would drink it all and this guy would get maybe a glass or two and that would be it. We were given instructions that if he came in to the kitchen to get a glass he was allowed (no one but workers are allowed in the back) or if he asked we had to go to the fridge and bring him a carton to use. So what happens? the day the stuff arrives, he comes to the back and happily grabs a glass and then the next day tells the camp manager that he doesn't like 'the brand' of milk that we got and wonders if we could get a different brand. Yeah, the camp manager told him that he would 'see what could be done' while we were told the camp managers true feelings. I dont think I have to write it down but it does involve a carton of milk, a place where the sun really does not shine and a lot of pushing and shoving. Did I mention that he is a high big wig in camp (when they drew up the chain of command of the camp and had it posted on the main board so everyone knows who to suck up to, his name was 2nd from the top)? Doubt he would get this kind of treatment if he was a driller or janitor.

Friday night was steak night. We often get slammed really bad on steak night because the 1st cook we have now does not believe in cooking the steaks to a certain degree and keeping them warm on the side so that it takes maybe 30 seconds to a minute and then hands out the steak. He cooks them to a degree and then lets them go cold so that when they are ordered on the line they take about 2-3 minutes on the grill to heat up. Which mean when we have a line up of 20 guys coming to get their steaks and only 3 steaks being ordered at a time, you can imagine how much running back and forth we get to do of delivering steaks, stocking up the line and putting other items down to cook. In the middle of all this running around, one guy looks at the food and asks "are all these items cooked in soy oil?" Ummmm, soy oil? never heard of the stuff though am thinking it is one of those items that has come out to eliminate the evils of the trans fats or whatever the fat it is these days that we aren't supposed to eat cause the nutritionists have said so. Of course I go and quickly have a look at the deep fry oil that we are using and it says 'vegetable oil' so I say that they were cooked in vegetable oil. Which he gives me a snooty look and says 'well, vegetable oil has a high chance of being made with soy oil'. Of course what I wanted to say was 'gee, thanks for the nutrition lesson, who the heck cares. Take your salad and potatoe and go commune with nature and let us meat eaters enjoy a nice meal' but instead all I could say was 'steak?' and he just shrugged and walked away. I think that it should be told to all people being hired to come to camp, if you are a health minded person that wants to eat low fat, low carbs, low taste, high nutrition stuff then stay out of camp. We make the artery clogging, taste packed, greasy and glorious food that has caused heart attacks and high cholesterol for many many generations and we love it. We don't get much in the way of your tofu burgers, soy weiners and organic carrots and corn out this way in the north. If we get anything to cook, we don't ask what it is or where it came from, we just thank the management for giving us something to cook and serve.

So yeah, that is my rant for the day. People asking for special treatment for food tastes. If you are allergic to the food and will die if you eat it, then yes we will tell you that there are peanuts in the salad or shrimp in the shrimp jambalya...but if you just have a taste preference live by the golden rule 'when in doubt, spit it out and eat a freaking salad'.