Gluten-Free is the Way to Be!
I was sitting on the steps of the Community Center Theatre this afternoon, enjoying a box lunch from La Bou after sitting through a meeting on Health Care at the Capitol. The sun was fine, and I was enjoying the passing parade.
As is de rigueur in these situations, I got panhandled by a guy in sunglasses and baseball hat: “Do you have any spare change so I can get something to eat?” “Sorry…”
I finished my sandwich as the guy made his way up L Street. Realizing that there was no way I was going to eat the included pasta salad in the plastic cup, I had an ersatz impulse. I caught up to our hungry protagonist, and offered said pasta salad to him. His response floored me:
“I can’t eat that. I’m allergic.”
Only in California, folks. Only in California.
That’s pretty funny. Even beggars have sophisticated diets out here. I once got panhandled in San Francisco from an old man who asked me if I would be so kind as to buy him some food from a nearby Burger King. I was so relieved he didn’t want money for booze/drugs that I happily said, "Yes!" He proceeded to issue his custom order, "I’d like one of those meals with the fries and a drink. A Whopper with no mayonnaise, no mustard. And I don’t like french fries so see if you can substitute something else for the fries…"
Didn’t he say he was allergic? Shouldn’t even the homeless and hungry avoid eating things that make them sick? If I were homeless and had serious food allergies, I’d probably be pretty picky too. Maybe he just didn’t seem believable.
It reminds me of a story I heard a while back about an aid organization that responded to a food crisis in Africa by procuring tons of rice to send to the affected country– only to learn that rice wasn’t part of the traditional diet and the locals couldn’t eat it.
I had this happen to me once in Berkeley, and once here in Capitol Park.
The Capitol Park lady asked me for money on Christmas Day, but I had none. I only had two chocolate bars in my pocket, which I offered her. She said they would hurt her teeth but I asked her if she couldn’t trade them for something else. Her face lit up and she gave me a big smile, sans a few teeth, and took the chocolate. It all depends, I suppose.
BTW I wouldn’t have taken the pasta salad either. I’m allergic too. (I break out in fat.)
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Gary Reed
Forum Editor