Skip to main content

The Feast



Food, glorious food…

It’s a big part of our seasonal celebrations, isn’t it? While we may not be sitting down to a feast featuring a boar’s head processional nor concluding with a flaming figgy pudding, we love to gather with those we love and share celebratory meals.

I’m not referring solely to Christmas, because every religion and culture have ways of celebrating that include food. And often families and groups of friends create their own “holidays” with special food that have nothing to do with a red letter day on the calendar. At my house, for instance, June 1st is Tiger Birthday. We celebrate with chocolate pie. 

Now, here’s the thing. It seems as though many people have dietary restrictions these days. I think that’s fine. In the past people just got sick and felt miserable and nobody knew why. Knowing what foods you need to avoid is an improvement. In the case of severe allergies it’s a life or death situation. 

Others have made ideological decisions to avoid meat and animal products and still others follow religious guidelines. Lastly, some of us can not or choose not to ingest anything containing alcohol.

So, let’s say you want to gather together over food and drink this year. What will that look like for you? In my family we have one person who can’t have dairy, one who can’t have gluten, one who can’t have anything in the allium family, one who has sensory issues around some foods, and almost no one drinks alcohol. Just for fun, my diverticulitis has flared up again just in time for Christmas. The list of what I can eat is smaller than what I should avoid.

Ah yes. It’s the most wonderful time of the year - - unless you are meal planning. 

If you are in this situation in one way or another, what are the places in Howard County that make it easier for you? Which groceries/specialty food stores are well stocked when it comes to people with dietary restrictions? And what about restaurants? If you needed to accommodate a group like mine, for instance, where would you go? What establishments really “get it” when it comes to allergies/food intolerance and are set up to accommodate customers with differing needs?

Basically I want to know where you’ve had a good experience. What are your “go to” local food businesses when it comes to special diets? Let’s pool our resources here. 


Village Green/Town² Comments


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more