Just a quick round-robin to ask if there are any people out there who are gluten-intolerant? It would be good to share knowledge about food - sources, restaurants etc. Please make contact if you are interested.

Hi
I am a gluten-intolerant swede who comes to kunming with my wife and 1 year old child on saturday for a four month stay.

Dont know much about gluten and china yet but I would gladly take any advice about good places to visit. And in a couple I will probably be ably to give some too.

// Josef

Hi Josef,
Eating out in Kunming is not expensive, but you have to be careful about what is added to the food. When we went back to the UK last month, we brought back a number of things that we couldn't find in Kunming, as we cook at home a lot:

Soy sauce (can you imagine?!!). Virtually all soy sauce here has wheat in it. There is a brand from Japan called Tamari which is wheat-free - they probably stock it in Sweden. Other things we brought back were: stock powder, baking powder, gluten-free pasta and cheese biscuits. It depends how much you intend to cook at home.
On the restaurant front, there are a number of places that have some gluten-free items. Of course there are fabulous vegetables and fruit out here, as well as the rice, so you should be fine overall. Make contact when you are here and we will arrange to meet up and help where we can.

Marc

ps. a lot of shops will be closed for Spring Festival from this weekend. Barbara, who runs "Slice of Heaven" is doing a Sunday Roast this Sunday and is on the case regarding our gluten-free diet. Do let her know if you want to come along (and are not too jet-lagged!).

A few points, hope its helpful-

1. Tamari just means soy sauce in Japanese . it is NOT a brand-so don't think that just because a bottles says tamari it is wheat free. Only certain companies make wheat free tamari.

2. if you are gluten intolerant in china-it would be better to avoid eating out. Gluten is an all or nothing thing-if the kitchen uses any gluten containing foods-cross contamination is likely. Nobody knows about this issue in China. Well intentioned people may try to prepare gluten free recipes, without checking the factory environment, cross contamination.

3. Gluten intolerance either manifests itself acutely (think celiac disease, autism) or it slowly destroys the joints and nervous system, through immune derangement. So its nothing to play around with.

4. Tens of millions of people in China are suffering from this, without knowing it. Presumably they face chronic illness, unemployment, iatrogenic illness, suicide, etc as there are few hospitals in the country testing for it-misdiagnosis is the norm here.

5. many people think they have gluten intolerance and don't.

Hi Jonny,

Thanks for the information, and correcting me regarding Tamari. You are
right - I looked at the bottle we brought back and there is another name on it called Meridian, which I assume is the brand name. It also says it is gluten-free on the bottle. As you say, I'm sure there are many others.

Hi, I'm Barbara from Slice of Heaven in Hong Shan Dong Lu. On Sundays we have a roast dinner. It couldn't be easier to make it a gluten-free roast dinner. Just give me a call, tell me how many and I'll happily make you a gluten-free roast dinner and pudding almost as good as your Mum's.

I just attempted a gluten free meal for a friend. Watch out for most cooking oils as well as most cooking sauces as they have small amounts of wheat. I was surprised at the amount of foods that contain gluten.

Hello, I am an American who will start working at Kunming No. 1`Middle/High school in the middle of August. I am gluten intolerant and would very much like to meet others.

Let's revive this cheery topic! :)

I was last in Kunming in 2010, and our attempt to find GF soy sauce was unsuccessful. I am thinking about bringing some when we return in June, but am not going to risk a pint of brown liquid spilling in my luggage just to find that it's now the most popular thing at Wal-Mart :) Does anyone know?

I just did a search on taobao.com and came up with this:

item.taobao.com/[...]
Kikkoman Gluten Free Soy Sauce/龟甲万/万字无麸质酱油/独家
¥99.00