People with serious food allergies want impostors to stop faking it in restaurants

I know someone that won't eat tomatoes. Adamantly refuses. Used to claim he was allergic to them (he isn't).

I asked him one day and the truth of it was, when he was a child, around 5 or 6, he asked his father a question at the dinner table. He was eating tomato soup, and I think was asking his dad to play catch or what the weekend would hold, maybe making a joke in response to something being said. His father was in the middle of drinking, stood up from the table, took his head and dunked it, holding his face into the dish for several minutes. Went on a rampage afterwards like usual.

It's far easier to just say you're allergic to it when you're being nagged about it, than to explain growing up in an abusive household. However I will say, the allergy fable isn't used unless he's pressed on about it. Otherwise he'll just ask that they be removed is all. It usually doesn't end there though. And it just marks off one more restaurant to never go to again. I don't really think he gives a damn otherwise.

Saying "I don't like them", invites alot of stupid, unnecessary questions as if it were their business beyond just a customer requesting to not be served something. When he makes that request, not once has he been asked if it was because of an allergy. He doesn't exactly dine in fine establishments anyways, this tends to lead to waitresses who somehow take some personal offense to YOU not liking something (usually small town, mom & pop diners), and sorry, but it is just so much more goddamn easy to just say, no I'm just allergic, thanks.

I've literally seen it with anything and everything when someone requests something be pulled from their order. "Oh you don't like X? But I love X! How come you don't like X?" I just don't, "Oh well I just know it's the greatest healthiest thing for ya so that's why I've come to like X so much, I even started a whole garden for making X". The only exception has been with nut allergies, I guess because it's the most well known.

No one wants to hear all of this shit. Usually just saying that you're allergic is enough. Most won't even look beyond that, nor be concerned about surfaces or cross contamination anyways, more often than not I get the impression that they don't give a shit either. Not to mention such small talk just puts one off their meal...

/r/nottheonion Thread Parent Link - cbc.ca