Ignorance, ignorance, ignorance.
Considering the lack of English education foodstall handlers have, trying to talk to them is a real pain in the ass.
Even more so when you have a food allergy, and you have to attempt explaining to that auntie behind the stall why you don’t want this or that in your food while she stares at you with a perplexed (and annoyed) expression, as if implying that I’m a picky person.
Take today for instance.
Lotus Thai Viet - was the stall’s name, at the food court at the top floor of Tampines Mall. Yours truly was craving fried olive rice, and thus placed my order with this blank-faced auntie at the stall.
I watched her garnish the dishes ordered before me, and noticed that she had sprinkled crushed peanuts over most dishes. That was when alarm bells started ringing in my head, and I quickly informed her that when she came to my olive rice, I strictly did not want any crushed peanuts over it.
No response from her.
I reiterated everything in Chinese and she seemed to understand - well, at least that’s what I thought. Because she nodded.
Eight minutes later (which is quite a long wait for a food court), my olive rice finally emerged from the kitchen behind the stall and said auntie began garnishing it. Before I could react, she had flung an entire spoonful of crushed peanuts all over my food.
That was when I yelped.
“Noooo, didn’t I tell you not to add any peanuts?”
She stared at me, blankly. I began to hastily convert everything into Chinese.
”
我不能吃 err … peanuts! I have an allergy to peanuts! 我对 peanuts 有过敏!”
It’s rather obvious that this auntie was clueless about food allergies, since she only seemed to understand the first part of my sentence where I mentioned that I did not want peanuts. She then proceeded to scrape the peanuts off the top layer of my rice using the same spoon which was previously dipped into the bowl of crushed peanuts which still had peanut crumbs all over it. There was still quite a lot of peanuts (which was more difficult to remove) on the rice when she was done.
“Nah. Like that, can or not?”
I felt like screaming. I have a fucking allergy! Didn’t she understand? Is she like, dense or what? Little or a lot, it does not change the fact that the damn rice still has peanuts on it.
“I HAVE AN ALLERGY, DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND? 我吃 peanuts 会死的!”
(The last sentence translates into: I might die if I ingest peanuts.)
Another lady who happened to be standing next to me at the foodstall understood my plight and she too, tried to (unsuccessfully) convey the seriousness of the situation to the still bewildered looking foodstall auntie who was still waving my plate around in mid-air (yes, with peanuts intact).
We spoke to her in English, to no avail. We tried translating everything in Chinese and still, we couldn’t wipe out that blank look on her face.
Is a food allergy such a difficult concept to understand?
It’s hard to miss considering how there is much emphasis on allergies splattered all over the newspapers these days. Ignorant fool.
The good Samaritan lady then offered to take my original plate of peanut-contaminated olive rice on my behalf since she intended to place an order for that as well, while she ordered the foodstall auntie to whip up another plate for me, peanut-free this time.
I was too flustered to thank her properly. Can’t remember her face either, since my head was seriously pounding at the ridiculousness of the situation (and the foodstall auntie’s stupidity) to concentrate on anything. But whoever she is, wherever she may be - a middle aged, medium height lady with short curly hair, wears spectacles and a white t-shirt, thank you so very much for your help.
Seriously, I am not the only individual with multiple food-allergies (especially peanuts) in Singapore - and I sympathise with any other person with the same condition as me.
Likewise, I doubt she’s the only ignorant idiot in the whole island of Singapore - there’s bound to be many more, which means that everyone else with multiple allergies are at risk of bumping into idiots like her (and struggle to make him/her understand how potentially severe food allergies are).
Allergies are not meant to be taken lightly. Even a couple of peanut crumbs is liable to set anyone with a more severe form of peanut allergy into a full-blown anaphylaxis shock.
I’m still fuming over the whole incident even now.
Ignorance is not an excuse. If someone suffered or dies from an allergy shock due to your negligence (i.e. your lack of knowledge about allergies, or any other medical condition that has food restrictions), it doesn’t change the fact that you’re still answerable and liable to the affected and his/her family members.
C O M M E N T S (7)
I sympathise with you because I have food allergies myself, so the way the woman just acted so casually about your food was just unacceptable. Perhaps the woman was just unfamiliar with the concept of allergies coz she probably eats everything and had little exposure to people who have adverse effects to certain foods. I have met some characters in the food centres (hawker centres, coffee shops, restos) as well and there was one incident where they have been absolutely relentless when they put shrimp (my personal food-related waterloo) in my orders. =/ But still, ignorance is not an excuse.
Maybe it’s high time to find another stall for your olive fried rice. Preferably one that isn’t peanut-happy.
Take care!
Oh my! They should be aware of the circumstances… Sighs
That’s got to be incredibly frustrating! I’ve had similar situations, not because of allergies, but because I’m picky. IMO, if people cannot communicate well, they shouldn’t be working the front end of any public service.
I’m sure the helpful lady understood your frustrations, and knew you intended to say thank you!
I think a lot of people born in older generations are a lot more ignorant because of they ways they were taught and grew up with. A lot of shady business owners only took towards making money too and could care less about the food and customers. Shame.
As a fellow Singaporean, I feel your pain. I think that people here (older generations) are brought up speaking Chinese and some are uneducated. Such a pity. My friends in school tend to speak more Chinese than English so my principal has to emphasis speaking English. For me, it’s the opposite, I speak English all the time and not Chinese.
You know the way you describe the middle aged lady who help you? It sounded a lot like my teacher except she doesn’t wear glasses. xD
Oh, I’m so sorry… if it helps my parents tend to be rather skeptical about mental illnesses… they think that if you ignore the symptoms things’ll get better. Of course, they don’t deal with this stuff…
Oh well, you’ll just have to play “picky customer”. You ARE paying for your food, so it’s your right to order it any way you like it.
alamak. she’s uneducated mahh. *hugs hugs!
oh, i was wondering if i could talk to you about SMU! ive to do my uni applications now. add me on msn k! (: