Thai-ing To Remember

My wife and I have already agreed that our the next time we are away without the kids we are having Peanut Butter toast and a huge omelet. For at least ten years I ate peanut butter for breakfast every morning. Many of those mornings I also had eggs. I am struggling a little with my fruit smoothies and oatmeal, though both are certainly great. I still haven't found Sun Butter but apparently that might be a solution.

The irony is that the peanut butter was easy to cut out of the house since it was right in front of me every day. It has been harder to break old habits such as eating Thai food. We used to order Thai at least twice month but of course that stopped once we discovered our daughter's allergy.

Thai cuisine might be the earth's single biggest supporter of peanut on a per-staple-dish basis. They put peanuts in everything.

I have blogged before about how it is not reasonable to expect a Thai restaurant to be peanut free, and I have seen why first hand. I am currently on a training course and last night our team had work to do in the evening. Once tummies started to rumble we ordered out. It was natural instinct to suggest Thai ... it's easy, many people like it, etc. As I began to order I remembered why I had not eaten Thai since December 2006.

As I placed my order I remembered that the Chicken Skewers had peanut sauce and the Pad Thai contained peanuts. The team seemed intent on Thai and my daughter was not around so I figured I'd just go ahead and order and make sure I did not have any peanut. I requested that the peanut sauce be left out and did not order the Pad Thai with peanuts.

So naturally when the order arrived I had double peanut sauce and for some strange reason they included a cup of crushed peanuts for me to use as a topping. Clearly something was lost in translation. I threw out the peanut toppings and tried to remember to wash my hands and face when I arrived home later that night.

When I walked through the door my daughter stirred and I went in to give her a kiss. Oops! I did not wash my face before doing so. Even though I did not knowingly eat peanuts, my default to the worst case scenario left me very worried about cross contamination. I went into her room every five minutes for an hour to make sure I did not bring home a peanut treat.

Everything was fine but for an hour I sat in my chair waiting for the worst to transpire.