Lunch at Blue Ginger

About two weeks ago, we went out to lunch to celebrate our peanut-allergic child’s 5th birthday.  We did this a few months in advance of the birthday since the start of school always brings a long period of colds and viruses; in our case, October till April!  Celebrating with a meal out was a big deal because we rarely eat out--except for the annual family car trip.  Usually, it’s Mom’s Home Cooking so that we can be peanut-avoiding purists as much as possible.  

The restaurant we went to was Chef Ming Tsai’s Blue Ginger in Wellesley, MA.  If any restaurant should be called food allergy friendly, it certainly would have to be Blue Ginger.  We called in advance, and they made a special note of the fact that we were planning on lunch, and that there would be a peanut allergic individual in our party.  When we arrived, they were ready for us and informed our server of the peanut allergy.  Our server verified the safety of every morsel of food.  We wanted to make certain none of us ate anything containing peanuts or that came into contact with them.  The food was superb and the service was top-notch.  It could not have been better!  And our children were very content too, eating chicken fingers ordered off the Blue Ginger Kid’s Menu.  The younger child--age 4--declared “Ming Tsai is a good cooker!”

We were fortunate enough to meet Ming Tsai toward the end of our meal, which was a nice surprise.  He chatted with all of us and especially our peanut-allergic birthday child.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, he is something of a superhero for our family.  Our server had told him about our child’s peanut allergy and the early birthday celebration lunch.  When the children’s coconut ice cream (all made in-house) was brought to the table later, a small birthday candle adorned the plate!  It was a nice touch and the kids enjoyed both blowing the candle out and eating the coconut ice cream.  Chef Ming Tsai was even kind enough to take a photo with us to commemorate the occasion.  And he gave the kids autographed menus with their names. It was a memorable and special 5th birthday lunch, to say the least!