What do you not get at a kosher restaurant?
Kosher food follows the laws in Leviticus (which is Latin for laws) in the Hebrew bible (which was later translated into Greek, then Latin and English).
The rules are
No pork products.
No shellfish.
No mixing of milk and meat. That means that kosher restaurants either serve meat and imitation milk, such as soya milk for coffee and dessert. Or they are milk restaurants and serve no meat.
If you don't eat meat, only fish, then your option would be a milk restaurant.
If you are vegan, to avoid meat, you could go to a milk-only restaurant, but be careful to ask and make it clear that you want milk-free dishes.
If you are allergic to milk products, or cannot tolerate them, like about ten per cent of the Chinese and Asian populations, then
Free Of Shellfish!
It suits me. I am allergic to shellfish. When I was a child, my school friend's parents gave me crab paste from a pot, which had no ill affects. In the Sixties prawn cocktail was the thing. Prawns would often appear as a garnish on white fish, in salads, in sandwiches.
However, later in life I was very ill after eating crab sandwiches, by mistake. I saw the pink and pointed, thinking they were salmon.
I had another bad experience, after a king prawn. After I vomited, I continued retching all night, over the bath. I had swollen eyes and a swollen mouth.
I kept scratching. I had a rash like chicken pox all over my face. The hair on my head felt like I was on fire. I had a rash all down my body.
Prawns are a feature of Asian food, a constant worry to me when eating out in Asia. Prawns also pop up as garnish everywhere. In Asia you can find prawns in rice and soups, even after the Chinese staff and bystanders acting as interpreters assure you there is no shellfish.
In Korea we had a guide cum interpreter who spoke to staff and assured me, 'no shellfish'. I took a spoonful of the soup, which tasted sour, and asked her to check again. She assured me no shellfish. I took a second mouthful and my mouth started to zing. I dug around through the mush at the bottom of the bowl and produced a prawn!
I rushed off to rinse out my mouth and make myself vomit up what I had eaten. Interpreters in Singapore and other countries have often assured me no shellfish. Lots of people don't understand what shellfish are. I now avoid all kinds of prawns and shellfish. So, for me, a kosher supplier guaranteeing no surprise shellfish is great.
In north-west London you will find lots of kosher food in supermarkets as well as restaurants and delicatessens.
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