Cycling the silk road with (pea)nut allergy

[halcyon]

Hi everyone,
My partner and I have started planning our next trips, and working up to a round the world cycling trip somewhere in the next few years, including large parts of the silk road/Pamir Highway. While the exact route is not defined yet, we will definitely spend a good amount of time in Central Asia, ie something like Iran - Uzbekistan - Tajikistan - Kyrgyzstan - Kazakhstan - Russia/Altai - Mongolia, all depending on borders, pandemics, etc.

However, my partner has a hardcore nuts allergy (peanuts, almonds, cashews, etc.). I have not been able to find a lot of information on general prevalence of nuts in these countries, or experiences of people trekking through the area with a nut allergy, so I was hoping to find some more information/experiences on this forum!

I guess what I am looking for is getting a feel for the general prevalence of nuts in local food, or the possibility of avoiding it if unclear and finding alternative sources (although I have read many great stories about local hospitality). From what I've read, nut allergies are very uncommon and not really understood in a lot of these countries, but that's about all I could find.

[Bakhtiyark]

Most staples(Lagman/plov/shurpa) do not have nuts in them. Occasionally some chefs might sprinkle their dishes with sesame seeds(not sure if they can cause the same discomfort as nuts) but other than that I can't recall nuts being common for non-desserts. I think you'd probably have a lot more difficulties being allergic to milk or gluten.
You can completely eliminate the risks by buying prepackaged food and reading labels as they are marked should they contain trace amounts of common allergens.

[trikolka]

my answer may be late, I did not see this post before. Nuts are not common in everyday food in Central Asia. They are more common in Iran, but in any restaurant, if you will always find dishes without nuts : just ask. As you may already have done during a previous trip, note the translation in turkish, persian, and russian to be sure people will understand what you must avoid eating because of your allergy.

[ilikeplants625]

Hey there — I sent a private message but thought I’d also add here. How’d it go? I also have these severe allergies and wanting to learn how to do trips like this in the future.

[Milad]

Hi,

sorry for the late reply, just came across this thread. I'm allergic to peanuts myself (but not to tree nuts).

Peanuts are hardly used at all in Central Asian cuisine, you will mainly see them as a nibble in bars (especially in highly Russian influenced cities such as Almaty). Other nuts aren't used much either in Central Asian cuisine traditionally, but things such as plov may occasionally be sprinkled with cashews or almonds (chickpeas appear often in plov, if you should be allergic against them too). You may wish to avoid Georgian restaurants as they use walnuts a lot, even though their food is great (on the other side, dishes such as khachapuri are certainly nut-free).

In larger cities, you can find Russian-style self-service restaurants called stolovaya, which are allergy friendly as you can see what you will get before ordering and can avoid sauces, of which you don't know the ingredients. These places also usually have Russian soups, which are certainly nut-free (esp. borscht, solyanka, shi). Almaty and most other places in Kazakhstan are littered with them, Bishkek and Tashkent have a few.

Locals will often not understand your allergy, or at least the severity of it. In any case, I'd prepare allergy cards in both the local language and Russian, if you don't happen to speak Russian or the local language. It's often confusing for them even in their language, and I often do not ask for peanuts anymore to avoid a confusing conversation in a language I speak badly, as the risk is zero. I would not do this if you're allergic to tree nuts too, as the risk is higher.

The one thing I absolutely avoid for allergy reasons and you should too, are Chinese/Uyghur restaurants. Lots of (pea)nuts.