
To help those of you traveling in Russia while managing gluten free diets and food allergies, I'd like to share with you some tips that successfully kept me safe during my entire 2 week vacation with friends to Russia.
Ever since I was a little girl, I would dream of exploring Moscow and St. Petersburg! Therefore, I did everything in my power before and during my trip to ensure that I was served and ate safe meals each and every time.

I was determined not to be sick in bed for three days due to ingesting any gluten or allergen containing foods. I had waited a long time to visit Russia and was going to experience every moment to its fullest while feeling great! And I did!
However, traveling to Russia with celiac disease (spelled coeliac outside of North America) and food allergies still has been my biggest gluten and allergy free eating challenge to date.
Since the concept of food allergies is not very common in Russia, the level of awareness and understanding about special diets is extremely limited. In the past couple of years, this has been increasing slightly with a few gluten free vendors such as Dr. Schaer and celiac sites such as this one for St. Petersburg now available - even if you need to translate them into English from Russian.

Based on this, I heavily relied on two key resources to help educate restaurant and hotel staff about my gluten free and allergy free requirements as well as give me the confidence I needed to eat safely.
First, my Russian chef translation cards for gluten free and allergy free dining were critical. After hiring a professional translation service and then conducting quality assurance with a native Russian speaker, I knew that these food phrases in Russian were correct. Before my trip, I had our graphic designer create the cards to help throughout my travels and which now can help you!
I downloaded, printed and carried multiple paper copies of the cards with me at all times in case the restaurant staff, chefs or managers wanted to keep them for future reference. These cards are available in PDF format for printing, your iPad or eReader. You can also purchase the Russian Phrase ebook which contains hundreds of gluten and allergy free phrases to help you wherever you are!
