SHUT MY MOUF
Originally Published the Week of Oct .9, 2026 in Western Outdoor Publications
Food allergies!
When did all this happen?
When we were kids, we at hot dogs, pizza, meat, baloney sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly. There was McDonalds, Taco Bell, Jack-in-the-Box and KFC Chicken to name a few.
No one in our house stopped us from eating…whatever showed up on the dinner table. We ate it. It didn’t have to be organic. Or farm-raised. Or free-range. Or grass fed.
There was no farm-to-table food. It went from the stove or oven…then over to your plate and happily to your fork. Eat it, kid! Thank you, Mom!
I don’t remember anyone being “allergic.”
And back in the day, we surely couldn’t afford to be “picky” either. You ate what was there (or slipped it to the dog under the table).
But, mostly not. If you’re hungry…we ate what was on the plate and put before you.
If it didn’t taste good, you doused it with catsup…or on my case growing up in an Asian household, you dumped soy sauce on it.
Very simple.
But nowadays…well, I encounter all kinds of particulars. We have owned our own fishing/ scuba diviing operation for over 3 decades here in La Paz.
We see hundreds of clients every year and thousands over 30 years.
As part of our trips, we also provide breakfast and lunches. It’s part of the package.
Back in the days, everyone got the same breakfast and lunches. My staff made several dozen per day. Occasionally, someone would request diet soda instead of regular soda in their food packs.
Either it was requested because of a dietary issue like diabetes or simply because (like me) they liked the taste of diet soda.
I get it. No big deal.
But these days…OMG!
“I can eat eggs, but not poultry.”
“Can I request all vegan food for my lunch, but it MUST be on cracked whole wheat bread. Oh, and I don’t like avocado or tomatoes.”
“On my breakfast only fruit, but no mangos”
Or “Mangos for breakfast, but no other fruits like melon or pineapple.”
“I’m lactose free, but I’m ok with cheese or mayonnaise.”
“Flour tortillas are OK for my breakfast, but only corn tortillas for my lunch and no more than 2 tortillas.
“Is the meat organic?”
“Does the meat actually come for grass-fed animals in Mexico?”
It goes on and on sometimes. Times and people have changed. I get it.
And surely, there are legit issues.
Religious issues. We have some of our regular Jewish guests that can only have Kosher food.
Or, more importantly, those who have real dietary conditions.
For instance, some guests have true lactose intolerances or who genuinely cannot eat meat products or certain processed food that has certain chemicals.
God bless ‘em. Technology and medical breakthroughs have enlightened us to real food issues that we never knew about when we were growing up.
Those folks have true and often difficult issues to deal with in their lives. And we are happy to accommodate them!
But, there are the others that just make our eyes roll when we get the order.
Like the young teens who only demand vegetarian food for the day. However, we see them wolf-down carne asada tacos in our restaurant that night.
Or they won’t eat sandwiches with mayonaise on them unless the mayo was made with “free range” eggs. Or if it is a certain brand.
Or some such.
I’m sorry. That’s faddish. It’s not a real medical or dietery issue. To me, it’s trendy or politically correct BS.
We deal with it and do our best to accommodate everyone. It’s really hard to know if someone has a true issue or not. So, we just always make the best of it.
However…It’s hard not to make judgements based on what people order for food .
But last year we had an older guest visit us. His request was something I had never heard before.
“Don’t feed my anything had had feathers on it!”
He was pretty adamant about that. OK…so nothing made with eggs. No chicken burritos. No turkey club sandwiches. Got it.
We sighed…rolled our eyes…and made sure none of the food we made or served him had walked or flew with feathers.
At the end of his trip he was in our restaurant and I off-handedly and flippantly asked him, “So, what’s the deal with not eating food with no feathers?”
I thought I would get some silly answer. I told him I had never gotten a request like that.
His response was hardly silly. It kinda put me in my place.
He told me, he was 82-years-old. He grew up in rural Alabama.
He looked at me and slowly drawled out…
“We lived in a 2 room shanty. There were 6 of us in the family. I never had shoes until I was 13 years old.”
He paused and kinda got that look of faraway. As if remembering.
“I got my first pair of shoes to go to school. But our house had no indoor plumbing. We had an outhouse. It was on the others side of our dirt yard.
…about 50’ feet from our back door.
He stopped. Thought and remembered…
“My daddy had lots of chickens and roosters and some turkeys. Every day, I had to feed them slop or whatever we had.
Every day I had to use the outhouse. Every day, I had to walk barefoot through that dirty yard. Full of crud and feathers and other stuff. I can still feel my toes walking through all of that mess and smell.
“It never came off and I never forgot it. “
That’s all he said.
Then, he looked back and focused on me. Coming back from some deep-seated unpleasant memory.
I took a deep breath and remembered the adage about not judging someone.
“Walk a mile in another man’s shoes…”
Shut my mouth and God bless you, sir.
That’s my story
Jonathan
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Jonathan Roldan has been writing the Baja Column in Western Outdoor News since 2004. Along with his wife and fishing buddy, Jilly, they own and run the Tailhunter Sportfishing Fishing Fleet in La Paz, Baja, Mexico www.tailhunter.com . They also run their Tailhunter Restaurant Bar on the famous La Paz malecon waterfront. If you’d like to contact him directly, his e-mail is: jonathan@tailhunter.com
Or drop by the restaurant to say hi. It’s right on the La Paz waterfront!
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Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter Sportfishing
Website:
www.tailhunter-international.com
Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: http://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/
Tailhunter YouTube Video Channel:
“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”
