Category Archives: Restaurants

Identity Crisis, or “Real” Food vs. “Weird” Food

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This last year has been crazy. I couldn’t have predicted this. At all.

February 2012: “My position was eliminated” after 3.5 years of hard work. We went up to Washington State for three weeks to see if being at sea level in a cloudy climate helps my husband’s migraines. Found out that it helps his head about 40%. It’s the largest difference we’ve found so far. We also put our house up on the market.

March 2012: Moved back to Utah to live with family. I thought this would last a few months, but we’re still here.

April 2012: I got a part-time job teaching English online to students (mostly children) in Spanish-speaking countries. I LOVE IT.

November 2012: My husband’s “position was eliminated.” We also got an offer on our house! We’re in the short sale process, so it’s taking a long time. It’s still going on. We’re hoping to close by the end of February 2013. My husband is looking hard for work, but nothing has worked out yet.

As I’m sure you can imagine, having my life turned upside down means that I really have to re-evaluate who I am and what my values are. It’s been a long and arduous process, and it’s not over yet! This blog has undergone some changes, too! It initially started out as a way for my extended family to understand my Celiac and food allergies, became an attempt to have a gluten-free wedding planning business, then to product reviews, then to….jam.

As I’ve been figuring myself out and what I want to do with this blog, I’ve realized that I no longer let my life revolve around gluten. I am still 100% gluten-free. As I was trying to build a business, though, I just became overwhelmed by the hard-core gluten-free and allergy folks.

3 1/2 years after diagnosis, I really don’t spend a lot of brain power on gluten-free. Seriously. After the hours it took to go grocery shopping the first couple of times, I never thought eating gluten-free would be intuitive, and yet — here I am. It’s so intuitive that I occasionally FORGET to tell servers at restaurants that I have to eat gluten-free. Crazy, right?

Then I thought about what I could do with this blog that those hard-core folks out there can’t provide. They are recipe-creating masters! They have every bit of advice that a newly-diagnosed Celiac or gluten intolerant person could ever dream of needing. They’re activists, always fighting the good fight against gluten and allergy ignorance. They’re writers. I felt like there wasn’t anything I could contribute. I don’t have kids that need dinner 5 minutes ago. I’m not even working full-time. I don’t eat organic, well, pretty much anything.

Then I realized: I can promote real food. For me, real food is peace. It’s love. It’s life. It’s intertwined with life. It’s part of a balance. It doesn’t define me, just like I’m not defined by any single aspect of my life. It’s a big part of my identity, sure, but it’s not everything.

So — real food. Tonight, I made an almond bundt cake.

Almond bundt cake

Almond bundt cake

It consists of almond flour, brown rice flour, baking soda, salt, olive oil, water, agave nectar and (pure) maple syrup. That’s it. That’s all. Just this week, I’ve made turkey piccata, twice-baked sweet potatoes, pad thai, a “south american” pork dish involving quinoa, coconut milk, turmeric, ginger, cloves, and a tomato-apricot chutney. (I’m missing a few ingredients because I’m listing them off the top of my head, but they’re all real ingredients, too.) Tonight was turkey chili with rice. Pumpkin cookies. Chocolate chip cookies. Ginger wheels (softer than snaps). A pear spice cake made with teff (and to DIE for. I would have made that tonight instead of the almond bundt cake, but I didn’t have any fresh, ripe pears).

For me, real food is worth it. I don’t spend the extra money on organic stuff (unless that’s the only way it comes, like some of the flours). I just make real food with real ingredients. I haven’t been to cooking school, and I’m definitely not a photographer. I just like to cook, and document what I cook, and work it into my life. Even though I never could have anticipated that we’d be living with my parents at this point in life, I LOVE cooking for all of us.

I am grateful for having been diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Yes. I AM GRATEFUL. Without the diagnosis, I never would have discovered quinoa. Or almond flour. Or coconut kefir. Or teff. Or how much FUN it is to make JAM! Or the best pumpkin cookies on earth that also happen to be gluten-free and vegan. Or that pancakes and waffles are not the only uses for maple syrup! Or agave nectar. Or tamari. YUM.

Are almond, teff, brown rice, sorghum, tapioca, garbanzo, rice, amaranth, etc. etc. etc. “weird” flours compared to just boring old flour? Yes. Are they nutritious? Most of them. :)  Are they healthy? Yes! Are they real? Absolutely. Run a Google search on teff flour. Run a Google search on quinoa. Try making a stir-fry, but instead of serving it with rice, serve it with quinoa. IT’S SO GOOD. Run a Google search on tamari. It has a darker, richer flavor than soy sauce, and I LOVE IT. Even if I could, I would never go back to regular ol’ soy sauce.

Thanks for reading, thanks for sticking with me, and if you need any help, please let me know! I’m only an e-mail away. I’m happy to help with shopping or cookbook recommendations or anything at all. cinderellaspear (at) gmail.com. If you’d like to join me on Facebook or Instagram, send me an e-mail. I’m not-so-inclined to add people I don’t know when anybody can read my blog.

Also, if there’s anything you’d like me to cover on the blog, let me know!

Thanks for reading,

Cristina

Caprese Pizza – my favorite

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Once upon a time, my dad served an LDS mission to Spain. While he was there, he discovered several “new” ingredients — mostly fresh ones, like prosciutto ham and garlic, as two examples.

Then, many years later, he discovered two Italian importing companies/delis in Utah: Granato’s and Caputo’s. He discovered that you could get really good prosciutto ham, fresh mozzarella cheese, kalamata olives, balsamic vinegar and fresh baguettes there.

He would buy these ingredients, bring them home, acquire fresh basil and fresh Roma tomatoes, and we would have sandwiches! I have loved these all my life.

To make a long story short, my diagnoses of Celiac Disease and other food allergies (especially dairy) have made it so I can no longer order caprese salads and sandwiches. That hasn’t stopped me from trying to find an acceptable substitute, though.

Another thing I had to give up when I found out about my food allergies was the classic pizza. There are many companies that make a decent gluten-free pizza crust mix. There are even pizzerias that are starting to figure out how to serve gluten-free pizzas in their restaurants (despite them being VERY expensive, in most cases), but CHEESE as a main ingredient makes it moot.

I had one such mix floating around in my pantry from before my food allergy diagnoses.

I decided to use it instead of just watching it stare at me, mocking me for the gooey cheese that I can no longer eat without getting sick. It would not defeat me.

I’ve never cared much for marinara sauce, and usually substituted it with some kind of alfredo sauce. That doesn’t work anymore, so I decided to try pesto. Many restaurants put pesto on pizza. Why not me? (I used the pesto recipe in The Gluten-Free Vegan, but you can use any pesto recipe that you love.)

So far, so good. Then I added fresh Roma tomatoes…

…and baked it. For this crust, you add toppings before you bake, and it results in a very bread-y pizza. After the main baking was done, I added…

…fresh prosciutto ham (which I acquired at Costco). It’s a very, very delicate meat, so I only put it back in the oven for another 3-5 minutes.

Those who can eat dairy and wanted to, added a bit of fresh mozzarella cheese (also obtained at Costco).

That pizza is really, really, really, really good in and of itself, but if you want that extra touch, you add some of this liquid goodness: Balsamic vinegar.

When I drizzled it over the pizza, it sort of bounced off the prosciutto ham, went onto the plate, and soaked into the bottom of the crust, which was the perfect touch.

Success! Caprese is back in my life, minus the mozzarella. Though I really miss fresh mozzarella, it was heavenly even without it.

I had enough ingredients left over from making it the first time around that all I had to do was buy another crust (this time from the Namaste brand), and we had another caprese pizza. It was amazing.

We ended up liking the Namaste brand crust better, anyway.  It has some Italian seasoning in it, and it’s much less bread-y. It’s baked before any toppings are put on, so it’s more crunchy and resembles a “normal” pizza crust. The second time, we didn’t bake the prosciutto at all, and I liked it even more.

While the ingredients are definitely more expensive than regular pizza ingredients, even when purchased from Costco, the pizza was amazing, and worth every penny. My dad has purchased fresh basil plants, and I’m sure that when they get bigger, we’ll be having this pizza again. Can’t wait!

Gluten-Free Restaurant Review: Black Pearl in Bellingham, Washington

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After doing a quick Google search, one of the places I found in Bellingham, WA that actually has a gluten-free menu (hooray!) is Black Pearl: Fine Asian Cuisine. It’s an intimate setting, and it was a lovely meal.

On the main menu, at the top of the page, you see “Please ask for Gluten-Free Menu.” I did, and was very pleased. Not only was the menu gluten-free, there were several dishes I could eat with my additional food allergies. I loved spending a lot of time deciding between the several delicious-sounding dishes that I could have.

I ended up going with Pork Pho, and was not disappointed! Thin slices of delicious pork, a flavorful broth, noodles cooked to perfection, fresh green onions and cilantro, and several other herbs that I could add if I wished. The portion was just right for me, and the price was good.

Two things frustrated me. 1- Soda refills cost 75 cents. 2- Service was minimal. Since the restaurant is small, it was easy to step over to the counter and ask the owner for what we needed, but I would have appreciated him being a little more attentive. By the time we finished, we were the only customers in the restaurant, and we had to ask the owner for our bill so we could pay it and get going on the rest  of our day.

Overall, a positive experience with delicious food. I hope I can go again soon.

 

Salt Lake City Gluten-Free Restaurant Experiment: Review #16 – The Roof Restaurant

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My husband and I had our anniversary a few months ago, but our schedules and health issues didn’t allow us to go anywhere until this week. We chose to go to dinner at The Roof Restaurant on Temple Square. If you scroll down the site a little, there’s a link to make an online reservation. Once you indicate the date and time, it gives you a box to put any accommodations you’re requesting.

One of the reasons we chose The Roof, anyway, is that I used to work at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building as a banquet server. The kitchens are connected, and there’s a lot of communication between the banquet side of things and the restaurants on the 10th floor. We had been able to accommodate gluten-free and allergy-free requests on multiple occasions.

So in the box went my gluten-free and food-allergy issues. I showed up half an hour before the reservation just to make sure they’d gotten everything and were ready for me, and they were!! As soon as I introduced myself, they knew who I was. The server knew it was me (well, she wasn’t sure whether it was me or my husband, but she knew it was one of us). I was greeted by the general manager. The head chef was ready to make me something that I could eat. I ended up having a bit of everything! Honey ham from the meat station (only honey…and ham), with a DIVINELY spicy honey mustard sauce. Yum. The chef made me a plate filled with rolls of tilapia, a few slices of herbed pork, slices of potato, and a whole bunch of grilled veggies. It was delicious.

I ended up having a great conversation with the general manager. I told him about what I do, and he said they have a lot of gluten-free folks come through. I actually got to talk with another one of the gluten-free guests that night. It was unexepcted and lots of fun!!

Beautiful atmosphere, great food, really good care, wonderful people. It is pricey, but it’s worth it for a special occasion.

Dear Caterers and Restaurants:

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As you may know, more and more people are being diagnosed with Celiac Disease, which requires them to eat gluten-free, and food allergies are also becoming more prevalent. Having Celiac Disease and allergies to beef, chicken, eggs, milk, bananas, carrots and corn myself, this is essentially all I think about.

If you want your customers to flip out (in a good way), I can help you with that.

  • Good: Washing all dishes and pans to be used in the dishwasher, thoroughly.
  • Awesome: Having a set of dishes and pans that never touch gluten — that are just for your gluten-free guests.
  • Good: Having your gluten-free menu and/or food allergy accommodations on your website and easy to find.
  • Awesome: On your site, writing about the specific techniques you use to keep cross-contamination/contact to a minimum.
  • Good: Having the server repeat the special order back to the person who ordered it to make sure they got it right.
  • Awesome: Having the manager or head chef speak to the diner when a gluten-free or food-allergy order comes back. (This will earn you serious points.)
  • Good: Thoroughly cleaning part of your grill before cooking gluten-free.
  • Awesome: Having a section on your grill that gluten never touches.
  • Good: Having a separate, dedicated fryer for all gluten-free foods, keeping the oil separate (not mixing it with other glutenous oil at the end of the night).
  • Awesome: Having a separate fryer in a completely different part of the kitchen.
  • Good: One server changing their gloves for the special meal(s).
  • Awesome: All kitchen employees changing their gloves for the special meal(s).
  • Good: Having a system in place so the servers (at an event) know exactly who to deliver the special meal(s) to with little fuss.
  • Awesome: Having the server assigned to that table introduce themselves to the guest with the special meal and letting them know they’ll be taken care of.
  • Good: Giving your servers at least two trainings a year (but monthly would be ideal) on how to handle gluten-free and allergy-free requests.
  • Awesome: Become Gluten-Free Certified.
  • Most important: Listen very closely, and take your time with your guests so they know that you’ll personally take care of them. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

NaBloPoMo: Biggest Gluten Lie….Ever.

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The prompt was to tell 3 truths and 1 lie, and see if people can pick out the lie. Instead, I’m going to tell you about THE most egregious lie about gluten that I have ever heard.

My mom is a diabetes educator, and they recently had a big conference. The person in charge of the food, who does not have Celiac or any gluten issues, ordered “gluten-free” eclairs from Kneaders.

***
I’m breaking from the story here to talk about bakeries — especially bakery chains. As a general rule, I don’t trust them. I would never order gluten-free anything from Kneaders, Paradise Bakery or any other place that:

1- Is primarily a bakery,
2- makes most (if not all) of their baked goods from scratch, and
3- doesn’t have at least half of a kitchen that’s dedicated gluten-free.

This may sound really harsh. However, when flour’s in the air, it hangs out for a while before it settles. Thinking about someone making regular bread out of scratch and then making gluten-free anything just makes me squidgy. All that glutenous dust will be settling into whatever you’re making, causing a cross-contamination nightmare. It wouldn’t matter HOW clean your kitchen/oven/dishes/tools/countertops were. Just…no. I feel uncomfortable just walking INTO these places because of how much flour dust must be flying around….crumbs everywhere….sandwiches being made…I just can’t do it.

Back to the story.

***
So, this person goes to Kneaders to pick up the eclairs, and asks, “These are gluten-free, right?” “Yep!” “You’re sure? We have people with Celiac who will get very sick if they eat gluten.” “Well, they’re mostly gluten-free.” “MOSTLY gluten-free?” “Yeah — well, the gluten bakes out.”

THE GLUTEN BAKES OUT?!?!

The diabetes conference person was smart and said, “No, that is not going to work for us,” and left.

When my mom told me this story, I about had a conniption fit. What an egregious lie to tell, putting all those people at risk, just to make a sale. I was LIVID.

I want to give Kneaders the benefit of the doubt, but I just can’t. Gluten-free information and products, especially in Utah, are getting more and more common. It isn’t hard to find information online about making gluten-free baked goods.

Dear world: This is not a fad diet for those of us who have Celiac Disease, gluten intolerance, or other food allergies. This isn’t a joke. You’re going to land people in the hospital if you think “it’s not that big of a deal.” It IS a big deal to people like me.

I am all for businesses “figuring it out” and adjusting their business to the trouble of making more gluten-free products available, but should Kneaders decide to go that path, I will not be supporting them. I’ll stick to the wonderful Eleanor’s Bake Shop where I know I can eat delicious food safely. If you haven’t been there, GO. Support them. Buy their products. Let’s keep them in business and let the ignorant businesses be.

Blue Lemon Gift Card Drawing!

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I e-mailed a couple of my favorite restaurants from this area, and Blue Lemon responded right away. They have generously donated a $30 gift card to their restaurants that I will be giving away at my booth at the Gluten-Free Expo in Sandy, UT on Saturday! Be sure to come by and see me!
You can get your tickets at www.glutenfreeexpo.com, or at the door! Children under 12 are free!

Disappointment, but a Happy Resolution

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I had some errands to run this evening in a part of town that’s 45-50 minutes away from my house, if traffic is good. I went to a different location of one of the restaurants (who shall remain nameless in this post) I like that I’ve had success with. I ordered my “sandwich” to be put on lettuce so it would be gluten-free, and a soda. It was $12 total. I drove home, and 50 minutes later excitedly opened the box to find….BREAD. I was not happy about that. I gave my husband the sandwich so that he could have it, because I didn’t want the money to go to waste.

I don’t really blame the staff. That may seem like a very weird statement, but hear me out. Here’s why: I made mistakes on my end. I just can’t feel good blaming the staff when I know that there were things I should have done first that I didn’t.
Cristina Mistake #1 – Not specifically asking to see the gluten-free menu.
Gluten and my food allergies consume a very high percentage of my daily thoughts. I’m so used to it now that I sometimes forget that it’s not so crucial to other people. It’s good to call attention to the gluten-free aspect of my request for the restaurant staff, so they’re really thinking about it. It’s a completely different mindset, and I need to let them take care of me by helping them get into that mindset.
Cristina Mistake #2 – Not checking inside the box before I left.
I hate being “that person.” If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go watch any restaurant scene in the movie When Harry Met Sally. I hate being micromanaged, and so I hate feeling like I’m micromanaging people who are trying to take care of me. I want to trust people, so I didn’t look inside the box. I should have.
If I know I’ve done everything I can on my end but my order still gets messed up? Then I’m going to consider whether I have had enough positive experiences at that restaurant to continue my patronage despite the mistake. If I notice it becoming a habit, then I call it quits. I’m not to that point yet.
I’m writing this post for a couple of reasons:
A – To remind us that no matter how used to our conditions we get that we still need to be vigilant in taking care of ourselves.
B – To remind the gluten-free and food allergy communities that more and more restaurants are getting on the bandwagon. They want to learn, they want to be of service, and we need to be willing to help them understand, and forgive the occasional mistake. We’re all human, and we’re all in this together.
I’ve had a wonderful e-mail exchange today with the General Manager, and it’s going to be okay. I’m going to continue going to this restaurant, because they are trying very hard.
May we all be kinder to ourselves, each other, and those we work with.

Salt Lake City Gluten-Free Restaurant Experiment: Review #15 – Blue Lemon

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I went to dinner with The Franchise and some friends, and was looking for someplace new, since I’m sure they were getting tired of just the same restaurants every time. (I’m lucky enough to have kind friends who let me pick the restaurant so I can eat safely.)

Then it occurred to me: Blue Lemon! I’d heard from my doctor (who also has Celiac) that this place was good, and the catering manager of Blue Lemon came to my office to give a pitch, and we talked about the rest of my food allergies. It was the perfect opportunity.
Blue Lemon has two locations. We went to the one in downtown Salt Lake, and it was great! They have a gluten-free menu if you ask for it. The format is similar to Noodles & Co. or Rumbi. You walk up to the counter and order, and they bring the food to you. I happily had the Grilled Salmon al Fresco sandwich on lettuce, which was delicious. The Franchise had the Chipotle Pineapple BBQ sandwich and an order of sweet potato fries. He loved it. 
Great atmosphere. We sat outside, and enjoyed the fountains. The weather was perfect, and the company was great. We eventually moved our conversation inside when it got a little chilly, and the inside set up is cool, too, with the HUGE! bonus of having great lighting that doesn’t exacerbate The Franchise’s headache.  
I had three issues. The first is that the young staff member we ordered with didn’t particularly inspire my confidence that he knew what he was talking about regarding my food issues. I asked what was in a soup, and he wasn’t sure, so he started listing ingredients off at random. That really irritates me, and makes me want to leave. If you don’t know, find someone who does. I want information. Not guesses. This affects my health for days at a time. Maybe he was new, or maybe Blue Lemon needs to train their staff better. I’m not sure. Celiac is a real thing, not something that I’m doing as a fad diet, so I don’t appreciate feeling like I’m not being taken seriously. 
The second is that the sweet potato fries aren’t gluten-free! That was a big disappointment. The Franchise ordered them for “us,” since I love them, thinking they’d be fine. Before they were brought out, though, I went back and checked the gf menu just to make sure. They were not listed, and this staff member didn’t really know where the gluten was, either, but speculated that it must be in the spice, since they bake the fries instead of frying them. Do they really need that particular spice? I can eat the fries at Smashburger. It’s just too bad that there’s not a lot else there that I can eat.) 
The third is that you can’t find their gluten-free menu online! There are so many people who need to eat gluten-free these days that I’m sure they’re losing customers who don’t know they have gluten-free options. 
After saying all this, though, I really did enjoy my “sandwich.” I will be going back, and will probably do so soon. Thanks, Blue Lemon, for being another place that I’m (relatively) sure I can eat safely.