Do you love baseball and the Red Sox? Are you gluten free? Did you know that now you can have your Fenway frank on a gluten-free bun at Fenway Park?
At Fenway Park, not only do they have gluten-free hot dogs, you can also buy gluten-free pizza, whoopee pies, brownies, and cookies. Oh, and their cotton candy, popcorn, soft serve ice cream, and Cracker Jacks are gluten free as well. Check out this list and this map. They even sell gluten-free beer!
Go Red Sox!
“Have a magical day!” a cheery voice said every time I spoke to someone at Disney whether it was to make reservations or just to ask a question. Although I laughed at the phrase, I had no idea then how truly magical our Disney experience would be.
Soon we were smelling oranges while hang gliding over California on the ride Soarin,’ turning green on Mission to Mars, and traveling to infinity and beyond with Buzz Lightyear. We raced with the other Disney tourists to Space Mountain and avoided lines by following the plan outlined in The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World.
Meals were magical, too. At each Disney restaurant, the chef personally spoke to my daughter and prepared a gluten-free meal for her. We ate well and were entertained at a 1950s diner, in Polynesia (where we did the hula and watched the fireworks from our table), in the Wilderness, and even in Morocco.
But the real magic occurred on our last day before the park had even opened. When an Animal Kingdom worker heard our family had never been on the Kilimanjaro Safari ride, he said, “Come with me.” Hesitant at first (we didn’t want to lose our place in line!), we followed him to the front of the line and through the gates. “This is the first family!” he said, as we walked by employees getting ready to open the park.
“Jambo!” they said and waved as we walked by, making us feel like royalty. After our own private ride on the safari, we were given a day pass for unlimited safari rides. We sang and danced during the “Festival of the Lion King” and rode the wet Kali River Rapids, before leaving the park just as a shuttle bus arrived to take us back to our hotel. It truly was a magical day.
Trip taken December 2005.
When you’re looking for a quick bite of Mexican in the Sausalito area (just across the Golden Gate Bridge), but you’re not quite dressed for trendy and upscale, try Salsalito Taco Shop. After a hike in the Marin Headlands in January, I did just that.
I was craving ceviche and one of my favorite restaurants in the Bay Area, Fish, was closed (temporarily). So, Salsalito would have to do, and it did just fine. We ate on the enclosed porch near a propane heater. It was sunny but still cool, and the propane heater took the edge off. The chips were fresh and served with a green and a red salsa.
Choosing what to have for an appetizer was easy. I ordered the ceviche, small bits of white fish marinated in lime juice on a crispy corn tortilla. Choosing which taco to order was a bit more of a challenge. Steak, pork, chicken, shrimp, oysters, beans, veggies, or fish? I ordered two: the Taco De Pescado, lightly battered and fried fish served with shredded cabbage, carrot, and pico de gallo salsa in a corn tortilla for $3.85 and Taco Salsalito, shrimp sautéed with onion and bell pepper in a garlic wine sauce in a corn tortilla for $3.90. You can add rice and beans to any order and switch the corn to a flour tortilla.
Both tacos were delicious and worth coming back for. If you don’t like tacos, don’t despair. The Taco Shop also serves burritos, taquitos, enchiladas. huevos rancheros, fajitas, and chili rellenos with a selection of Mexican beer, agua frescas, and margaritas to enjoy.
Always on the search for good fish tacos, I’ll try Boston next.
Trip taken January 2014.
With luck and the help of an app, we discovered a town just off I-95 in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, with a plethora of gluten-free options.
It was late, some time after 11 p.m., and we’d been driving for hours, leaving the Chapel Hill area after 2. The need to refuel got us off the highway and into a Howard Johnson’s for the night. But when the next morning’s continental breakfast only consisted of powdered sugar donuts and cereal with whole milk, we did a little research. Using the Find Me Gluten Free app on her phone, my daughter discovered a gluten-free bakery just 3 miles away. Eagerly anticipating the gluten-free crepes listed on its menu, we took the detour, parked, and walked to Wildflour Bakery/Cafe.
Closed. It was Monday. Now what? We were all hungry, and the town’s main street was quiet. Half a block away, we noticed a bagel shop, and as we grew closer, we noticed a sign posted in the window. Gluten-free bagels!
Inside, the Maidenhead Bagel Company, the gluten diners were happy, ordering sesame, plain, and pumpkin (!) bagels all made with wheat flour. And the gluten-free diner was happy. She ordered a bagel egg sandwich (the first one she’d ever had!) made on an Udi’s bagel.
On our next trip south, we’ll plan on passing through the town of Lawrenceville to check out the cafe we missed. And next time, we’ll make sure it’s not a Monday!
According to Eric Weiner, author of The Geography of Bliss, Asheville, North Carolina, is the happiest city in the U.S. Coincidentally, just after reading his book, I read Serena, a fictional tale of a timber empire in the mountains of North Carolina, near Asheville. So, on our recent trip through North Carolina, it seemed logical to stop in Asheville. No matter how brief.
The rain and winter evening skies prevented us from seeing what must be beautiful views of the Great Smoky Mountains on our drive from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Asheville. As we drove, I read about the Biltmore, George Vanderbilt’s 8,000-acre estate and tourist attraction located just south of Asheville. With its size and opulence, the Biltmore sounds like a southern version of one of the East Coast’s Newport mansions or the West Coast’s Hearst Castle.
We arrived late in the evening, in time to sleep at a nondescript hotel before catching a glimpse of Asheville on our way out of town the next morning. It was Sunday, our hotel did not provide breakfast, and we were hungry. My son and I checked out Yelp. We chose the restaurant with the highest ratings, the earliest opening, and a few gluten-free options. We were not disappointed.
Sunny Point Cafe is located in West Asheville, just a few miles from downtown. Although we arrived when it opened, at 8:30 a.m., there was already a line out the door. We waited our turn on the protected and heated outdoor patio (it was 20 degrees outside), before being seated at the last inside table. Within minutes, even the tables on the patio were full, and the line stretched around the building outside. This place must be good.
Healthy yet trendy with a southern flair, Sunny Point’s menu includes grits and biscuits alongside its tofu or local bacon options. We pondered our choices. Steak and potato hash. Creamy chipotle cheese grits or biscuits.
I chose the breakfast salad, leaves of arugula tossed with honey hemp vinaigrette provided the bed for maple black pepper bacon, a poached egg, warm herb tossed potatoes, and tomatoes.
Other choices included oatmeal or cornmeal hot cakes, huevos rancheros, or omelets. The gluten-free diner? She was happy with her Mighty Good Breakfast (MGB): two free range eggs, local nitrate free sausage, potatoes, and the chipotle grits.
We all shared a side of the gluten-free organic cornmeal hot cakes.
Our tummies full, we drove through Asheville slowly, noticing the mountain feel, the lack of chain stores, the small but inviting downtown with plenty of shops to peruse. We read about the seasonal outdoor pursuits, including zip lining and hiking and kayaking, and the Asheville’s proximity to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Appalachian Trail. Asheville looks like our kind of place. We’ll have to make it a destination. And next time, we’ll allow plenty of time to tour the Biltmore.
On our trip down south, we ate a lot of barbecue. After all, that’s what the south is known for, right? We tried the local spot, Smokey’s BBQ, in Madison, Alabama, and the chain restaurant, Sticky Fingers, in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Pulled pork, roasted chicken, country style ribs, cole slaw, baked beans, and corn bread. Smoky, sweet, vinegar, and mustardy sauces. Our party tried them all. And except for the corn bread, everything was gluten free.
Combo Plate: Sticky Fingers Carolina Sweet
But while everyone else ate the ribs and pulled pork, I tried the Brunswick Stew. At Smokey’s, sweet strings of pulled pork competed with potato and peppers in the warm and mildly spicy broth. The stew was not thick but chunky. The meat distinct from the potatoes.
Brunswick Stew
I ordered fried okra. Dipped in a batter and deep fried, cooked okra has an unusual texture, somewhat slimy between the crispy fried outer later. Definitely not for all. Because we were there at closing time, our party was served the restaurant’s leftover peach cobbler and corn bread. Both yummy.
I ordered Brunswick Stew again when we dined at Sticky Fingers in Chattanooga. Though the ingredients were similar, the Brunswick stew was thicker, its meat strewn throughout the stew, its pieces less distinct from the other ingredients. We liked the sauces so much at Sticky Fingers, we bought a sampling of their barbecue sauces (the Memphis Original sauce is particularly good). Both restaurants offer stuffed potatoes: a baked potato filled with pulled pork. Huge and satisfying.
Though it’s atmosphere was unassuming (looking more like the inside of the fast food place it is), the food at Smokey’s relies less on its sauces than Sticky Fingers. The pulled pork and the ribs, were flavorful on their own. But don’t get me wrong. I’ll go back to Sticky Fingers next time I’m in town or to one of its other locations (there are Sticky Fingers in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida).
If you’re hankering for hushpuppies or catfish with your barbecue, you might want to check out the Old Greenbriar Restaurant located in Madison, between Decatur and Huntsville, Alabama. Unlike Smokey’s and Sticky Fingers, the Greenbriar Restaurant is rustic and full of local atmosphere.
Trip taken December 2013.
Where did your Thanksgiving turkey come from? Was it wild and gamey or raised to be eaten? Did you buy it fresh or was it frozen and covered in plastic with a pop up thermometer stuck in it?
A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, I placed an order with a turkey farm in Lancaster, Massachusetts. Although their turkeys are available from nearby markets, I decided to pick up the turkey at the farm.
The afternoon before Thanksgiving, I visited Bob’s Turkey Farm with my 9-year old nephew. After paying for and picking up our plucked and wrapped up turkey, I asked the cashier how many turkeys were at the farm. “Zero,” the cashier told me with a smile. Then added, “We had 10,000 and saved about a hundred for Christmas.” When my nephew asked if the turkeys were white, he said yes and told us where we could find them.
We drove down the road to the barn and parked. As we walked toward the barn, my nephew called out, “Hi turkeys!” several times. Listen to their response.
After talking to the turkeys for several minutes, we said good-bye, and drove home to cook, thankful for local farms and for talking turkeys.
Trip taken November 2013.
What I remember most of my college weekend in Ensenada are the fish tacos. From a small taco stand on the street, my American quarter bought me a corn tortilla filled with fried fresh white fish, shredded green cabbage, chopped tomatoes, cilantro, lime, and a white creamy mayonnaise-like sauce. I bought several tacos over the next two days, amazed at the freshness, the flavors, the price and have been searching for a similar savory experience ever since.
Perhaps I’ve been eating in the wrong places, pseudo Mexican restaurants catering to their American clientele, mainly on the East Coast. Fish tacos in flour tortillas with cheddar cheese, iceberg lettuce and tasteless red salsa is more common than not. My kids groan at my disappointment. I am too picky and should know better than to order fish tacos in New England.
It was time for a trip to Santa Barbara, a town near enough to the Mexican border to have the real thing, and while I paid more than a quarter, each taco on my trip far exceeded my culinary expectations.
First stop: Spencer Makenzie’s Fish Company: a small beach takeout and eat-in restaurant in Ventura, California, 30 miles south of Santa Barbara. My friends and I ordered the “giant fish taco” with grilled fish and requested corn tortillas instead of flour. Chopped cabbage, cilantro, delicious and only $4.99. It wasn’t giant, but I was happy; my friends were disappointed. There are better tacos around the corner they told me. We’d go there another day.
Second stop: On the Alley: a small takeout place on the harbor in Santa Barbara. The menu was promising. I ordered two: the Baja Fish Taco (beer-battered fish, avocado, pickled onion, queso fresco, and salsa blanca) and the Shrimp Taco (seared shrimp, ponzu-marinated slaw, queso fresco, salsa blanca, and mango salsa) served in corn tortillas. They were both so good, the perfect blend of flavors and textures, and only $3 each.
Third stop: Natural Café: a restaurant specializing in healthy, local, and green living with several locations in southern California. Although we ordered at the counter, here our food was brought to the table. I chose the Cabo Fish Tacos: two tacos for $8.59. These tacos were different than the others in flavors and textures. Instead of grilled or fried, the fish was sautéed in a tomato-based salsa. The addition of coarsely shredded carrots reminded me of a salad. Would I go back? Yes, but not for the tacos.
Fourth stop: Beach House: takeout on the Ventura Pier; a fish taco mecca.
Six fish taco options plus a shrimp taco and a calamari taco. After much deliberation, I chose two, the Baja Fish Taco ($3) and the Early California Taco ($4). I sat at a counter inside while watching the surf through the window, enjoying the many flavors of my tacos: the tangy and sour of the lime, the distinct flavor of cilantro, the spicy chipotle sauce, the finely shredded cabbage and the flaky grilled fish. Yum.
Fifth stop: Blue Plate Oysterette: a full service restaurant on Ocean Avenue near the Santa Monica Pier. The question, should we eat at Blue Plate Tacos or Blue Plate Oysterette? My friend and I were advised to eat at Blue Plate Oysterette where we were told the fish tacos were the best. We sat outside at this sidewalk café, warmed by propane heaters and Mexican blankets, and enjoyed being waited on. We ordered the fish tacos: spicy aioli, grilled mahi mahi, purple cabbage, chopped cilantro, and lime; these fish tacos were some of the most delicious, the biggest piece of fish, and the most expensive ($15), if not the most authentic tacos we’d had all week.
I will return; there are so many tacos I didn’t try. And now, after a few months back in New England, I haven’t given up hope of finding a good fish taco closer to home. I ate a surprisingly delicious salmon taco at an autumn fair in September and a tasteless one at a Mexican restaurant last weekend. I’m still looking, but if I want a sure thing this far away from the border, I stop at the fish market, start up the grill, and make my own fish tacos, just as I like them.
Trip taken August 2013.
I just made the best cookies. No, really, they are so good. They happen to be gluten free, egg free, and if you’re picky about the chocolate chips, they’re dairy free, lactose free, and vegan as well. But don’t let that stop you from trying them.
The cookies are chewy and chocolaty (yes, chocolaty is a real word, also spelled chocolatey), and you can’t stop at just one. So, what’s the secret? The cookies are made with oat flour, which gives them texture and chewiness, and coconut oil, which gives them a hint of coconut (use canola oil if you don’t like coconut). If you’re not gluten free, just replace the gluten-free flour with wheat flour and omit the xanthan gum, though I can’t vouch for that change in the recipe.
Have you heard of BabyCakes NYC Bakery? The creator of this yummy recipe, Erin McKenna, is also the founder of that bakery. And next time you’re in New York City, you just may want to make a trip to 248 Broome Street and try out one of their cupcakes, like we did on our last trip. Or you can visit them in Hollywood or in Orlando, too.
I found the chocolate chip cookie recipe on the back of Bob’s Red Mill’s Gluten Free All Purpose Flour. You can print it here or read it below. You can also find it in the cookbook “BabyCakes Covers the Classics.” Here it is:
BABYCAKES NYC CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
Ingredients
1-½ cups gluten-free oat flour
1 cup gluten-free all purpose baking flour (Bob’s Red Mill!)
1 cup organic sugar
¼ cup flaxseed meal
¼ cup arrowroot starch (good with cornstarch if you don’t have arrowroot starch)
1-1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt (fine without it)
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons melted, refined coconut oil or canola oil
6 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
2 tablespoons gluten-free vanilla extract
1 cup gluten-free, dairy free chocolate chips (I added a few more)
Directions
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Step 2: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar, flaxseed meal, arrowroot starch, xanthan gum, baking soda, and salt. Add the coconut oil, applesauce, and vanilla and stir with a rubber spatula until a thick dough forms. Stir in the chocolate chips until evenly distributed.
Step 3: Drop the dough by the tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets, about 1-1/2 inches apart.
Bake for 7 minutes, rotate the baking sheets, and bake for 7 minutes more, or until the cookies are golden brown and firm. Let stand on the baking sheets for 15 minutes before eating.
I love peaches, and I love blueberries. So when mid-summer happens, and the fruit is ripe, I’m in heaven. Last week, I bought peaches and blueberries from two local farm stands, a lemon and a few other ingredients from the supermarket, and set out to create a gluten-free, nut-free peach blueberry crisp.
I was bringing the only dessert to a party of 12 so I wanted to make a lot. With a pint of blueberries and about nine peaches, I was ready to begin.
I washed the peaches and cut them into chunks, leaving the skin on. In a large bowl, I added a pint of rinsed and stemmed blueberries to the peaches along with the grated lemon rind and lemon juice. I tasted the fruit. It was so sweet, I was afraid to add too much sugar; just a ¼ cup went into the bowl.
For the crisp, I mashed a stick of butter with a cup of brown sugar before adding the flour, nutmeg, and oatmeal. Though I started out using a fork, I found it much easier to use my fingers to blend the topping. Since my 13 x 9-inch pan was already in use, I buttered two 9-inch cake pans and filled them evenly with the fruit before covering them with the crisp topping.
After baking at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, the crisps were brown and bubbly.
At the party, the crisp was devoured, and the recipe was requested. Yum! Oh, and I never mentioned they were gluten free, and no one ever asked.
PEACH BLUEBERRY CRISP
The Fruit
9 cups cut up peaches (about 9 whole peaches), washed but with skin left on
2 cups blueberries
¼ cup to ½ cup granulated sugar (depending on the sweetness of your fruit)
grated rind from one lemon (about 2 teaspoons)
1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice
Add fruit, sugar, and lemon rind and juice and stir.
The Topping
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup gluten-free flour (I used Trader Joe’s blend)
1 cup gluten-free oatmeal
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon nutmeg
Blend the dry ingredients with the butter until the mixture is coarse and clumpy. Add the fruit to one large (13 by 9-inch) or two small (8 by 8-inch square or 9-inch round) pans. Cover with the topping and bake at 350 degrees for 30 – 40 minutes.
Eat and enjoy!
Snapshots and Sojourns 