Orinoco

Orinoco is a fab restaurant that I first visited in the South End a couple years ago when it first opened. It's Venezuelan and it's SO GOOD! They are currently in the new edition Boston magazine, here. 

Anyway -- they opened up another location in Brookline Village out in my part of town and we went for the second time last  night as I was craving arepas.

Perhaps you read about these on Gluten Free Girl's website recently?

Anyway, arepas are these small delicious cornmeal-type sandwiches (naturally gluten free). They have different fillings like shredded beef, venezuelan cheese, and the one I got last night had a cool & refreshing chicken salad with tomatos & avocados called a Reina Pepiada, and it comes with a garlicky-lime  sauce called Mojo:

(This is a picture of Orinoco's reina pepiada arepa, not mine, found it online)

We also shared a plate of Datiles -- warm dates wrapped in bacon with a small hazelnut inside. I can't even tell you how delicious these are.

The best part -- the arepas there range from around $4.75 - $7.00, and are filling enough for a meal.

They also have an excellent drink menu (Brookline location only) -- we got a Passion Fruit Mimosa, a Watermelon Mojito (YUM), and sangria.... The drinks cost much more than the food.

I need to ask about their shredded beef & if it's OK to eat, but if you get a chance, I highly recommend trying it. 

Bad.

I just went to Chinatown with a co-worker for lunch - i ordered rice noodles, and asked again if they were rice after they were delivered because they looked different... i ate  them anyway, and now i'm pretty sure they were pan-fried noodles - and i don't think those are rice.... Right?  I'm going to be pissed any myself later.

Kwik-Bread

I was feeling aggressive when I got home last night and cleaned the house, made some food, and decided to make some bread to go with the tunafish I was going to eat today. That's right, I quickly whipped up some bread.... check it out:

Looks pretty good right? It actually tastes good too! I had forgotten I ordered some items from Kinnikinnick a little while back. I absolutely love their Pancake & Waffle Mix. I also like everything they make. Their cinnamon & sugar donuts are TO DIE FOR. I only order them once in a while though because they're so sinful .... If you haven't tried products from this company, you really should.

Anyway, I saw this item on their site and wanted to try it out:

All you do is mix 3 cups of the mix and 2 cups of cold milk (or water) and bake. EASY!

I added the sesame seeds to the top, I'm sure you could add whatever you want to it. The taste is really good, makes great sandwiches, and you don't have to toast it! It's a bit spongy, not too bad, but I know some people don't like that about bread - I like it. I much prefer that to the dry crumbly consistency.

Here's a phone shot of my tuna sandwich at my desk (the lighting in here is really dim which is why all my blackberry pics look blurry & bad):

Delicious snack

Trader Joe's Vanilla Meringue's.

YUM. 0% fat, not too many calories, tasty & the perfect thing for a sweet craving. The texture is a little wierd, but I love it. We used to make meringue's at home a lot... those tend to be chewier in the center, these are crunchy all the way through, but I love it.

Here's a shot of me picking out Pantone chips & snacking on one:

New York City

This is a VERY delayed post on my trip to NYC, work has been N-U-T-S.

So - NYC was wonderful... I carried around my list of GF restaurants but for some reason we were constantly running late, that we couldn't make it to any of the places! Bummer, but that's OK. We made a real effort to get to Babycakes, but it was just too far away from where we were, and we were going to see a movie while it rained.

We DID eat at Babbo though.... It was a beautiful restaurant, good service, wonderful wine, great company of course, the food? Eh. 

So disappointing.... And we were SO excited to eat there. 

To begin, we got there late. It was raining, taxi's were very hard to come by so we didn't get there until about 10:30 - the maitre d' gave us a disapproving look - but we were able to sit & eat at the bar which was fine. Oh, and we didn't have a reservation, we called two months ago and couldn't get one, but they let us know there were tables available.

We spoke with the sommelier & picked out a very delicious Schioppetino from Italy, and kept perusing the menu. I had heard that Mario Battali keeps gluten free pasta at all of his restaurants, so I was looking forward to ordering pasta for a change! I spoke with our server about getting gluten free pasta and he thought it was not a good idea, said the sauce didn't work as well with the GF pasta, and that I should really try something else that was naturally GF to really get the full experience.

I heard what he was sayin' - I checked things out, but I kept thinking it would be nice to get a pasta... I brought it up again, and he said, again, that he didn't think I should get it.  Sort of strange right? Well, I was in a good mood, and happy to be at Babbo, and didn't feel like arguing, so I just got a fish dish for my main course, and a sampling of cured meats for my entree. I also shared a bit of grilled artichoke with my friends.

Here's the deal. The grilled artichoke was the best thing I tasted, and it was just rubbed in some olive oil. My plate of meats & olives was OK. The salumi was great -- there was also tongue, which I tried and didn't really like, there was thin sliced lard which was just weird & not tasty -- and I figured I couldn't go wrong with the marinated olives... but sadly, they did not taste good, and something was wrong with them because they were rock solid.

My main dish was a fish with some tomatoes on top - totally forgettable. I can't even remember what kind of fish it was. It was also tiny & didn't have anything with it, and cost about $40.

Dessert though, now that was yummy -- we got an assortment of sorbets & gelatos:

sorry for the terrible pic, but I took it with my phone...

Anyway - it was too bad. I didn't let it ruin my night, and we didn't discuss that we weren't lovin' it until the next day. I feel like if I HAD gotten the pasta I would have been happier, since it's such a treat to eat pasta out, even it tasted bad I would have liked the fact that I ordered it. 

The bill was really the kicker - you don't even want to know how much money a dinner for 3 is there. Yowzah.

So -- next trip my goal is to get GF pizza....

New York City bound....

So I'm heading to NYC after work tonight to have a girls weekend and I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

I have printed a large list of all the gluten free eating establishments I could find in the city and I will have it on me at all times, that way, no matter where we are, I should be able to find a gluten free treat (PIZZA!!!) that I cannot find here in Boston.

I also think we're going to eat at Babbo one night, and word on the street is that Mario Batali keeps GF pasta at all of his restaurants. I'll let you know how it goes. There is plenty on the menu I could eat anyway.

Hopefully I'll have some good GF food stories when I get back....

New Look....

I really couldn't stand the old layout anymore - so here is a new look! I made about 12 headers, but I like this one, I may rotate them....

(Thanks for the info Jen!)

Sad News.

The Oxford Spa in Cambridge no longer offers their unbelievably good gluten free bread.

I don't think I've ever talked about them on this blog (I really should have) but Ellen at I am Gluten Free has, and I've discussed it many-a-time on the Gluten Free Forum.

I am really shocked. Every time I went there (and it wasn't easy, it generally took me almost an hour and a half to go there & back home) I asked the people working if I could either: 

a) buy an entire loaf

b) get the recipe

c) contact the woman who made the bread

d) offer large quantities of money for a, b or c

I never got any of those things. The only thing I found out was it was a woman (genius-gf-baker) who had a full time job as a chef at a private school, and made this bread (and other GF goodies like cookies & brownies) in her spare time. I believe her daughter has celiac which is why she did this.

So, Oxford Spa has come under new management, and no longer have ties with this illustrious woman.

I spoke on the phone with someone there & they said they were looking for a new vendor.

It will be nearly impossible to top the other bread though. I'm not kidding -- those of you who went know what I'm talking about.

I hope this mystery baker starts her own gluten free baking company.

berries....

Update: I'm at just about 7 lbs lost - hooray. 

The great thing about this diet is eating fresh, natural foods - and berries have been one thing we've been eating all the time. I just finished snacking on a container full of raspberries & strawberries... yum.

I just wish they weren't so expensive, but any time I see any kind of berry on sale, I buy it... we've also been eating a lot of watermelon which satisfies any sweet cravings I may have... and it's so refreshing now that it's getting warmer out.

So happy it's summer in the Northeast!