The Vancouver Observer

Just a quick note to fill you all in on what’s new with Glutenfreegal. I’ve started as a food contributor for The Vancouver Observer, an online Vancouver newspaper. I’ll be writing restaurant reviews from a gluten free point of view, recipes and pretty much what I post around here! I’ll also be starting a gluten free blog on the site: Wheatless In Vancouver.

I’m going to try to keep up with the posts on here, but you all can also check out my posts and recipes on The Vancouver Observer site.

Visit the Observer at http://www.vancouverobserver.com/

 

Quejos – Brazilian and Gluten Free

For the past little while I’ve been hearing about a bakery on Main Street in Vancouver called Quejos. I decided to finally check them out, and did the other day while I was out running errands.

Quejos is tucked away on the west side of Main Street, just south of King Edward. They carry a wide range of gluten free products; Glutino products and a few others, but their specialty is Brazilian cheese buns. These buns are yeast, gluten and wheat free, and they also produce a dairy free version with soy cheese.

The buns are available individually and in packs of four (there are other package sizes, but I can’t remember what they were). I decided on four buns, and wanted to try different flavours. I went for two of the extra cheese, one sun-dried tomato and basil and one fresh spinach and onion.

The buns are interesting. They don’t taste like any other gluten free products I’ve tried. I had one of the cheese ones first, and I could really taste the parmesan cheese that is in the buns. The buns texture was strange; the inside was soft, but the outside quite dense. And the outside had a strange feeling in my mouth. It almost felt a little chalky, but not in a bad way.

Later on with dinner I decided to try heating up the other cheese bun and put it in the microwave. Bad idea. The inside of the bun went really gummy. The outside didn’t really change, but the inside became very chewy.

I was at work yesterday and was speaking with a customer who is Celiac and asked her if she’d tried these buns. She had and told me next time to toast the bun, not microwave it. So that’s what I did!

I tried the spinach and onion bun next, and put in in the toaster. By this time the bun was a day old and a little hard, which made it hard to slice in half. So I put it in the toaster whole. It worked, but I don’t think as well as it would have, had it been cut in half. The toasting was definitely better than microwaving, but the inside was still a little gummy. I also wasn’t crazy about the flavour of this bun; it was very peppery. I think without any pepper it would have been very good, but all of the pepper kind of ruined it for me.

The last one I tried was the sun-dried tomato basil bun. I didn’t toast or microwave this one, I just ate it as is. This one I really liked. It was still a day old so it was a little tough, but the flavour was really nice. Just enough of the sun-dried tomato and a hint of basil.

I was looking at the website last night and they have serving and preparation instructions. They say that freshly baked buns are good for one day at room temperature. So I should have put them directly into the fridge or freezer when I got home.

If I try these buns again I’ll try some new flavours and put them directly into the fridge or freezer when I get home!

Quejos Cheesebuns-From top: sun-dried tomato basil, spinach and onion, extra cheese

 

Check out Quejos online at http://www.quejos.com or at 4129 Main Street, Vancouver

Gluten Free Homemade Granola

Since I’ve been on my big granola kick I decided it was time to make some myself. After all, the store bought granola is very expensive, and this way I know exactly what is going in the granola, and I can control the flavours.

As this was my first time trying it I didn’t want to go overboard, and stuck to simple ingredients: rolled oats, raisins, pecans and cinnamon. I know that some Celiacs steer clear of oats, but I’ve found that as long as I stick to certain brands I am okay. I used Bob’s Red Mill rolled oats.

I started out by mixing about a 1/3 cup of pecans with 1/3 cup of raisins and about 1 1/2 cups of the oats. I actually didn’t measure any of the ingredients, this is all a guesstimate!

Rolled oats, raisins and pecans

I mixed in some cinnamon, vanilla and canola oil. I wanted to add in some brown sugar to sweeten the granola up a bit, but don’t have any around the house right now, so I sprinkled in just a little bit of white sugar (I know, I know, WHITE sugar?? but it’s all I had).

Cinnamon, oil, vanilla and sugar added in

Ready to go in the oven

I spread the granola mixture onto a foil lined cookie sheet and baked it at 375 F. I stirred it up after about 10 minutes and then baked it for an additional 15 minutes. I think it left it in the oven about a minute or two too long, as the pecans are on the verge of being cooked too long, but it’s still pretty good!

Finished product

I would have liked to add some honey into the mixture, to help some of the granola clump up a bit, but I also don’t have any of that. The granola is very loose, but I think mixed in with some yogurt it will be really good. As it is I’ve already been nibbling on it straight out of the oven! Next time I’ll experiment with some different nuts and maybe some cranberries, and I’ll definitely make sure I have some brown sugar and honey!

Gluten Free In Emerald City

This weekend my fiance and I took a trip down to Seattle. We went to visit some family, but also to just get out of town for a couple days. I didn’t get a chance to try as much of the gluten free fare Seattle has to offer as I would have liked, but we did eat out for dinner Saturday night.

We went to a restaurant called Arnie’s in Edmonds, just outside of Seattle. Arnie’s is a seafood restaurant with a fabulous view of the water.

 

View from our table

I looked online to try and find some reviews of Arnie’s in reference to gluten free food, but I couldn’t find anything. I didn’t think much of it, I just figured it wasn’t a very popular restaurant. My thoughts changed though, almost as soon as we got to the restaurant.

I ordered a glass of the house cabernet sauvignon from the waiter, and he responded by letting my know that this kind of wine didn’t exist! I could have a cabernet or a sauvignon blanc, but a cabernet sauvignon wasn’t a type of wine. Oh dear. We sorted that out, but I was very weary of our waiter after that.

We started with steamed manila clams, with white wine, butter and lemon. The clams were all right, except for the fact that they hadn’t been rinsed properly and were a little gritty.

Steamed clams. Notice my elusive glass of cabernet sauvignon to the right!.

Following the clams I ordered the hot seafood salad. I figured this was a safe bet for gluten free, save for the salad dressing. Although I worried I might be in for some glutening when I mentioned being Celiac to the server and he said, “okay, so no dairy, right?” After I explained what it really was he still looked horribly confused. He said he would check on the dressing, and I requested it on the side if it was safe.

He didn’t let me know which dressing I would be getting until my salad was brought to the table, covered in dressing; not on the side. Oh, how I wish it had been on the side. The dressing was not very good. It was a warm champagne vinaigrette and had a really strange flavour. It didn’t help that the salad was served on a piping hot plate and my greens weren’t just wilted, they were dead! I know it said it was a hot salad, but it’s still a salad! If anything the plate should have been room temperature.

Hot seafood salad

The dressing really overpowered the flavours of the salad, and I really didn’t enjoy it at all. It was also completely soaked in dressing. There was way too much on the plate. The one good thing I can say for the salad is that it did have a lot of seafood on it; clams, mussels, prawns and scallops.

Too much dressing

We followed up our meals with dessert, and this was the highlight of the meal. I ordered the lemon mousse, and it was served with whipped cream and blueberries. The mousse was fabulous. Just sweet enough, and tart enough, and they used fresh lemon zest in the mousse, which I loved. I’m all about citrus zest! It was topped with the whipped cream and berries, and they finished the dessert off nicely.

Lemon mousse

Although I really loved the dessert it didn’t make up for the poor salad and service. Next time I’m in the Emerald City I will definitely try to find some better gluten free options!

 

Bakery On Main Review – Part 1

Last week I mentioned how Bakery on Main sent me some of their products to review. I have recently finished the granola bars I was sent, and I was very pleased!

I had three flavours to try; Peanut Butter Chocolate, Cranberry Maple Nut and Extreme Trail Mix.

The first one I tried was the Peanut Butter Chocolate Granola Bar.

Peanut butter chocolate granola bar

I had the granola bar with a small container of soy yogurt for breakfast on Friday, and it kept me going longer than my usual morning protein shake and banana. I really enjoyed the bar. It was dotted with small chocolate chips and had a mild peanut butter flavour. My only complaint is that the peanut butter flavour was really mild; I would have enjoyed a bit more peanut butter flavour.

Next I tried the Extreme Trail Mix Granola Bar.

Extreme trail mix granola bar

This bar was full of nuts and seeds and had a very mild flavour. I had this for breakfast as well, but it would have been a perfect mid-morning or afternoon snack.

The third bar I tried was the Cranberry Maple Nut Granola Bar.

Cranberry maple nut granola bar

The cranberry maple bar was really good. It was mild in cranberries, but strong with the maple flavour. The maple flavour was almost a little too strong, but I still really enjoyed it.

These granola bars were definitely 3 for 3! I can’t wait to try the rest of the products I have to review!