Gluten Free Portland

Your go-to resource for all things gluten-free PDX.

Restaurant Review: Hugo’s Restaurant – Los Angeles

Welcome to our first gluten free travel installment since our vacation last week. As mentioned in our last news item, Sienna and I traveled from Portland, Oregon down to Los Angeles. We were in the audience at the Jimmy Kimmel show, and stayed at the Roosevelt on Hollywood Boulevard (we didn’t really like the hotel much, unfortunately). Of course we would be remiss if we didn’t find some gluten free places to review. Luckily we found Hugo’s Restaurant.

Besides being gluten-free-friendly, Hugo’s has a diverse menu, is dedicated to sustainability, and is vegan and vegetarian friendly. Although the online menus don’t seem to have this feature, the menus at the restaurant have everything marked for whether it is vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, or if it can be modified to be that way. Among other things, they have gluten-free pancakes and gluten-free fish and chips. When I was looking at the menu I actually got kind of overwhelmed by the amount of choices, which is really awesome.

Hugo's West Hollywood Restaurant Interior

We visited Hugo’s West Hollywood location for lunch, and when we arrived there was no wait for a table, but the restaurant was busy. The place is clean and kind of stylish. With huge booths and wood tables and chairs, it has the feel of a cross between an upscale restaurant and a diner. Hugo’s also has a Studio City location and it looks like they have two more separate places to get tacos. One in Atwater Village, and the other also in Studio City. They are also opening a location in Agoura Hills in late fall of 2009. It also looks from their website that they sell very expensive teas.

Hugo's gluten free fish and chips

I got the gluten-free fish and chips, which is actually more like fish and sweet potato fries. The sweet potato fries were good but not awesome. I’m used to sweet potato fries being more like a “steak cut” fry with lots of salt. Hugo’s were thinly cut – more like fast food fries. Although I found myself wishing for some applesauce for dipping, I didn’t have any trouble finishing them. The fish was really good too. Although I’m still looking for a really awesome battered gluten-free fish, I liked these better than the fare at the Hawthorne Fish House. The reason I like them better is that they have a lot of flavor. I would be really interested to see how Hugo’s fish and chips would be with some gluten-free malt vinegar. Our waiter was awesome. The wait for our food was reasonable. Neither of my items were excessively greasy. My lunch was delicious and the rest of our party was happy with their food too.

Gluten Free Fried Fish: Click here for our breaded fish recipe.

We want to know: Have you eaten at Hugo’s? If so, how are the pancakes? We’re still looking for awesome gluten free fish and chips in Portland Oregon. Let us know!

Times we have visited: 1 (So your experience may vary.)
Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Same

Hugo’s Restaurant
http://hugosrestaurant.com/
multiple locations in Los Angeles

Book Review: Living Gluten-Free Answer Book

Living Gluten-Free Answer Book by Suzanne BowlandToday I’m reviewing the Living Gluten-Free Answer Book by Suzanne Bowland. This book promises “Practical Answers to 275 of Your Most Pressing Questions.” It was published by SourceBooks, Inc in 2008. Examples of questions it answers are:

“What should you do if you think you are gluten-intolerant?”

“What causes gluten-intolerance and celiac disease?”

“What are some strategies for eating gluten-free at restaurants?”

“How can you decypher food labels and medications?”

“If a food package says ‘wheat-free,’ is it gluten-free?” (No.)

“Could her lipstick be making you sick?” (Yes.)

The first four chapters of the book deal mostly with the basics, such as defining gluten intolerance and celiac disease, the symptoms of celiac disease, ways your life is going to change, what gluten is and how you can avoid it, and the possible consequences of not avoiding gluten if you have celiac disease.

Chapters five through nine build on the basics. Chapter five is about how to make your kitchen gluten-free. Six talks about different kinds of food you might find in a kitchen, like mixes, grains, pastas, frozen dinners, snack foods, or breads. Chapter seven reviews the grains, flours, and starches in more detail. So amaranth, buckwheat, Indian ricegrass, Job’s tears, millet, quinoa, ragi, sorghum, teff, the different kinds of rice flour, tapioca flour, potato flour, xanthan gum, and guar gum. It also has information about the differences between some of the flours and starches. Chapter eight is about shopping for gluten-free items. Among the topics of this chapter are where to buy flours, pricing of gluten-free items, and how to get a store to carry your gluten-free items. Chapter nine is about some non-food items you wouldn’t think about, like medicines, toothpaste, lip gloss, and other bathroom items.

I don’t want to keep going chapter by chapter, but the rest of the book includes such topics as tips for traveling, dining out, cooking, children, social events, health and nutrition, and developing coping strategies to deal with cravings or disappointments.

Finally, there are two appendices. Appendix A has tips and substitution solutions for gluten-free cooking and baking. Appendix B is an extensive directory of gluten-free businesses.

That’s a lot of ground to cover. Suzanne Bowland’s writing is pleasing and easy to read. It is the sort of reference book you might find yourself reading just for entertainment. I’ll very often pick it up to get an answer to a specific question and then find myself reading the next section. But at its heart it really is a reference book. At the end of the book is a whopping twenty-six page index, so if an answer to your question is in the book, you should be able to find it without a problem.

My one complaint with the book is that sometimes the author spends too much time answering a question that to me seems simple. For example, a question like, “Is something that is wheat free also automatically gluten-free?” seems pretty straight-forward to me, but Bowland takes a page to answer it, and she also seems to complicate the matter by talking about oat contamination. This bothered me until I realized that the book is written so that each question is answered as fully as possible in its own section. That way, a person who wants to know about one thing can look it up and get a complete answer without having to read the whole book.

While I still think it may be that this book goes into too much detail about some questions, it is very thorough, and as I said, it is an interesting read. Bowland’s writing is easy to understand and compelling. There’s something for everyone, and all the information is organized and indexed in a fashion that makes it very easy to find an answer to any question you may have. I think it would make a great addition to anyone’s gluten-free library.

We want to know: Do you have a favorite book for the gluten-free diet? How about a favorite cookbook? Let us know!

Overall rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Same price! But it’s a book so… Yeah.

The Living Gluten-Free Answer Book – Suzanne Bowland – 2008
ISBN-10: 1402210590 – See this book on Amazon

Gluten-Free Basics: Beware Foods You Might Not Expect to Have Gluten

I’m at home sick today and was doing some reading on gluten-free living and ran across an excellent list of foods and food ingredients that are not gluten-free. While reading through the list I was checking off items on my mental list of what is safe and what is not. I didn’t actually get too far down the list before I hit “blue cheese” – blue cheese!?!!? It turns out that blue cheese is made with bread.

On further investigation, it happens that REAL blue cheese is made with bread. Manufacturers who make blue cheese the traditional way still start with bread to get their mold and then introduce the mold to milk curds. So how likely is it that the bleu cheese you’re looking at in the store has gluten? It looks like it’s less likely than you might expect. Here’s a site with further information on blue cheese.

While we’re on the subject of foods you would never suspect, I’ve put together a quick list of less obvious gluten-containing items. It’s sort of like a “I remembered that you’re vegetarian so I made you a chicken salad” list. (This is not an exhaustive list of gluten-containing foods by any means.)

It may be organic, but it isn't gluten-free.

It may be organic, but it isn't gluten-free.

Beer – I was gluten-free for a while before I gave any thought to our little fermented friends. Beer is just plain not gluten-free. Also, any alcoholic beverage that is made with wheat and not distilled is suspect.

Bouillon – This is one where a person would probably catch it by checking the ingredients, but might not think to. It’s supposed to be dried chicken broth and spices and salt and salt and salt, right? Wrong!

Bulgar – I always forget this one for some reason. It is another name for wheat that has been processed.

Chewing Gum – Manufacturers coat some chewing gums with wheat flour to keep them fresh. So you have to check the labels. I grew up in the 70s so I believed (or at least liked to believe) the urban legend that chewing gum was made with spiders eggs. Little did I know.

Couscous – You can call it what you like but it’s really pasta. I get it confused with polenta, which is corn, and risotto, which is rice.

Graham Crackers and Graham Flour – Our pal wheat by another name.

Malt, Malt Extract, Malt Syrup, Malt Flavoring, Malt Vinegar – Wave bye-bye to a startlingly long list of breakfast cereals.

Semolina – Fancy name for wheat they make pasta out of.

Tabbouleh – Made with bulgar, which appears above. Yes, I have thoughtlessly eaten tabbouleh at our favorite Lebanese Restaurant.

Udon – Although I love Japanese food, I never really liked these Japanese noodles anyhow. I do mourn for my loss of ramen, though. *sigh*

This deserves its own paragraph: Any Broth, Sauce or Gravy – These are all suspect and should be checked before you eat them. You would never expect it, but the roux in gumbo has a ton of flour in it. Apparently, chefs love to put some roux in their jambalaya. Ouch! And I love a good jambalaya.

OK well that’s enough depressing news for one day. I hope everybody will chime in with comments on food items that you were surprised to find contained wheat or gluten.

Gluten-Free News Bites

Hi everybody I’m blogging on my lunch break because I have a couple of quick news items and two reminders:

Reminder #1: We’re in Blog for Food for the Oregon Food Bank week 2. Please take a moment to donate to the Oregon Food Bank.  To be part of the official Blog For Food tally, please enter “Blog For Food” in the tribute section on the OFB donation page. Nancy Rommelmann has decided to take the campaign up a notch and is stripping for donations.

Reminder #2: If you were planning to reserve a Valentines Day Cake for your sweetie from New Cascadia Traditional Bakery, the cut-off is today.

US News has an article about the gluten-free diet and celiac disease and how some are calling eating gluten-free a fad.

This is a little old, but Allergic Girl posted a link to a New York Times article that tries to shed some light on the accuracy of allergy tests.

Last, Celiac Chicks posted some links to information on which drugs are gluten-free. I remember early on when I was switching over to being gluten-free I found that one of the vitamins I was taking daily contained wheat.

That’s it. Happy Wednesday!

New Seasons Gluten-Free Store Tour Info

Scheduled Gluten-Free Store Tours

New Seasons Markets have scheduled gluten-free tours of their stores to introduce people to what products they have available. Here are times and dates at local stores:

Wed, March 4 – 7:00-8:30
Concordia
5320 NE 33rd Ave, Portland, Oregon 97211

Sat, March 7 – 10:00-11:30
Orenco Station
1453 NE 61st Ave, Hillsboro, Oregon 97124

Thurs, March 19 – 10:00-11:30
Happy Valley
15861 SE Happy Valley Town Cntr. Dr, Happy Valley, Oregon 97086

If you are not able to make one of their scheduled tours, we’ve been told that you can assemble a group of not more than 8 people and schedule a private tour. Just call the nutritionist at a store near you to arrange.

The upcoming calendar for Apr-June will be available and on their website approximately mid-March.

From their website:

Gluten-Free Store Tour

Recently discover that gluten does not agree with you? Join us for a tour of the gluten-free products in the store, and we’ll help you find some new treats to go with your old favorites. We will provide information on gluten-free diets and our gluten-free shopping list.

Gluten Sensitivity – Signs & Symptoms

It seems everywhere you look these day, people are talking about gluten sensitivity, gluten allergy, Celiac disease, and wheat allergy. What does it all mean? What’s the difference between them all? And why is it showing up so much now? You may have considered gluten sensitivity if you have digestive problems, but did you know that it could also cause chronic pain, insomnia, fatigue and depression? Come find out what signs and symptoms might point to gluten sensitivity and what you can do about it.

Celiac Disease News Video on MSNBC

Headlining today on MSNBC is a video on Celiac Disease from On Your Healthy Family with Hoda Kotb. Probably not going to be anything new to most of our readers, but there it is.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Mariposa – A Gluten-Free Bakery in Oakland California

Regular readers of this blog will know that Sienna, our glamorous and amazing Head of Research went to visit her family in the San Francisco Bay Area recently. Luckily for us, she did some pre-trip research on gluten-free options in the Bay Area and came up with a bakery, Mariposa.

Mariposa bills itself as a gluten-free artisan bakery. They bake everything in a dedicated gluten-free facility. Among other things, they make biscotti, brownies, coffeecake, bagels, and pizza crusts. Their products are available nationwide in specialty food stores and can also be purchased online at their website. Lucky for me, Sienna brought home some of their products.

The interior of the Mariposa Bakeshop

We sampled their chocolate-chip cookies, brownies, and a sesame seed bagel.

Mariposa Chocolate Chip Cookie

Other than a little bit of a fruity flavor and being a little sweet, the chocolate chip cookie was almost indistinguishable from a real, genuinely homemade chocolate chip cookie. The chewy gooey kind. Wow.

Mariposa Brownie

Have I ever mentioned here that I love the Trader Joe’s gluten-free brownie mix brownies? They are the best. I’m not really sure if there is a better brownie, honestly. So Mariposa had some stiff competition to stand up to. Luckily for them, both Sienna and I thought their brownie was about as good. They have a no-nonsense brownie. No nuts, no funny business, just chocolatey goodness. I was left wishing for the top crust to be more… what’s the word for how the top of a brownie is kind of hard and crackly and chewy? Like that. It wasn’t that, but the flavor was awesome.

Mariposa Sesame Seed Bagel

I guess you can’t win them all. We both found the gluten-free bagel from Mariposa disappointing. I think part of the problem may be that we are serious bagel snobs. We turn our noses up at Noah’s Bagels, and when we moved to Portland four years ago, were unable to find a bagel we liked. The Mariposa bagel was very cakey, and resembled a bagel in shape and flavor only, and even the flavor left us wanting more.

Two out of three isn’t bad. The products we sampled were good enough that if we lived in the Bay Area, we would definitely frequent the Mariposa. Among other things, they also have food-allergy information on their products, and also donate 2% of their profits to community and world organizations.

Times we have visited: 1 (So your experience may vary.)
Overall rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Around twice as expensive.

Mariposa Bakery
5427 Telegraph Ave, Unit D3
Oakland, California 94609
http://www.mariposabaking.com/

Gluten-Free Portland: My Story

I’m MOSTLY gluten-free. I haven’t taken the Celiac Disease Reflex Screen mostly because I don’t want to deal with eating gluten long enough to take it. By “mostly” gluten free I mean that if there is some soy sauce in a dish I will eat it. My intolerance for wheat, however, is enough that a single bite of a piece of bread will make me feel sick the next day. There is definitely something up with wheat and me.

I was in denial for a while and then later thought that it must be psychosomatic or something. The person who noticed it first was my girlfriend. She noticed that on Saturdays I was usually grumpy and emotional. I started tracking my food intake and my moods and the thing that stood out was wheat. This is bordering on “too much information” but the other thing that changed when I stopped eating wheat was that this horrible acne that I had always had on my back cleared up.

While I still had my mind made up that it was psychosomatic, I would go out to eat at restaurants and be too shy to ask my waiter if something had wheat. But I would order carefully trying to get a dish without wheat and then the next day I would feel awful and a phone call to the restaurant would verify that there was wheat in the dish. Like for instance, gumbo? The roux in gumbo has tons of wheat. Surprise!

Now I end up wondering how many other people might be allergic to wheat. It seems like the numbers are growing. At times I hear information that makes me think it’s a fad. A co-worker commented to me recently that his wife had “thought” she was gluten-intolerant but then had changed her mind. I’ve also heard about people quitting gluten because they figure it’s more healthy. That’s crazy. It’s a real pain staying away from wheat.

Believe me, I would rather have a real donut, sourdough bread, and a real pizza! OK well that’s enough wool-gathering. I’m going to get this blog customized a little and start posting reviews and information.