A Boston Baptism

September 14, 2010, my dear friends Kelly and Micheal welcomed their second bundle of happiness (their first American baby) and in October they baptized Noah in Boston.  I am of no religious persuasion, but I’m always happy to see and celebrate with these people, so I got in a car with Leslie (a friend of Kelly’s and after 12 hours of driving, a friend of mine) and road tripped to Boston.

Friday night, we got into Newton just in time to give Eva, their daughter, hugs and kisses goodnight, then we ordered Dominoes. They do not have gluten free crust, but I was very happy to find a breakdown of all the ingredients online.  Turns out I can eat their chicken wings.  Great!  Kelly had also prepared a delicious assortment of hummus and crudités.  Yum.

On Saturday morning Leslie and I woke up and headed out on our shopping mission.  But what do you need on a shopping mission?  Sustenance!

Hears a taste:

Joe’s.
(Newbury location)

Leslie knew where we wanted to go shopping, so we thought we would park and find food from there.  We parked, paid and Ta da!  There was Joe’s American Bar & Grill right beside the car.  We stepped in the door and asked about gluten, before we knew it, we were ushered to our table.  The restaurant does not have a gf menu, but as soon as I mentioned the word ‘celiac’ our waitress started listing off all the things I could eat.  Our super friendly waitress told me she preferred the gluten free crust to the wheat filled one, so my pick was easy.  Pizza for breakfast.  Luckily Leslie is an early riser because this place got busy, fast!  During our meal a manager came to make sure everything was to our liking, she asked specifically what I thought of the crust!  Great service can make a restaurant into a very memorable place, especially when the food is delicious to boot.

What I ate:
GF Brunch Pizza – eggs, Italian sausage, onions, roasted red peppers, fresh mozzarella and provolone.  What!?  So tasty.

What Leslie ate:
I don’t remember, I was too focused on my own meal.

At the bottom of the menu:
From host to service staff, we make every effort to accommodate any special requests, including any food or gluten allergies.

Website:
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Saturday afternoon, the Baptismal pack of family and friends all met up in Boston Common for one of K&M’s favorite Boston discoveries (Cannoli) and although I could not eat it, I sure enjoyed watching Eva smear this treat all over her face.

Devon in Bremen

The first day.

Arrive in Frankfurt at 6.30 in the morning, follow crowd through the airport like a zombie until someone asks for my passport.  Find chair next to gate, space out, climb on plane, sleep.  Awake in Bremen.

Took a taxi to the hotel, crossed my fingers…room ready!  My first order of business is a nap, I keep getting this spinning feeling in my head like I’ve just gotten off a cruise ship, that means tired.

I woke up around 2pm (my new time) and started doing some research.  I did not plan well for this trip.  I can’t explain why, but I was really nervous about this month and rather than plan for it, I just pretended it wasn’t going to happen, then…I got on a plane.

I found a few places on-line.  One restaurant even allowed me to enter my allergy into a search engine and out popped all the menu items I could eat.  It’s called Maredo.  This place also happened to be right next to my hotel.  Dinner plan for Day 1, check!

My plan while I adjusted to the time change and the language was to stay closer to hotel restaurants.  It’s easier to find people who will speak English and I feel like it is okay that I come across as a tourist.

The scariest thing for me in a new place is finding safe food.  I am affected, I used to be able to try anything, but now there are limits.  As much as I love feeling good and healthy, I admittedly still occasionally feel like I’m missing out.

Hears a taste:

Maredo.

My brain is a little fuzzy today and I totally chickened out on saying any of the phrases I had memorized in German.  I’m such a loser.  I walked into Maredo and said: “Mein Deutsch ist nicht sehr gut, sprechen Sie Englisch?”  I am that girl.
The restaurant had an English menu and the waitress pulled out a list that detailed all the allergens in each dish and sauce.  It was all in German, but it was fun to go back and forth from one language to the other.  The waitress, who was Spanish, assured me she would speak to her manager and have that translated as soon as possible.  She was too nice to me.

What I ate:
Salad Bar (the waitress walked me through it and pointed out the very few items I could not eat)
Steak on a hot plate with a bib.

A side note:
I’m glad I wore the bib, after I ate, I could see all the little spatters that would have been on my yellow shirt.

Website:
click me!
The website is in German, but they have an English menu and the waitstaff will help you navigate.

Brot!

Brot is the word for bread in German and bread is ever-present in Germany!  The bread is taunting me!  Everywhere I look there is bread, buns, tarts, cakes and they all look so good.  I actually found myself calculating a good time to be sick.  I wouldn’t want to be sick on the plane home, or during the last days of class (test days), I get back from München on the  24^th so that leaves…  Must not give in!  I can wait to get home to my bread machine.  Waiting good, gluten bad.

New York, ah.

This trip was for a singing competition.  I stayed in the Sheraton NY Hotel & Towers for 3 days.  I didn’t bring much food with me because of my proximity to Whole Foods and my plan to purchase a couple boxes of KIND bars while I was in town.  Should we talk about my love of Whole Foods?  I’ll save that for it’s own post.  The singing competition was good, I didn’t advance as far as I would have liked, but I heard some of the sopranos and the level was high.  After the second round you had to wait for an evening phone call to see if you made it to the next day of competition.  Alas, my call never came, so I ate.

Hears a taste:

Nizza.

How did I find this wonderful place? GF in the city.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. Yum. Right off the bat, this place has a gluten free menu.  Great!  I was flying solo, so I was seated at the bar.  I order myself a drink, then I start to peruse the menu.  This is a process I take full advantage of when I have the chance; since being diagnosed, this little step of ‘eating out’ is something I didn’t know I would miss.  Looking over the menu and getting to pick whatever I want, no questions for the waiter, no backup order, no salad (the last resort)!  A gf menu means: “we want you here, we know we can cook for you”.  The bartender was very attentive and suggested the most amazing finale to my superb dinning experience.  I also ran home to look up “Socca”, I can not wait to try and make this!

What I ate:
Breadsticks with olive oil and ricotta (picture)
Eggplant Involtini (picture)
Classic Socca
And the most amazing dessert that I don’t know the name of, but I will!  I must…TORTONI, it was on the receipt.  This is a frozen custard with a strawberry compote.  So good.  I loved that bartender.

Website:
click me!

Lili’s 57.

How could I have neglected to write about this place?  I found it while I was in NY in November.  It fed me Chinese, which I have longed for since I became gluten free.  I am capable of making Chinese food for myself with the fantastic variety of gf soya sauce and hoisin, but the whole fun of it is eating a variety of dishes (that someone else has made for you) with a big group of people.  I miss my family style dinning.  In November, I ordered 3 dishes and rice because I had room in my tiny little fridge for leftovers.  This trip I had a hotel fridge (ice in the sink), so I had to go there twice to get my fix.  The restaurant deals in all types of Asian cuisine, the food is fast and fulfilling.  I’ve been there 4 times (take out once in November), I like this place.

What I ate:
Trip 1 – Dumplings (picture) and rice
Trip 2 – Rock Shrimp Tempura with spicy citrus mayonnaise
Tuna lover sushi roll and a few pieces of nigiri (hamachi, magura, sake), of course they have gf soya sauce

Website:
click me!
They have a great gluten free menu and gluten free soy!