Life Lately

Oh poor blog, I am so sorry for abandoning ye. But you’ve always been in my heart, I promise!

A month ago I started a new job at Cosmopolitan.com. New jobs generally tend to take up a lot of time, but when you LOVE your new job, they take up even more time without you realizing, because you are enjoying every second of it.

But I have been squeezing in some cooking to my crazy new life, and promise to share recipes soon! To tide you over, here are some delicious adventures I’ve had lately:

Enjoying gluten-free treats my mom brought me all the way from Australia (those chocolate cookies are crumbly but goooood.)

Spending the weekend in Atlanta with a bunch of my closest friends from college, staying with a friend’s parents who happen to be gluten-free and whose mom made this INCREDIBLE chocolate cupcake with chocolate mousse, marshmallow, and chocolate fudge.

Enjoying my new gluten-free-friendly cafeteria (GF bread! GF signs on everything I can eat! GF soy sauce!), which gets really into the holidays.

Trying new (to me) restaurants in NYC with gluten-free options, like this pasta made out of potatoes at Sauce.

And trying fancy restaurants too, like ABC Cocina. My best friend and I made a pact to try new restaurants each weekend, rather than continuously going to our old standbys. Best pact ever.

Gluten Free Travel: Los Angeles Edition

Just when I started to get comfortable being gluten free in New York, I hit a travel-filled few weeks in my calendar. While my trip to Cape Cod involved some Googling, advanced planning, and a lot of potato chips, I didn’t think any big-city trips would be a problem, and I was right. I spent the long July 4th weekend in LA visiting one of my best friends, and had not one speck of trouble finding gluten free things to eat! (I also ate avocado at nearly every meal, as Californians love to add it to everything. I am 100 percent okay with this.)

Here are some recommendations–even if you’re not GF, all these restaurants are awesome. Special thanks to my friend Sally (who doesn’t have a blog yet, so read her stuff on Nymag.com), who hosted me and took me to all these places!

La Sandia is in the middle of the mall in Santa Monica, but don’t let that fool you, because this place is awesome. While all of the tacos were gluten free, our waiter was gluten free himself and told me which ones he found upset his stomach sometimes vs. which ones never did. Really helpful, and I tried a pork taco I wouldn’t have picked otherwise (and loved it).

Promise me when you go to LA you’ll pack yourself a gluten free picnic and go to Malibu Wines. Since they don’t offer their own food you’re guaranteed to have a GF time, and the setting is just so delightful and peaceful. Also, the Bachelor house is down the block, which is a selling point for a lot of people apparently.

This burger at The Counter (multiple locations) was so good that I didn’t even notice the gluten-free-ness of the bun (if you’ve ever had gluten-free bread, you know exactly what I mean). You can put whatever toppings you want on it, and even order it as a salad if you want to skip the GF bun altogether. Also, they have gluten free beer, so you can feel like a proper American again. AND! They apparently have a New York location! In Times Square though so sadface.

Clearly I love choose-your-own adventure type food. 800 Degrees (Westwood) is also that kind of place, and offers gluten-free crust to coat with your choice of lots of hard-to-choose-between toppings. (While they do awesomely keep the GF dough separate, only use GF flour on it, make it on special boards, and change their gloves, there is lots of regular flour in the air, so I wouldn’t come here if you have celiac.) The pizza also reheats well.

MOAR TACOS! We ate a lot of Mexican, but these tacos from Escuela Taqueria (West Hollywood) were definitely my favorite. Everything was incredibly flavorful, and incredibly cheap too! (That top one is roasted poblanos and cheese, and the bottom is carne asada.) It’s a BYOB spot as well.

You guys. Let’s talk about Fonuts. Fonuts (West Hollywood) is the greatest donut shop on Earth. They do both regular and gluten free donuts, and I loved ordering the gluten free flavors even when I ate gluten. They are essentially cake in the shape of a donut (not cakey donuts, there’s a difference–Sally is not a donut person but likes these). This chocolate one is BOMB, and is even better when you have it in the form of a Fonut sundae, which is everything you’ve ever dreamed of and more. If they ever open one in NYC (and they should) I will get so fat. And happy. I may or may not have crammed a box of half a dozen of them into my carry on…

Also gluten free? CENTRAL PERK. I have never geeked out so much in all my life, except maybe when I went to Harry Potter world. The $50 price tag on the Warner Brothers VIP tour is completely worth it for this alone.

Other places I’d recommend:
Food Lab (West Hollywood) – they have an omelet with potatoes IN IT. Enough said.
Kiku Sushi (Larchmont) – as soon as I told the waitress I was gluten free, she brought me GF soy sauce without my asking, and looked over my order to make sure all my choices were safe for me
Hugo’s (multiple locations) – menu clearly marks GF options (as well as other restrictions)
Cook’s County (West Hollywood) – lots of egg dishes available at brunch (but everyone’s pastries around you will make you sad)
Mendocino Farms (West Hollywood) – good gluten-free bread and will check all dressings/sauces/etc. for you on anything

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go eat one of my slightly squished Fonuts.

Gluten Free Restaurant Review: Bistango in Murray Hill

When I first announced that I was going gluten free, nearly every person who gave me advice suggested I eat at Bistango in Murray Hill. It’s also on nearly every list if you’re Googling gluten free resturant options in NYC, so I knew I had to try it. I went with my gluten-eating mom so we could try the full range of the menu, and I’m happy to report that both of us came away totally stuffed and totally happy.
As soon as we sat down the waitress asked if anyone at the table had any food allergies or intolerances. When I told her I was gluten free, she explained that (whether it explicitly stated so or not), every single dish on the menu could be prepared gluten free. Considering another restaurant I went to this weekend told me, “well, there’s cream in the sauce” when I said I was gluten free (seriously), this was very exciting.

The thing I really liked about Bistango was that they catered to everyone’s needs without even needing to ask. They brought me a little plate of gluten free bread, but they gave my mom regular bread, and they gave us separate little dishes of garlic olive oil so we wouldn’t have to worry about gluten crumbs.
Burrata is definitely one of my top 10 foods ever. Thank you for not having gluten, cheese.
Also incredibly exciting about Bistango’s menu: stuffed pastas! I’ve had a variety of dried gluten-free pasta in the past few weeks, but I thought I was kissing cheese-filled pasta goodbye. Bistango has a number of gluten-free ravioli, tortellini, manicotti, and other stuffed pasta options, and you can pick whatever sauce you want. I never make myself pink sauce, so I ordered that on my spinach and ricotta ravioli. The pasta itself could have had a tad more flavor, but the filling and sauce were good! My mom had regular pasta in a short rib sauce and really enjoyed it, so this is definitely a great place to go with people who can eat gluten.

Almost the entire dessert menu is gluten free (and they have some dairy free options too, if you have a dairy restriction as well). Since we were so full my mom and I shared creme brulee (naturally gluten free!), and I got a slice of key lime pie to take home. The creme brulee was excellent. The key lime pie was pretty good but definitely needed whipped cream (I grew up eating a LOT of key lime pie though, because it’s my dad’s favorite dessert and he’s very picky about how it’s made, so I do scrutinize key lime pie more than most people). I definitely want to try copying their almond crust though.

Bistango also does brunch, so I plan to go back soon to check that out! They also have lots of non-pasta options at all meals, so if you’re trying to eat mostly naturally gluten free food, they have that too.

VERDICT: 4.5 out of 5 stalks of wheat stars