Gluten Free and the City

I feel pretty terrible.  I’ve neglected this site for five months.  I haven’t written anything, not updated my platform, and didn’t check my email.  I did this intentionally.  In August, I moved from New York City to Vienna, Austria.  While I mentioned that in this post. I thought that perhaps I’d continue Gluten Free and the City in Vienna, but change my focus to Vienna, instead of New York City.  But after a while I realized I’d rather just write about my new experience here in a foreign city and country rather than focus on being gluten-free.   So, I stopped posting.  I stopped checking email.  I started German classes and have been doing other side projects.

Then, today I decided to check my email.  I had an email from a woman who was traveling to NYC in December and wanted to know of a place to eat in midtown near the Christmas-y sites.  I felt terrible.  I had just left her hanging without a response.  And, I knew of a place as well.  Then, I checked my google analytics, and was surprised to find that more people actually visit my site than before even without anything active.  I had given up on my site, but others hadn’t given up on me.

So, I’m writing this as a “sorry it’s been so long, can we still be friends?” kind of post.  Even though I’m not living in NYC anymore and therefore can’t really write anything current about living the gf life in the Big Apple, I am still happy to answer your emails about my experience living there, gluten-free.  I promise that I WILL check email!

If you have any interest in my life abroad, you can find me at La Vie Claire.  If you were following my wedding updates, you can read about my thoughts and feelings on the wedding here.

Thanks everyone for reading!

Claire

We arrived in Rochester Sunday the 24th after having moved half of our apartment that morning in New York City.  It was a long day.  Luckily, Rochester greeted us with clear blue skies and this:

courtesy of Lily Twomey

The table was filled with goodies, from gluten-free snacks to soda bottles with out photos on them to a beautiful bottle of champagne and scotch.  All these was courtesy of Alex’s amazing family and the incredible staff at the hotel that they own.   And, it was all a surprise.  I had nothing to do with any of it.  It wasn’t just us that got these goodies, every guest upon arrival received the m&ms, the soda, the napkins, local beers (courtesy of my Mom!) and a plate of cheese and meat.

The staff was amazing all week- they were willing to help in any way they could.  On the morning of the wedding when it was pouring rain, Alex asked the front desk for “8 yellow umbrellas” and they looked at him and said, “we can make that happen.”  The best they could do was black, but that was more than fine!

courtesy of James Twomey

On Saturday, the day after the wedding, when we were running around trying to figure out what to do with everything, the (amazing) Chef offered to personally look over over wedding cake for the year while we were away and keep it safe for when we returned.  Suffice it to say that we felt very special and our guests were treated with the same amazing attitudes and service.

*all photos mine, unless otherwise stated

A few weeks ago, Jo Burley from El’s Gluten-Free Snack contacted me about sampling some of their new snack products, Bagel Snaps, and Medleys Snack Mix.  I hadn’t heard of El’s before and wanted to know more about them.   El’s Kitchen began in 1998 selling seasoning rubs and decided to use their knack for flavor to season some gluten-free snacks.  Pretty interesting, right?

I received the samples this past weekend and immediately tore open the box, ran into the bedroom where my husband was lounging on our bed and dug in.  The first thing I noticed though, wasn’t the snacks themselves, it was the packaging.  The resealable pouch is a nice natural looking tan and thick, making me think it was recycled.  The colors used are earthy greens and oranges.  Even before I read that these snacks were natural, I knew, because of the packaging.

I decided to try the bagel snaps first.  I think I was expecting them to taste just like the gluten-filled bagel chips of my gluten-filled yester-year.  They didn’t.  They had a nice crunch and definitely lived up to their name.  That was where the similarity between glutenous bagel chips and these end.  These chips have a seriously unique flavor.  They are slightly sweet at first but as you chew, the dull spice kicks in.  I checked the ingredients, it must be the chili powder.  Even so, the flavor isn’t overwhelming and so they are great for toppings and dipping.  I made a bagel snap and prosciutto mini sandwich and it was awesome. However, these chips were great for straight up snacking . I felt the flavor was a little too subtle.

Then, I tried the Medleys.  Wow.  What a flavor powerhouse!  Medleys includes the bagel chips, potato chips, corn kernels, pretzels, and corn chips.   It was an interesting combination of crunchy textures and a great combination of flavors.  Different from the bagel chips, the medley of snacks is salty and spicy and therefore for me, more snack-able.  I could eat these all day.

I was really impressed by El’s snacks.  Their interesting flavors set them apart from other more generic “salty” flavored snack and  in addition to being gluten-free, they are nut-free, dairy -free, and egg-free.  Please check them at at www.elskitchen.com. 

Transitions.  That’s the word that has been floating around in my head and in my heart and also frequently coming out of my mouth lately.  It’s the word that describes exactly what my life is right now.

Three weeks ago, today, I got married.  In one week, I will leave my job I’ve head for three years.  In another 2.5 weeks, I’ll be on a plane to Vienna, Austria, where I’ll live for about a year with my new husband.

When I was first engaged, I didn’t really think about the transition that was happening then.  I was getting married in about a year, and all I knew was that I had to plan a wedding.   Wedding planning became my time, my energy, my happiness, my stress, my life for one year.  What I didn’t realize was that the Wedding was replacing this blog.  You  of course have noticed that I haven’t written nearly as much as I used to.  And, frankly, it wasn’t just because I didn’t have the time, it was because it just didn’t seem as important.  I had taken a big step last July when I purchased a domain-name and wanted to create a site that was uber-personalized and uber-me.  I didn’t get there.  By the end of 2010, wedding planning was all I thought about and all I cared about.  And now, it’s over.

There is something frequently talked about among brides- the post wedding blues.  I have the post-wedding blues.  The minute we got back to our hotel after the reception ended, I started feeling an overwhelming sense of sadness.  It was over.  All my hard work, my time, my energy, my happiness, my life, felt over.  A wedding is a celebration of love and marriage but for me it was a project that I didn’t want to see end.  Work never gave me the same sense of fufillment that wedding planning did.

And.  I’m moving to Vienna.  Soon.  Another transition. This initially freaked me out post-wedding.  The idea of being far from my family, not having anything I have to do, not have that project to focus my every minute on.  But as it’s becoming closer and real-er I am getting truly excited about it.  I’m signing up for German courses.  Alex and I are planning a road trip that will take us through 5 countries in October.  I’m thinking about volunteering at a therapeutic riding ranch or at a museum.  I’m going to make an album from our engagement photos.  I’m going to start research on gluten-free businesses.  Big or small, the opportunities and possibilities are endless.  And while that sort of terrifies me, it excites me too.

There’s another project that I intend to work on.  This blog.  Readers, this blog will also experience a transition.  This blog was originally intended to be a resource for gluten-free eaters in New York City.  I think in my more active months, it was that exactly.  Now, though, it’s time for this blog to serve me too.  It will be more of a travel journal.  The domain will remain the same, but the writing will be a little different.  I’m still gluten-free and I’ll still be living in a large city and while I will write about my gluten-free life, my regular life will appear more often as well.

I started this post wanting to write about my wedding.  But, it didn’t feel right.  It felt too trivial to sum up one year of my life in a post about gluten-free food.  So, I won’t do that.  When it feels right, I’ll let you in on every detail of the wedding, not just how delicious my cupcakes were.

Sorry for the belated post, but I’ve just returned from my honeymoon!  I’m now a married woman!  More on that later.  Here is your New York City GF news for August.

Al Roker bakes Gluten-Free Cupcakes

“Weatherman Al Roker told newscaster Ann Curry he’d made gluten-free cupcakes (with tapioca flour and rice flour) for his son Nicholas’s 9th birthday, which he shares with Mandela.” source: Bloomberg News.

DogFish Head adds a new Gluten-Free Beer to the Mix

In November, DogFish Head Craft Brewery will release their gluten-free concoction, Tweason’ale.  This is great news for gluten-free beer lovers, whose options are pretty limited. source: Bloomberg News.

Joan’s GF Great Bakes suffers from Fire

This news makes me really sad.  Joan’s makes some of the best frozen GF bagels out there.   I am keeping them in my thoughts and hope you do too! source: Long Island Herald

Babycakes at Rockaway Beach

Get your sugar fix while suntanning at the 97th Street Beach, where a half-dozen vendors share space.  source: New York Post

Sample Gluten-Free Bread on August 21

One of the NYC Celiac Disease Group’s members, Karen Freer, has just started a line of fresh gluten-free rolls, called, Free Bread.  She’s having  a tasting at her home and Meetup Members are invited to join!  source: NYC Celiac Disease Group