gluten free familyA mum's blog about gluten-free living in Australia

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Healthy Feast's legendary lemon meringue

It’s the sort of news no gluten free blogger ever wants to deliver: a favourite bakery has quietly shut up shop.

Healthy Feast, makers of arguably the best spread of gourmet gluten-free baked goods in Australia, is no more. The Leichardt-based shop front has closed its doors and there will be no more appearances at local food markets. Read the rest of this entry »

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Gluten-free Babycakes

Discovery: Navigating the delights of New York’s retail precinct and tourist circuit is more time consuming than you’d think!

Result: Not as much insight into gluten free living New York style as we hoped.

Conclusion: You need more than just a few days in the Big Apple to accurately log its gluten free credentials—but we still managed to make some casual observations as we bumbled our way around the tourist traps. Here they are: Read the rest of this entry »

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Not sure if that tuna mornay really is gluten free?  Swinburne University student, Alexandra Gray, has developed an electronic touchscreen device that could let you know. Read the rest of this entry »

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Gluten free gnocchi

What on earth do you eat if you are gluten free and vegetarian?

Someone wrote in with this very question a few months ago and it gave me real pause for thought.

Once upon a time I was vegetarian and I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to eat meat free meals while also trying to avoid almost every carbohydrate (aside from potato and rice) that are generally on offer at cafes and restaurants.

And I’m not even going to venture  a guess at what the dining options would be if you also had to give up yeast, soy or dairy – so for the moment lets just stick with gluten-free vegetarianism.

At least we live in a multicultural country. Mexican, Asian and Indian food are good options with their emphasis on corn, chickpea and rice-based foods. Read the rest of this entry »

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Anaphylaxis Australia recently asked restaurants in this country to move beyond their ‘fear’ of people with food allergies and “address the risk it posed to a growing number of Australians”.

It says six per cent of children, and four per cent of adults, live with a lethal allergy to common foods or ingredients such as shellfish and nuts, and most fatalities occur while they are dining out.

The organisation said the key was to incorporate food preparation processes that would not enable cross-contamination, and to train staff to ensure they were aware of the risks and transparency in the menu, and be familiar with procedures for dealing with allergic customers.

It struck me that while anaphylaxis prevention must undoubtedly be at the very top of a restrateurs priority list – many of these sorts of measures could also help coeliac sufferers who can also experience very severe responses to cross contamination of common cooking ingredients.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Lemon meringue pie has always had a strange magnetic pull on me.

When I heard that it was one of the specialties of the house at gluten free bakery, Healthy Feast in Sydney’s Leichardt, a visit was inevitable.

So last weekend I strapped the bicycles to the back of the car – the plan was to have a gluten free picnic in the park followed by some hardcore pedalling – and off we went.

You can see what we bought in the picture. The lamingtons and lemon meringue pies were amazing. The former tasted just like the gluten-based variety and the latter even better. Read the rest of this entry »

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Choices gluten free bakery

This weekend we jumped in the car and headed for Choices gluten & wheat free bakery in Sydney’s Turramurra.

It was our first trip because it is a good 40 minutes away in quiet traffic. But we were inspired by news on the Gluten Free Pages that Choices has opened new Sydney stores. It now has outlets in Bondi Junction, Bella Vista and Mona Vale.

Though none of them are close to us, this is still great news and gives me hope that a gluten free bakery may some day open its doors in my neck of the woods.

Like most of the specialist bakeries they will deliver to other areas. But for those like me who like hands-on shopping, there do seem to be more bricks & mortar bakeries popping up. Silly Yaks for instance has opened a factory outlet for its frozen bakery goods in Preston Victoria.  Then there is Deeks Bakery & Cafe in Canberra. Read the rest of this entry »

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Its Saturday night and kids are rolling their eyes at your offer of spaghetti bolognaise.

Time to step our for a bite . . . but where?

Your favourite cheap and cheerful Italian is now out of bounds, and the fish and chip shop on the corner wont fry up without first coating every menu item in batter.

The people at the local burger house gave you a dazed look when you asked if there was any wheat flour in their patties,  and the kids don’t like curry.

If you’re anything like us, thinking about all the places you can’t eat can easily take the fun out of an outing and sometimes we just resort to trying our luck anywhere in the desperate hope there will at least be hot chips on the menu (not beer battered please!).

Thankfully we have recently discovered a number of pizza restaurants adding gluten free options to their menus – so that is where we have started to head when we need a change or we are away from our normal stamping ground. Many cafes are also starting to serve up gluten free bread alongside perennial favourites like beans and sausage instead of the battered-everything style kids menu – so we always ask (before we are seated) if that is an option.

Asian restaurants have also become great family favourites – but checking out ingredients can be tricky in some places (are the noodles wheat or rice based?) – so its best to have an idea in advance which meals are safe (and enjoyable) for your family to eat so you only have to check one of two separate items on the menu.

Mexican restaurants can also come in handy with some of their corn-chip and taco-based offerings generally being wheat free (but always best to double check).

Over time, of course, we all find a handful of places that we love and trust for doing that little bit extra, and it is those restaurants we would like have in our new family friendly restaurant list.  This list is in its infancy – but with your help we want to turn it into a handy guide of nice family friendly places to eat – even if they are not officially a gluten free venue.

You never know – it might just help another gluten free family looking for a easy, pleasant meal out when they are away from home.

LH

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I’m into cafes. I like the coffee, the cake, the background chatter… but add gluten free kids to the equation and they quickly lose their zing. This is usually how it goes:

Me: “No those delicious looking cupcakes with the irresistible pink icing and fairy dust sprinkles are not gluten free.”

Them: (indescribable animal noise)

Me: “What about that yummy orange and almond cake?”

Actually, I don’t say that last part aloud anymore. Though I personally quite like the ubiquitous orange and almond cake, I’m not sure why it, together with a few large, dense, pre-packaged cookies, has become the stock, standard gluten free offering of many cafe chains.

So last Saturday morning I steeled myself for the usual onslaught as I sought out a caffeine hit at Coffee Fest, a cafe near the cinemas at Macquarie Centre in Sydney’s North Ryde.

The kids noses were firmly pressed to the counter glass so I asked – as I always do – if they had anything gluten free.

Imagine my surprise when they pointed out almost a whole shelf of pastry treats including tarts, slices, cakes and about eight different cookies. (In my enthusiasm I spent way too much.)

So it looks like there is a move by cafes to boost their gluten free selections.

At the more upmarket end of the cafe spectrum, for instance, there is The Tea Room in the Queen Victoria Building in the Sydney CBD. It now serves a gluten free high tea including a selection of cakes and pastries made from buckwheat, quinoa, chickpea flour and almond meal.

Feel free to post a comment if you know of any other coffee shops that have a really great gluten free range.

MB

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My pepperoni pizza from Hugos

Happy Mother’s day gluten free mums everywhere.

I was whisked away on a ferry to Manly to a well heeled but very comfy lounge bar-style Italian eatery called Hugos which is on the pier near the ferry terminal.

As we entered, I wondered (to myself) how I was going to eat my way around this particular menu. Imagine my glee then, when I noticed the small print at the end of the pizza part of the menu that almost every pizza was available as gluten free if requested.

Now those who have read recent posts will know I am a bit of a pizza fan so I wasn’t sure what to expect from this random encounter with a gluten free pizza menu.

But when it arrived it was a beautiful thin crust pizza covered in pepperoni and mozarella cheese ($24). I doubt I would ever have picked it for a gluten free base in a blind tasting.

Neither would my fussy-pants todder who scoffed large quantities.

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LH

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