Last week David and I were up in Virginia, visiting friends and family before moving into our new home in Atlanta.  While we were in Richmond, we discovered The Nile Restaurant,  an amazing, delicious and 100% gluten-free restaurant.

Thanks to our friends, Lee and Nancy, who were inspired by a recent episode of Top Chef that involved Ethiopian cuisine, for finding this great Richmond spot.  They decided to look for an Ethiopian restaurant in Richmond and stumbled upon The Nile Restaurant, which also happens to be 100% gluten-free.  I kid you not: every dish in the place is gluten-free, even the bread (yes, bread!) that you use to pick up your food.  That’s right, no silverware needed in this restaurant.

The ‘injera’ bread is made with teff flour, making it light and spongy.  The bread is basically used as your utensil so you grab your food with the injera.  So delicious!  Warning: Not all Ethiopian restaurants are entirely GF.  Our server informed us that a lot of restaurants use part teff flour and part regular flour in their bread, as a means of cutting costs because the teff is expensive.  This makes it not ok for us celiacs.

Delicious injera bread (100% teff flour)

When people ask me what I miss most now that I’m gluten-free, they usually expect me to say cake or pizza, but that’s not my response.  Honestly, I can make all of those items, and I make them pretty darn well.  For me, the thing I miss the most from my ‘gluten’ days is sharing experiences with people.  At wedding receptions, birthday parties, and events, I usually have to bring my own food.  At restaurants I can never ‘just have a bite’ of someone else’s dish because I don’t know what’s in it or it might be contaminated.  The Nile was a lovely break from my celiac-imposed dining restraints and I could dig in with the rest of my group.

At Nile, they serve the food communally, and I could enjoy and partake with everyone else.  I didn’t have to worry about contaminated utensils. (Oh wait, there were no utensils!)  No separate plates for me.  We all enjoyed every bite of our meal.  I think this might be one of the best dinners I’ve eaten all summer.

Buticha Roll (garbanzo bean paste appetizer)

Ayib Tikl (spicy cheese roll app)

We had no idea what we were doing since it was our first Ethiopian experience but the waiter was so friendly and helpful when it came to guiding us in our choices.  We went with a couple of appetizers, two ‘Nile Special Combination Plates’ (where you get a little bit of everything), and one entrée.  Everything was phenomenal.  We were all very satisfied at the end of the meal.  It was a lot of food but I felt refreshed and energized at the end, not overloaded.

The main event, the special combo plate...so good

Our main dishes came out on one large communal plate.  The photos do not do the meal justice.  It was amazing.  Take my word for it and if you’re in Richmond, check it out for yourself.

I highly recommend Nile, regardless of whether or not you are gluten-free.  There are many options and all of their veggie dishes and injera bread are vegan friendly too!  Next time I’m in Richmond, I’ll definitely be back.

Does anyone know of any other 100% gluten-free restaurants?

The Nile Restaurant – 309 N. Laurel St. – Richmond, VA 23220 – (between Broad & Grace St) 804-225-5544

I’m back in Atlanta after a wonderful week on the Eastern Shore of Virginia with my parents.  Sure, it was no Rhinebeck, New York, but I’ll take Finney Creek any day over the wedding of the century.  The Shore is one of my favorite places, as it’s one of the spots where I feel most relaxed.  No sight seeing, very little social activity, just hanging out.  Fortunately, we had a spell of cooler weather so reading on the dock didn’t involve heat stroke.

Most of our time on the shore consisted of boat rides, naps, reading, eating and watching Pardon the Interruption.  During the fall, winter and spring we also watch a lot of football and basketball, but we have trouble getting excited about baseball, so there wasn’t nearly as much ESPN.  While I missed having sports to watch, I found that I had much more time to read without the NCAA tournament or bowl season to distract me.

I read three great books while on the Shore and I would highly recommend all three.  Each was very different but I devoured them.  Nothing could stand in my way of finishing them.

Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee: Charles J. Shields

Having reread To Kill a Mockingbird this year with my 8^th graders, I loved learning more about the life of Harper Lee, especially her friendship with Truman Capote.  Lee was his research assistant for In Cold Blood, another story that fascinates me.  A large chunk of the book is about their time in Kansas researching the murder and getting to know the people involved in the case.  As a wanna-be writer myself, it was also refreshing to learn that words didn’t always flow easily for Ms. Lee.  She struggled with her first book (TKAM was initially a group of short stories that her publisher made her tie together) and she never even published a second book, despite tirelessly working on one.  Affirming to know that I don’t suffer from writer’s block alone.

Little Bee: Chris Cleave

‘Absolutely riveting’ is the only way I can describe this book.  On the back cover of Little Bee it actually says, “We don’t want to tell you what happens in this book.  It is a truly special story and we don’t want to spoil it.”  That’s how I feel about it.  A powerful, creative story, with great characters, I can’t do it justice by summarizing.  It’s beautifully written but I found myself reading it too fast to even appreciate the writing style because I was so eager to find out what happens and how everyone is connected.

The Piano Teacher: Janice Y.K. Lee

This story takes place in Hong Kong, during and after World War II.  A history teacher, I love books about a small moment in history in an unusual place.  I had never really thought much about what Hong Kong was like during World War II, but the story is captivating.  The combination of a large European population from colonialism, the Japanese takeover, and the Chinese made for an interesting social tension at the time.

Now I’m reading Hellhound on His Trail, (Hampton Sides) a book David recommended, about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the search for his assassin.  The history nerd in me loves this stuff.  Written with a journalistic style, the author tells a great story about the man that killed King, our nation’s political state at the time, and the workings of the FBI.  I’m really enjoying it, but it will take me ten times longer to finish it than if I were still reading on the dock.

Do you have any reading recommendations?  We’ll be in Connecticut with David’s family in September so I’ll be looking for some good reads on the trip.

When David graduated from law school this spring, we wanted to find a place to celebrate with our families and share a delicious meal together. The owners of Evening Star in Del Ray (one of our favorite restaurants) also own a wine shop next door, called Planet Wine. This shop is beautiful, with dark wood shelves and wines displayed throughout and covering the walls. The owners have put a huge table in Planet Wine, naming it Farm Table. You can reserve the Farm Table for a night and get a special meal created by Evening Star chef, Will Artley, composed of seasonally fresh and local food.

David and I decided to see if we could get a gluten free Farm Table meal for our family during his graduation weekend. I contacted Clare Parker, who organizes reservations for Farm Table and she assured us that Will would be happy to create a gluten free meal for our law school celebration. Clare was super friendly and helpful throughout the reservation and menu planning process.

On Saturday, May 16th we arrived at Planet Wine with parents, brothers, sisters and spouses, and shared an absolutely delicious meal. Even though the meal was over a month ago, I remember it so well. The flavors came together perfectly and we had a great evening of food and togetherness. I have to tell you about the food itself, but just writing about it, will not sufficiently explain just how good it was.

We started with champagne and a canapé of Virginia Oysters on the half shell and beef tartare with spicy jicama and crispy yucca. I must admit that I was a little nervous about beef tartare but it was delicious and the different flavors and textures were perfect. The jicama and yucca acted like a crisp cracker that held the beef tartare.

After the canapé, we sat down and Chef Will Artley came out to chat with us and introduce the meal to us. The first course was a bibb salad with grilled asparagus, caramelized shallots and pancetta deviled egg. Wow! The deviled egg flavor was strong but went perfectly when combined with the asparagus.

For the main course, diners had the two options: grilled sea scallops with spring succotash and carrot emulsion or forever braised lamb shanks with fava bean ristotto. mushrooms and green peppercorn sauce. I went with the lamb shanks and it was quite possibly one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten. Will did a nice job of providing two very different options, so that everyone could find something they would enjoy.

The best part of the meal was dessert, which was of course gluten free! The baker at Buzz made strawberry rhubarb shortcake with vanilla ice cream. What a great finish to the meal!

So now that David’s buried in his study for the Bar Exam, I can’t help but think back to what a fun night we had at Farm Table. A meal made of fresh, delicious, gluten free food and our families together in one place. I love how food brings people together and Farm Table provided the perfect back drop for an evening of celebration.

Great news! The bakery, CakeLove, is now offering gluten free cupcakes at their Shirlington location. This fancy bakery sells four varieties of gluten free cupcakes (chocolate or yellow cake and vanilla or chocolate icing). These cupcakes taste different from Buzz cupcakes as the icing is a bit denser and the texture of the cake itself is different. The cupcakes are also bigger than Buzz, which I like! That being said, I enjoy both stores’ baked goods so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend one over the other.

The people that work at CakeLove also know to put the GF cupcakes in a separate container if you order them with glutinous cupcakes so they are aware of contamination.

Having now sampled all of the flavor varieties at CakeLove, my preference is the chocolate cake with vanilla icing. You should refrigerate the cupcakes until you eat them. I like to take thecupcakes out of the fridge in advance or put it in the microwave for a few seconds. (Don’t microwave for too long because the icing will melt!)

Individual cupcakes cost $3.50 each. You may also order two layer gluten free cakes, but they ask for four days notice. Enjoy!

Here’s what they say on the CakeLove website about gluten free baking:

“Baking without wheat flour, the very foundation of baking, was a real challenge. My goal was to create not just gluten-free* sweets, but gluten-free sweets that tasted just as good as any other CakeLove product. Happily, during the process I produced great gluten-free cakes and pastries, and I became a better baker.” – Mary

About Gluten-Free products: Celiac disease, also known as gluten allergy, is a genetic disorder that causes gas and severe pain in the stomach and intestines. Those affected are not able to break down gluten, a protein that’s in wheat flour, oats, and barley. The only treatment for this disorder is to totally avoid foods with gluten. Our regular products are made with wheat flour and have gluten. On our Green Label we use our own custom mix of starches and non-gluten flours. Recipes may contain: potato starch, brown rice flour, garbanzo bean flour, rice flour, sweet rice flour or tapioca flour.

Cake Love:
4150 Campbell Ave. Suite 105
(formerly South 28th St.)*
Arlington, Virginia 22206

Great news! Z Pizza now has a gluten free pie crust. The crust is light and delicious. While I love the Rustico crust as well, Z Pizza’s seems to be more of a rice flour as opposed to the chickpea flour crust at Rustico. The Z Pizza crust is thinner and lighter in texture.

Z Pizza is not serving gluten free crusts at all of their locations yet, but their Alexandria franchise on Duke Street now has it. David and I were particularly excited about this new food option because Z Pizza offers takeout and my family loves Z Pizza. When people invite us over for dinner, I often feel like I don’t have good options to tell them of things they can feed me, so Z Pizza is a perfect option, particularly for friends who don’t cook much.

We ordered Z Pizza last week and asked all of the usual ‘gluten free questions’ of the manager. They make and bake their gluten free crusts in a separate part of the store AND they use separate toppings to put on the pizzas. I didn’t inquire as to whether all of the topping options are gluten free, so I kept it simple and ordered a pizza with veggies (the California pizza). Z Pizza uses fresh ingredients, many of which are organic. The pizza was flavorful, delicious and I didn’t get sick! The pizza also reheated well the next day so I enjoyed it for lunch too.

Enjoy! Let me know if you try any of the other toppings offered at Z Pizza.

Z Pizza
3217 Duke Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
703.600.1193
www.zpizza.com

After a meal at Rustico, the husband and I often walk across the street to Buzz Bakery. Buzz is always ‘buzzing’ with people and they have a huge array of cakes, cookies and pastries. The best part is they have yummy gluten free treats! On the menu, Buzz has two types of gluten free brownies and cupcakes. I recommend the chocolate cupcake with vanilla icing. Before experiencing Buzz, I was never a huge fan of chocolate cake, but their chocolate cupcake is very flavorful and actually tastes like real cake. (It doesn’t leave a funny aftertaste like some gluten free sweets.) If you get a cupcake to take home for later, I recommend sticking it in the fridge and then zapping it in the microwave for about five seconds when you’re ready to eat. The brownies also freeze well. These treats are a bit pricy, but the chocolate cupcake is definitely worth the $3!

Not only does Buzz serve coffee drinks at Buzz, but they also sell wine by the glass and even champagne! Buzz stays open until midnight every night so you can always go for an after dinner dessert and coffee/champagne. Enjoy!

901 Slaters Lane
Alexandria, VA 22314
703.600.BUZZ

Last night the husband and I went to Rustico in Alexandria for dinner. We love their pizzas and they make a chick pea flour crust pizza that is by far the best gluten free pizza that I’ve eaten. The chick pea makes the crust much heartier and flavorful than the rice flower crusts I’ve tasted before. A word of warning: The people at Rustico make regular flour pizza as well so they don’t guarantee a gluten free kitchen. I appreciate that they understand this concept! That being said, they do cook the chick pea crusts in a different oven from the gluten pizzas AND they make the dough in a separate area of the kitchen.

The atmosphere at Rustico is very warm and welcoming. The husband and I enjoy eating at both the bar and in the restaurant. They offer the full menu in the bar and there are many booths as well. There are TVs to watch athletics and while it’s busy, it’s not so loud that you can’t hear the people that are in your group.

Last night I ordered the sausage pizza which is by far my favorite. The sausage is homemade and gluten free! One of my other favorites is the roasted mushroom with goat cheese. You can also create your own pizza too. In the past I’ve ordered grilled chicken and pesto. Yummy! One of the best parts is that I always have leftovers! Rustico also has a huge selection of beers, including about six gluten free beers. Pizza and beer, what more could a celiac want?!

The manager at Rustico is very friendly and nice. He always stops by our table to talk to us and see how we’re doing. You can also order pizzas for take out as well, which is a fun idea for a Sunday afternoon of football.

So while there is a risk of contamination at Rustico, the fact that the staff understands that there is a risk and that they try to minimize the risk. As you know, any time we celiacs go out to dinner, we’re taking a chance. That being said, the pizza is delicious and the staff wants to be accommodating. Even though I’ve had contamination in the past at Rustico (I’m extremely sensitive to gluten contamination), none of my other celiac friends have gotten sick.

Overall, Rustico is a fun place to go where celiacs can get food that is rarely available to us. This is a regular spot for us! It’s a great place to take non-celiac friends. Some people even prefer the chick pea crust to the regular crust!

827 Slaters Lane Alexandria, VA 22314 703.224.5051