Garlic Ice Cream

En route from San Francisco to Bakerfield earlier this week we stopped at a little town called Gilroy. Gilroy, nicknamed ‘Garlic Capital of the World’  houses a factory which processes more garlic than any other factory in the world.  They hold their annual Garlic Festival every year in July and it’s one of the biggest food festivals in the US. As you drive past the town you can smell Garlic for miles so you definitely can’t miss it…it’s a pretty unique experience!

The best part about Gilroy is that they make and sell garlic flavoured everything. I bought a little tub of garlic ice cream. How could I resist? All of the ingredients were listed and nothing was suspicious…except the garlic of course! It was pretty tasty too although at points it felt as though I was eating both my dinner and my dessert at the same time. Garlic just isn’t a flavour you expect to taste when you’re eating ice cream.

For gluten free travellers’ who are looking for something a bit different to try and who love garlic of course! Gilroy is the place to go. Also, I now know where to go when the vampire apocalypse comes!

Blue Bunny Cinnamon ice cream

My tasty Christmas meal

This year I spent the festive season (and my second gluten free Christmas) with my boyfriend and his family in Iowa. Christmas Ham was on the menu for Christmas lunch and I was pretty excited about this. Cooked Ham isn’t really something we eat a lot of in the UK (and never at Christmas time) so the only thing I could picture was the delicious gammon steaks I used to get from the chippy when I was a kid.

I had read a lot of tales of caution concerning ham so we made sure to get one without any sort of scary glazing. Ours was a pre-cooked ham with only some salts added and nothing more. We covered it in foil and warmed it up in the oven so no chance of contamination there. Topped with fresh pineapple it was delicious and flavoursome and brought back my taste memories of gammon steak. Baked potatoes, green beans, corn (very Iowan!) and cranberry jelly were perfect accompaniments. oooh and Cinnamon flavoured Blue Bunny Ice Cream for dessert!

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas and lots of tasty, gluten free food. I’d love to hear what you ate so please shares your festive stories….

Enjoying home made chocolate

Touring vineyards in Mendoza

I spent a few lovely days in Mendoza, the highlight of which was a tour of local vineyards by bicycle. Tour a vineyard followed by sampling, cycle to the next and repeat equals an amazing day in the beautiful Argentine sunshine.

One stop on our route was chocolate, jam and olive tasting. I opted out of this one since I was already tipsy and didn’t want to face asking lots of questions about ingredients and cross contamination for just a small sample. I did however ask about the chocolate as it smelled amazing. They had 3 or 4 different varieties and the white chocolate with dulce de leche contained flour to help it stick together but the milk chocolate with nuts did not. The kind man doing the tasting went into the back and brought me a couple of large, uncontaminated pieces. Delicious!

As for finding gluten free food in and around Mendoza, there are a few dieteticas. I came across one called Celidiet which had a decent variety of both snacks and frozen goods but everything was totally overpriced.

My first sandwich in weeks!

Cafe with gf options

By chance I came across a little cafe called Santo Remedio (on Juan B Justo y Paseo de los Andes) that does gluten free food and snacks. I was running past when the big no wheat symbol on their window caught my eye. We ended up going back there for lunch and it was great (and not overpriced) I had two small sandwiches with ham and cheese with was $9 pesos (US$2). The cafe also has media lunas, ice cream and a few cookies and snacks. The man who served us was very nice and he told me that they sell gluten free food because their owner is a coeliac. All of their gluten free products were from celi club which is based in the city of Mendoza. It had been almost a month since I’d eaten bread and since these sandwiches were tasty I bought another two for my bus ride the following day. I also found an ice cream chain called Grido (which can be found at a few locations throughout the city) and which does a large variety of gluten free ice cream. They have a list of products suitable for coeliacs which includes a large variety of different flavours.

Lots of choice

Grido Helados

In Mendoza I had the chance to meet a fellow gluten free traveller which was really nice. Cristoph from Germany is travelling in Northern Argentina for 3 weeks and so being in the city of Mendoza at the same time, we had the chance to meet for a drink. It was nice to hear about his experiences of living gluten free at home and abroad and I look forward to meeting other gluten free travellers in the future…

With a fellow gf traveller

Frulees dietetica

Desserts in Muscetta dietetica

I spent 4 days in the seaside city of Mar Del Plata in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and I was pleased with the few places I found that cater for coeliacs. I found two restaurants with gluten free options and whilst I didn’t eat at either of them, as they weren’t within my backpacking budget, both looked good. Casimiro (on Avellaneda 1254) has gluten free items clearly labelled on their menu and Parilla la Angostura (on Urquiza 10) is a Parilla which caters for coeliacs.

There are also a couple of really good dieteticas in the centre of town with a wide variety of gluten free products. Muscetta (on Rivadavia 2668) is fantastic! They have lots of both fresh and frozen gluten free products. Frozen products include empanadas, pizza, bread, pasta, sandwiches and tortas while fresh goods include empanadas, tortas and lots of amazing desserts. I bought a packet of Alfajores filled with dulce de leche and a pudding made of coconut and dulce de leche…both sooooo delicious! Their Empanadas de Carne were pretty yummy too.  Frulees (on Jujuy 1631) is another good dietetica with similar frozen goods as well as cookies, cakes, pasta and sweets. They also have a couple of bags of gluten free cereal which was exciting for me as I hadn’t eaten cereal in almost 3 months. If you are out and about in Mar Del Plata and looking for some ice cream, Tio Andino on the popular street of Güemes sells a variety of gluten free flavours, clearly labelled.

Parilla la Angostura

Gluten Free Ice Cream

Delicious dulce de leche

Munchi's, Palermo

Today I visited my second amazing ice cream store in Buenos Aires which does gluten free flavours (all clearly labelled) and I think I may have enjoyed it even more than Freddo. Munchi’s is small chain with a number of stores in and around the city of Buenos Aires but so far I’ve only tried the one on Malabia 1720 in Palermo Soho.

They have a large selection of flavours and around half are gluten free. They do cream flavours like Mascarpone and Banana Spilt, Chocolate flavours including white, milk and swiss, fruit flavours including strawberry, raspberry and lemon and the Argentina favourite, Dulce de Leche.

When ordering I told them I was coeliac and they opened a new tub of ice cream. They also used a newly cleaned serving spoon so you can take comfort knowing that their staff understand the importance of not risking contamination.

I can never resist the sweet taste of perfection that is Dulce de Leche and I must say it was amazing! A small tub with a couple of good sized scoops costs $12 pesos (US$3) You can also get Dulce de Leche with chocolate chips!

Tasty ice cream!

Freddo in Recoleta

If you are looking for gluten free ice cream in Buenos Aires then Freddo is one good place to go. There have a number of locations throughout the city and clearly label which of their menu items are gluten free.

We ate at the Freddo in Recoleta right across from the city’s famous and very interesting cemetery (where Eva Peron and many others are buried) but I have seen many others in various areas throughout this huge city. A small tub of ice cream was $13 pesos (US $3) so not cheap but not bad. The ice cream tastes really good and you can choose from around 10 different gluten free flavours. I hear that they also do flourless gluten free cake here so I may have to check this out on my next visit.

Other than obvious glutenous ingredients such as cookies, I have no idea what some places put in their ice cream to make it not gluten free! Still, lucky for coeliacs, Freddo have decided to tell us which of their products we can and cannot eat and this makes me very happy.

Blue Bunny ice cream

When the sun is shining and the heat sweltering, what better than a freezing cold bowl of delicious, creamy, ice cream….

For a while now I’ve wondered whether I’m being over cautious when it comes to finding safe ice cream. Are all ice creams gluten free unless then have some obvious cake or cookie topping or do some varieties include certain flavourings or colourings that may contain gluten? I figure the later is probably true which is what keeps me from freely ordering ice cream whenever I get a taste for it.

Welcome Blue Bunny, an ice cream company which started in Iowa but whose products are now available all over the States.

Their website provides specific gluten information as well as general allergen information. This is what they have to stay about the gluten free status of their products:

Gluten Content of Blue Bunny® Products
Obvious gluten-containing ingredients in Blue Bunny® products include items with wafers, cookies, brownies, cookie dough, bisque and pretzels. For the safety of our customers, if any ingredient such as a flavoring, stabilizer, emulsifier, color or coating contains gluten, it will be named in the ingredient statement. In general, Blue Bunny® products are gluten-free unless they contain obvious gluten-containing ingredients or gluten content is otherwise noted in a product’s ingredient statement.

Good news, gluten free ice cream lovers! As long as we stay away from anything cookie or cheese cake related and nothing else is mentioned on the ingredients statement then it looks like we’re good. Blue Bunny’s selection is vast and from checking out the labelling it appears that most of the amazing flavours are suitable for coeliacs!

Vanilla with strawberries!

Kabob and Curry

Lots of gf options

One restaurant which caught my eye was an Indian place called Kabob and Curry (on 261 Thayer Street). Their menu clearly stated which items are gluten free and there are lots of chicken, lamb and seafood dishes to choose from.

GF cones available

Dessert on the street

There was an ice cream and desserts van parked on the road and I noticed on their board that it said ‘gluten free cones available’. I asked the woman serving whether their ice cream was also gluten free and she said that she thought so but couldn’t be 100% sure.

She took out the packaging and handed it to me so that I could read the ingredients. Nothing looked suspicious. Gluten free ice cream on a sunny day sounds like a good idea!

Seafood risotto at Twist

Twist on Angell

Around 4pm we decided to go for a meal that I have now taken to referring to as linner (similar to the well-known brunch) Online I’d found Twist on Angell (on 500 Angell Street), a restaurant which looked pretty tasty and had a large gluten free menu. This menu includes appetizers, salads, pizza and entrees. I opted for the seafood risotto….delicious and very filling! It’s not the cheapest place but there are lots of yummy sounding gluten free options to choose from and Twist on Angell is the only restaurant I’ve eaten in where they have mouthwash in the restroom!

I know that milk, creme, sugar and fruit are gluten free and these (I think) are normally the ingredients of ice cream so does this mean that all ice cream (other than flavours like cookie dough and cookies and cream obviously) are gluten free?

What glutenous ingredients could ice cream be hiding?

I love nibbling on delicious creamy ice cream when I’m travelling to a hot country but since being diagnosed as Coeliac I’ve been avoiding doing this

Does anyone have any tips on how to choose safe ice cream or can it never be safe if I can’t read the ingredients?