Upcoming Gluten Free Atlanta Events

Hope you'll check out some of these great events!

Shaun's Restaurant Celiac Menu Friday, September 11th- Sunday, September 13th. Once a month Shaun's puts together a 4-course gluten free menu. It looks yummy! You can also order off of their regular menu as well, which I'm sure they'd be willing to accommodate and it's probably a safe place.

The Celiac Menu:
appetizer warm mushroom salad, organic poached egg, brown butter hollandaise

intermezzo carolina gold rice soup, grilled quail, peanuts, scallions
entrée braised all-natural range veal breast, spaghetti squash and chestnut honey
dessert local muscadine sorbet with lambrusco bianco

Shaun's Restaurant
1029 Edgewood Ave. NE
Atlanta, GA 30307
404.5774358

Harry's Farmers' Market in Roswell Celebrates National Celiac Day: Sunday, September 13th from 12-5

Many fun events including, gluten free demonstrations, a birthday party, and cooking instruction.

It's so great that there are many events in Atlanta supporting celiac and gluten free dining. Please keep me posted on any other events coming to the area.

Southern Stir Fry

I’ve started working at a great produce shop called The Local Farmstand. I love working here for many reason, but I’m particularly obsessed with the fact that I am constantly surrounded by fresh, local, and gorgeous vegetables. I feel fortunate that I get to spend the day talking to people about food, how to prepare it and thinking about what my next, delicious, gluten-free meal will be.

One of my favorite recent creations is Southern Stir Fry, a great way to use local produce and get lots of good flavor. Southern Stir Fry is basically a stir fry for summer veggies, so it’s great if you have a CSA and aren’t quite sure what to do with that one squash and few pieces of okra. Last week I made it twice, once with okra as my main component and the next time with baby squash. You could also use zucchini, eggplant, or sweet peppers.

Southern Stir Fry can be a side dish or an entrée depending on what else you plan on serving. (If I want it to be a main dish, I serve it with risotto. The flavors go well together.

Ingredients:
- 3 T. olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ cup red wine
- 3 large fresh tomatoes, chopped
- 1 lb. summer vegetables chopped (I used combinations of okra and summer squash)
- Thyme
- Bay leave
- salt pepper


Heat pan with olive oil on medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté for another minute.

Add red wine and continue to cook and stir. Let about half of the wine evaporate.

Add thyme, bay leaf, salt and pepper, tomatoes and whatever other veggies you plan on using. (Don’t worry too much about amounts of veggies. It’s totally fine to use more or less.)

Turn temperature of stove to low and cover pan. Cook for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The tomatoes will start to melt but the other vegetables will maintain their shape and some firmness. Serve warm. Enjoy!

Rosebud Atlanta

I recently went to Rosebud, a restaurant located in Morningside, just outside of Virginia Highlands. Rosebud describes its food as a ‘Creative fare of American cuisine with a bit of southern inspiration.” When a friend sent me a list of restaurants to choose from, I was particularly intrigued by Rosebud because of its mission to be an ambassador for local farmers and products. I’ve learned that when restaurants promote local fare, it means they’re creating fresh, flavorful food and Rosebud did just that! It also means that they’re aware of everything that goes into their meals, making it more likely that they’ll accommodate me, the gluten free diner.

I met up with my friend, Allison, at Rosebud and even though I had already looked at the menu, I still had trouble deciding what to order because there were so many delicious items on the menu that seemed like great flavor combinations. I informed the waiter that I had celiac and he confidently assured me that I should be able to have most things on the menu, but most likely not the sauces that come with the entrees. He told me the chef could just make me a special sauce. That sounded great to me! As you know, I love it when a restaurant tells me to pick what I want and they’ll make it work.

I chose the braised lamb shank for my meal and it was so delicious. The menu changes frequently, depending on what’s in season, so my meal was a little different from the lamb shank entrée currently listed on the online menu. Mine came with fingerling potatoes, sun dried tomatoes and olives. It was a great combination of strong flavors and the lamb was so tender it practically melted in my mouth. (No need for the fancy sauce!)

While I went with the lamb shank, there were definitely plenty of potential options for me at Rosebud. The crab and corn risotto and seared scallops also appealed to me. Allison ordered the shrimp and grits, which she said were delicious (and most likely GF but I didn’t ask).

I highly recommend Rosebud and I will be going back! When we ate at Rosebud it was a Wednesday, which is known as Big Salad Wednesday. They have a special entrée salad menu on Wednesday nights. I was more interested in lamb shank that night but am eager to try one their beautiful, fresh, local salads. I also want to try the homemade pimento cheese…I’ll let you know if it’s gluten free.

Rosebud
1397 North Highland Ave
Atlanta, GA 30306
404.347.9747
Rosebud Website

Labor Day Lunch Eat Ins: Slow Food Atlanta

If you're looking for something to do on Labor Day, pack yourself a gluten free picnic and support a great cause! Join in one of the Eat Ins in the Atlanta area advocating for better food in schools. I'll be at the Piedmont Park location, but they'll also be in Decatur, East Cobb County, Gwinnett and Buckhead. Click on the links below for more information.

Slow Food Atlanta - Eat-In

September 7, 2009
12-3pm
Piedmont Park - Atlanta, GA
Organizer: Judith Winfrey
Email: judith@loveislovefarm.com

Let's get REAL FOOD in schools. Let's join over 200 picnics nationwide to support vegetables for kids. Let's enjoy our city, a great meal, our favorite park, and a great group of folks. Let's get more money for school lunch programs. Let's support local farms. Let's eat!

Here's the deal. You bring a picnic to Piedmont. You eat it. By showing up, you support better lunches for kids in schools. Easy breezy, right?

Information for Atlanta Slow Food Picnic

Slow Food Atlanta Website

Gluten Freedom’s Search for Thai Food

Thai food should be gluten free. Rice noodles, rice, spices, it should all be gluten free, right? (Just hold the soy sauce.) David and I love to make GF Thai food at home, but it’s always great to find a Thai place accommodates the GF customer. After a week in Atlanta, I figured why not try searching for my go to Thai place in Atlanta?

Last night we went to Amaryn’s Thai Bowl and Sushi in Decatur. While there was definitely some confusion as to what gluten was, I will say that the management and waiters at Amaryn’s were very nice and willing to work with me. They also knew that soy sauce has wheat in it. When I inquired about the menu, they told me I should be able to get any of their Thai Bowl combos, without soy sauce. Of course you need to have rice noodles, not egg noodles (they contain wheat in addition to the egg).

I ordered the chicken panang which they assured me had no soy sauce in it and they even checked the ingredients on the fish sauce for me. They thought rice had wheat in it but I assured them rice is fine.

When the waiter brought me my meal, there were two balls of fried something in my meal. I was pretty sure those were not gluten free. I explained to the waitress that I couldn’t eat it and that I needed a new meal entirely (they couldn’t just take off the fried dough balls). She very nicely agreed and brought me an entirely new meal. It was definitely an entirely new entrée, which I very much appreciated.

So was I nervous about eating the meal? Definitely…But, I was totally fine afterwards. No contamination! Always a victory when eating out at a new restaurant in a new city. I don’t know if I would give Amaryn’s my highest recommendation to the gluten free diner, but there should be plenty of options at Amaryn’s and other Thai places.

A couple of tips for dining out:
- I find it’s always good to call places ahead and try to speak with a manager. It’s even better to call at a time when you know they won’t be busy.

- There’s an IPhone App called “GF Card” where you can get explanations of Celiac Disease in about 50 different languages, from Bulgarian to Thai to Urdu. This App is great for travel and dining. Just show it to your waiter and they can even take it back to the chef (Of course I left my ITouch at home last night!)

Amaryn’s Thai Bowl & Sushi
265 Ponce De Leon Pl
Decatur, GA 30030-3259
(404) 373-2788‎

Richard Blais' Flip Burger

Last spring David and I came to Atlanta to check out the city, as we knew we’d be moving here this summer. While on this trip, I had the opportunity to check out a couple of different restaurants. As a huge fan of Bravo's Top Chef, the place I was most eager to see was Flip Burger, which is owned by Richard Blais, a contestant on Season 4 and personal favorite of mine. For those of you who’ve seen the show, Richard always used molecular gastronomy in his cooking and has a bit of a mini-Mohawk.

It’s clear from the name that this relatively new restaurant does burgers. They’ve got all kinds of burgers (turkey, faux lafel, salmon and lamb, to name a few) and they do them well.

Before we went, our friends called ahead to see if Flip Burger was willing to accommodate gluten free customers and they said they definitely could. Located right on Howell Mill Road, Flip is in an up and coming area on the Westside and it is filled with customers.

When we got to the restaurant we sat outside and could not have had a friendlier waiter. Enthusiastic and knowledgeable, she told me to pick what I wanted and they would see what they could do. I decided to go with the turkey burger which comes with avacado, alfalfa sprouts and pomegranate ketchup. The cook wrapped my burger in lettuce since I had to go sans bun. Definitely a thoughtful touch! We also decided to share the Caesar salad (without the croutons of course). Everything I ordered was delicious and looked beautiful. The presentation and menu creativity are some of the best parts of Flip besides the food.

The highlight of the evening for me was actually getting to meet Richard Blais! Like I mentioned earlier, I loved him on Top Chef. He was friendly and nice to us and I thanked him for being willing to make gluten free burgers. He said of course they accommodate the GF customer and that he realizes what a large population is becoming gluten free. He even mentioned that on the side he’s working with a friend to try to create a delicious gluten free pasta. I’ll keep you posted if I hear anything more about that.

Flip was a fun and unique first dining experience for me in Atlanta. I was definitely star struck but also enjoyed the delicious food. Many of the burgers themselves are gluten free (if you leave out the bun), but you might have to make some modifications to the toppings. Sadly you’ll need to avoid fried things (fries, onion rings, okra, etc.) but the salad was yummy and they have a beet and goat cheese salad that looks good too. The potato salad and five bean salad might also work, but I’ll have to check.

The other component to Flip Burger’s menu are the liquid nitrate milkshakes. Full from my burger, I did not try or ask about the shakes. My guess would be that you need to stay away from the Krispy Kreme shake, but the others (Georgia peaches ‘n cream, foie grois, and spicy chocolate mole to name a few) are probably GF.

If you go to Flip, and I suggest that you do, remind your server about being gluten free and also ask them to clean off the section of the grill/pan that they’re going to use to prepare your burger in order to avoid cross contamination.

Enjoy! And maybe you’ll get to meet Richard too! (It’s still worth it even if you don’t have a Richard sighting.)

Cecilia's Bakeshop: Gluten Free & Vegan goodies

As you know, I'm new to town, but Cecilia's Bakeshop was featured on Daily Candy recently. They are by appointment only but they have all kinds of cakes, pies, and cookie doughs that are gluten free and vegan. You can also order cupcakes.

The rich chocolate cake and carrot cake look particularly appetizing to me! Prices are listed on the website and while a bit pricey ($28-$36 for a 6 inch cake), it's a great deal in the gluten free world. I always want to support local people making gluten free food!

Cecilia's Bakeshop
678-643-9502 (By Appointment Only)

Cecilia's Bakeshop Website