I was browsing at Barnes & Noble in Boca yesterday when I remembered that I was out of Cheerios. So I walked over to Whole Foods, where I found myself enveloped by a swarm of shoppers buying sweet potatoes, string beans, stuffing, pies. Lots of pies. Taking my cereal up to the cashier, I said, “We’re having a modest Thanksgiving this year.”
Today is Fat Tuesday, which means that tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, the season during which Christians traditionally give up things they love – often foods, frequently chocolate. Tomorrow is also Valentine’s Day, so some “fasts” may be delayed 24 hours.
For as long as we have been going to Doc B’s in Fort Lauderdale, Hania has been lodging a complaint about the absence of gluten-free desserts. Managers change fairly frequently, so each new one hears her lament. Once we sat next to a man visiting from corporate headquarters in Chicago; we watched as he observed and instructed staff; he too got an earful from Hania.
Last night we found another new manager at the restaurant. Hania stopped him as he passed our table and launched into her spiel.
“But we now have a gluten-free dessert,” he told her. Not the flourless chocolate cake that she had long recommended, but a kind of chocolate mousse. It wasn’t on the menu yet because they were testing it out.
It was delicious, more complex than a classic chocolate mousse, with hints of salt and caramel, and a sprinkling of shaved nuts on top. (We passed on the whipped cream.)
Hania felt like a culinary agent of change.
Hania never cared much for pizza until she was diagnosed with celiac disease. You always desire that which you can’t have. Back then – 2001 – there were not a lot of gluten-free products, and few pizza places made gluten-free crusts. Things changed as eating gluten-free became trendy. Pizzas appeared with cauliflower crusts, which were OK, though hard, crispy, and not very tasty. They were all about what was on top of them.
Each time a new pizzeria opened, we tried its gluten-free pizza. Patio Bar & Pizza, Mister01, Pommarola. They all disappointed, especially Mister01. The guy got a special visa for this!?!
Last night we went to the new Emmy Squared, next to Fresh Market, which specializes in Detroit-style pizza. I hoped that the thicker crust, even its gluten-free version, might save us from the cardboard-like crusts we’d been eating – and it did! I was reminded of the rectangular slices I used to eat at the Italian Bakery in Phillipsburg, NJ, which were basically tomato sauce on top of baked dough and were so delicious you could eat them cold. Emmy’s crust was moist and chewy – words rarely associated with gluten-free – and the sauce and cheese were just as tasty. We finally found a great gluten-free pizza in Broward Country!
Yesterday in Delray, before my appointment with my dermatologist (four stitches above my left eyebrow), Hania and I had lunch at a restaurant on Atlantic Avenue. The menu noted which dishes were gluten-free and Hania, a celiac, ordered the seared tuna with soba noodles. But she asked the server to doublecheck with the chef to make sure the noodles were gluten-free, as manufacturers often add wheat flour to the buckwheat.
The waiter seemed a bit confused. Knowledge about gluten among restaurant workers seems to have declined, perhaps because non-celiacs have decided that the downsides of giving it up - the loss of fresh bread, good bagels, crusty pizza, tasty beer - outnumber the benefits.
A short while later he returned holding a bag of soba noodles and – as if unable to read the ingredients himself – handed it to Hania. She read them and then showed them to me: “Wheat flour, buckwheat flour, water.” She explained to the waiter that wheat – along with rye and barley – is precisely what she’s not allowed to eat. She asked to see the manager.
The manager appeared even more clueless than the waiter. Hania gave him the same explanation she’d given the waiter, and told him he should take the GF off of the seared tuna entrée. Otherwise, she said, some diners might get sick and sue the restaurant. He said he would, but he looked a little dubious. Hania ordered the scallops with quinoa.
When we go back next week to have the stitches removed, we’re going to check and see if the menu’s been changed. My guess is it won’t be.
A recent starred review in Publishers’ Weekly of a work of fiction quoted two lines from the book: The first, a racist comment from a peripheral character and the second, another character’s statement about the prevalence of racial hatred. And I wondered: Do writers win points these days simply by citing the currently approved obsessions? Wouldn’t readers be more impressed by the sharing of some telling observation from the author, a brilliant apercu perhaps, or an unusual or interesting use of language?