Dana Mandi

We had a craving for take out food in our house last week.  The Glutens were easy and called for Chinese food, so I decided to try Dana Mandi.  After talking with them on the phone and being assured that their was no flour or gluten in their foods, only chick pea flours, I decided on the butter chicken, beef curry and rice.  They were fantastic.  They smelled great in the truck on the way home, tasted great, and were fantastic as leftovers.  The chicken was actually pieces of chicken breast and not just some processed pieces.  The food had great texture and flavour.  Among the best East Indian food I have tasted.  Had to protect them from the Glutens in the house seeking leftovers though!  Definitely on my new list of favs.

Bites of Bliss

Bites of Bliss is a much needed quick fix for all the Celiac's out there.  Quick, easy, sugary cupcakes for when you want to have something that tastes like cake.  I have not yet had all the flavours, but strongly recommend the Pina Colada flavour.  The owner is very friendly and helpful, and will make sure you are hooked up with a cupcake card so every tenth one is free.  Great way to bring a dessert to a party; some gluten cupcakes for others and a few gluten free for you!

Udi's bread

Udi's Bread.

Okay, we have found various quality differences with this product and think we have found out the solution!  Madi and I were getting frustrated with how sometimes the buns were small and hard, and sometimes larger and fluffy.  Depending on the Save-on-Foods that you buy the bread at will depend how it is stored.  The College Heights keep all the bread in a freezer so it does not thaw from factory to you.  Other locations however, keep it out in the bread isles, thawed and best before stamped.

The solution!  Buy the bread frozen so that you don't get old or stale bread (especially at 7 bucks a loaf).  Let it thaw out at room temperature to let the loaf rise to normal height (we think that perhaps it is smaller for shipping and rises a bit puffier when thawed slowly).  Then either eat within a few days, or re-freeze once bigger so that if you quick-thaw it in a microwave, then it is still lighter and puffier.  It seems to be working for us much better this way.

Dow's new gluten replacement

The bread in this video by DOW looks amazingly light and fluffy!  I hope to see this bread in the next year, cause that would be awesome....

Gluten Free Rice Crispies

Well, I tried the new Gluten Free Rice Crispies and they are pretty good. Don't get me wrong they do not taste like the original ones and have a brown rice sort of taste to them, but they are the best crispy rice cereal so far.  When made into Rice Crispy Squares, they are really good which is not surprising since marshmallows can make most things taste better.  Always, these have made it to the top of the list for GF cereals.   Hmmm, I should start a list of the top cereal, or breads in each catagory (like best sandwich bread)....  Comment if you want me to start one.

Just looked at the stats for the site, and I have thousands of visits so far, but only a few comments.  hmmm who knew?

Gluten Free Rice Crispies

nick 7.5/10

Red Robin

So my daughter said that the new gluten free bun at Red Robin was really good, and so did my sister, so I decided to go and try it. Needless to say I was very sceptical. My Guacamole burger came and at first I was a bit confused...the bun did not look gluten free. It looked different than their normal buns but it looked to light and fluffy to be gluten free. Sure enough when I tasted it, the bun was just like I remembered regular bread to be. What? A gluten free bun that tastes just like a wheat bun? Who makes this thing and where can I buy them? Upon hounding Madi, she figures that it is probably Weston's Bakery that makes them, so I will have to search. I go out to eat for food that I can't make as well at home, and apparently that now includes burgers.

nick 9/10

PGTV

Well I'm supposed to be on PGTV tonight for this blog. They came and asked me some questions, and then watched me eat while they filmed me. It was a very strange experience. What was embarassingly funny was for one of my filmed bites, I took to much and my eyes were watering trying to swallow it down (or course I forgot my water bottle). I only found out at about 10:30 am this morning, so no wardrobe changes and or course I didn't have a chance to shave this morning. Oh well.... We'll see if my ugly mug makes it on the news. What's the saying? Any publicity is good publicity?

Nick
wardrobe 4/10
eating skills 3/10
camera presence ?/10 (we'll see)

Update: here it is! (click here)