Eight restaurant, very gluten free friendly (and a gluten free ice cream in a cone)

A few weeks ago, we stayed in the city for my birthday and went to dinner at Eight. Eight is the restaurant at the Langham hotel in Auckland and I know several people who have eaten there and they all say how wonderful the food is.

Eight has a similar food concept to Melba, the Langham hotel restaurant in Melbourne where we  recently had an expensive dining disaster. So it was with some trepidation that I seated myself in Eight. When I mentioned to the wait staff that I was gluten free, they offered gluten free bread to start with, which I thought was a nice touch.

There are eight different kitchens with different cuisines that you can experience in one sitting. You can either eat from the sit down menu or eat from the buffet, which allows you to experience as many of the eight food cultures as you want. I had a walk around the buffet restaurant and spoke to the different chefs who are there to assist you with choices and to prepare food for you as you wait. There were many gluten free options and some of the chefs offered to make special meals for me in addition to the gluten free options available.

The meal I finally chose (from the sit down menu) was absolutely delicious, beautifully cooked and very fresh. Haitch ate from the buffet and his food looked equally beautiful. There was no comparison to the two different Langham restaurants. We would never eat at Melba again but would definitely go back to Eight.

When it came to dessert time, I decided I could not fit anymore food in. So Haitch went up to the buffet and brought back a plate of lovely looking desserts. When he finished those he went back for more. I guess that is the beauty of a buffet but by this time I was ready to go back to our  room and collapse on the bed after eating so much. So when he went back for more dessert, I think I may have glared at him but of course he ignored me.

When he came back to the table he put an ice cream cone in my hand. I thought that he was expecting me to hold it for him while he ate the dessert he had in his plate. What a mean trick to play on me. He knows how badly I have wanted an ice cream in a cone since being gluten free. I guess I shouldn’t have glared at him.

But then he said “it’s for you! They have gluten free ice cream cones so I made one for you!” I quickly forgot how tired and full I was. I licked that ice cream and crunched on the delicious cone and totally enjoyed the blissful moment.

Pavilion gluten free raspberry slice

One of the worst things about being gluten free is that you have to be organised. You need to have healthy snacks readily available to grab at short notice if you are going to be away from home and away from any shops. This time I didn’t.

One of our two babies due to be born into our family, arrived last week. On Saturday this beautiful wee boy was being taken home and the new mum asked if we could be there to help settle him in.

Haitch asked just before we left home, if I had any snacks to take with me as we could be away for quite a while. Oh dear, I hadn’t thought of that. I was busy getting the last of my baby knitting ready to take in and food was way down on my thought list.

So on the way to the baby’s house, we called into Farros to get some food for the new family and we grabbed this gluten free Pavilion raspberry slice so I would have something to eat.

Unfortunately, sweet food seems to be the easiest gluten free snack food to find in a hurry and sometimes the alternative just seems all too hard.

So how was the Pavilion gluten free slice? The consistency was quite soft as many gluten free slices are but it wasn’t crumbly and the raspberry filling gave it a delicious flavour. Very sweet but very tasty and if I wasn’t worried about my sugar intake, I would definitely buy these again.

UPDATED April 2013
Haitch tried a piece of this and said it tasted as it looked – insipid and flavourless. Perhaps he is right and I am so used to eating tasteless food that I thought this was good?

Gluten Free High Tea at Cornwall Park

There are two babies due to be  born into our family. These little babies are currently within the bumps pictured above. As you can see, one of them is due to arrive very soon.

To celebrate, we had a high tea baby shower at the Cornwall Park restaurant.

I love high teas. Well at least I used to before being gluten free. I had a gluten free high tea at the Langham  hotel, which I was not very impressed with so I wasn’t expecting much this time but it didn’t matter. The day would still be fun.

I am sorry I didn’t get a photo of my gluten free Cornwall Park high tea. The sandwiches were so delicious. The bread was soft and the little sandwiches were delicious. The scones were also very nice and just the right amount of jam and cream to go on them.

And last but not least, the little dessert plate at the top of my high tea tower was very similar to the non gluten free teas. Two of the little cake squares were the same as the other high teas. There was also a chocolate covered florentine and a little shot glass of very finely cut fruit to finish it all off.

I was very happy with my gluten free high tea at Cornwall Park.

Gluten free salted caramel brownie sandwich cookies

This recipe is from the NZ Herald from a few weeks ago and it only had a small amount of  flour, so thought it might be easy to convert to gluten free. I haven’t baked for a long time due to many recent disasters in the baking kitchen and also because I am not supposed to be eating sugar.

I decided to make these as I was desperate to bake something after so long and I was keen to try to stop my run of baking failures. Who knows if these would be successful or not but I had to try. Salted caramel…Yum. Brownie cookies…Yum.

They were not a disaster. In fact they were very rich and chocolatey and creamy but nevertheless, delicious!

Gluten Free Salted Caramel Brownie Sandwich Cookies

Ingredients
350g dark chocolate, chopped
40 unsalted butter
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
1/4c gluten free flour mix, sifted (use your favourite GF mix)
1/2tsp guar gum, sifted
1/4tsp baking powder, sifted

Salted Caramel Frosting

Ingredients
3/4c sugar
1/4c water
1/3c cream
150g unsalted butter
sea salt flakes for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 180c

1) Place the butter and 200g of the chocolate in a small saucepan over a pot of boiling water, stirring until melted and smooth and set aside.
2) Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla in an electric mixer for 15 minutes or until pale and creamy.
3) Stir through the flour, baking powder, guar gum, chocolate mixture and remaining chopped chocolate and allow to stand for 10 minutes.
4) Drop teaspoons of mixture on a lined baking tray, allowing room to spread.
5) Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until puffed and cracked. (Mine took 10 minutes).
6) Allow to cool completely on tray.

To make the salted caramel icing
7) Place the sugar and water in a medium saucepan over low heat and stir with a metal spoon until the sugar is dissolved.
8 ) Increase heat to medium and bring to the boil.
9) Cook for 8 to 9 minutes or until golden. (Mine took longer so I turned up the heat but watched it carefully).
10) Remove from the heat and carefully add the butter and cream.
11) Return the saucepan to the heat and stir until the mixture is smooth. (This may take a while but keep stirring.)
12) Refrigerate until cool.
13) Beat mixture in the electric mixer until the mixture reaches soft peak consistency. (This also may take a while.)
14) Spread half the cookies with the icing, sprinkle with salt and sandwich the remaining cookies.

Horley’s Strawberry Flavoured Protein Food is Gluten Free (but the chocolate flavour is not)

When I was first diagnosed with Coeliac Disease, I was 62 kilos (and 5′ 4″).
A few months after going gluten free, I weighed in at 58 kilos. I didn’t mind that too much. I could get back into a lot of my clothes I had previously grown out of over the last few years.

Then in the middle of last year I was diagnosed with another autoimmune disease, Impaired Glucose Tolerance and had to cut down my sugar intake and try to eat low GI.
A few months after cutting down on sugar, I weighed in at 52 kilos.

I am not at all happy about my extra weight loss as I look like a rake and my clothes don’t fit me anymore.   So I decided I would try a protein powder to see if I could gain some of my much loved weight back and fit into my clothes again.

I found Horley’s protein food in the supermarket and the strawberry flavour says on the back of the pack that it is gluten free. The chocolate flavouring does not say gluten free, so be careful. I have been having a glass of this each day with a meal since New Year.

Have I put any weight back on? Unfortunately no but I still take it each day as it is probably a good protein supplement for me since I don’t eat red meat. And I like the taste when it is blended with milk and a banana.

Ham and cheese sandwiches at the Auckland Arts Festival but not for me

Last night I was lucky enough to attend a show as part of the Auckland Arts Festival. The show was The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart and was brought to us by the National Theatre of Scotland. This show was indescribable and unmissable.

During interval time, the Auckland Arts Festival team brought out trays and trays of ham sandwiches and cheese sandwiches. What a wonderful thing to do. Refreshments were not listed as part of the show but being the type of show this was, I am not surprised at this generous gesture.
But I was not able to have a cheese or a ham sandwich. I looked on in envy at everyone reaching toward the tray and bringing back sandwiches and raising these to their mouths and taking a bite. The ladies next to me reached toward the tray and brought back three each and put them in little piles in front of them and started eating with delight. They even took more when the tray came back to our table.

I couldn’t look the tray laden staff in the eye when they bought round these lovely looking sandwiches. I didn’t want to have to say no because I didn’t want anyone to think I didn’t want one (because I desperately did) and I didn’t want to have to say I couldn’t have them because I am gluten free. So I didn’t look at them as they came around with their offerings.

I looked around the room and I could see every person eating the sandwiches. I then mentally counted the number of people in the room. If you think that 1:100 people are Coeliacs and therefore gluten free, why was there no one else missing out in this room!

I became a bit focussed on what I couldn’t have and I was surprised at myself after more than two years of being gluten free! But as soon as the show started again, I forgot all about the sandwiches and enjoyed the remainder of the show.

I suspect brazil nuts are giving me stomach pains

Towards the end of 2011, I found a delicious gluten free cereal recipe that I started making in the weekends and having it each day for breakfast.

However, I started having stomach issues at about the same time as starting to eat the cereal each day but it also coincided with having a ten day course of the pain killing drug Celebrix. I had numerous specialist visits and numerous procedures but nothing definitive was found to be the cause of the stomach distress and exhaustion.

Around the middle of last year I realised that after eating my cereal, the stomach pains would get worse and sometimes I just had to lie on the couch for an hour or so before I could get up. So one day I said to Haitch, I think there is something in the cereal that my body is not coping with and I think it is the brazil nuts. Don’t ask me why I thought it was the brazil nuts. It was a hunch. A bit like if you have ever had food poisoning, the culprit food is usually very clear in your mind and you feel unwell each time you think of that food. Well, I was feeling sick each time I even thought of eating brazil nuts.

So I stopped making my cereal. I was so sad about this and I whinged to Haitch about how unfair life was. My home made cereal was one of my daily food pleasures I had left and it was being taken away from me.

That was July last year. I hadn’t had my cereal since and had experienced no regular stomach issues. So last month, (January) I decided I was ready to start making my cereal again. This time I would leave out the brazil nuts. Oh how glorious. I can now eat my cereal again and no stomach pains and other such symptoms.

But last weekend I got silly. I bought some brazil nuts and added them to my new batch of cereal. I only added 1/3 of a cup. I used to add 2/3. This cereal lasts me a week, so it wasn’t a lot of brazil nuts being eaten each day.

Yesterday at work, I had an upset and bloated stomach shortly after eating my cereal. It lasted all day. So I searched online to see if brazil nuts can cause stomach pain and this is what I found. Yes, brazil nuts can cause stomach pain. It is the selenium. How very interesting. I am guessing that my next batch of cereal with NO brazil nuts will not cause me any stomach issues.

Time will tell.