Pizza Nut

UPDATE (8/21/09): Bella Monica's pizzas will be available at all Wegmans markets beginning in October.

I'm always interested to learn of new gluten-free pizzas on the market, as the Italian specialty is our older son's favorite food. I recently read about a line of gluten-free frozen pizzas from Bella Monica FlatBread Company. I emailed the company's owner, Trevor Chambers, to ask where the pizzas were available in the area, since I hadn't seen them on any store shelves. Through a distributor, Trevor was able to have all three varieties of his flatbreads delivered to Natural Health in Clementon, New Jersey, where I purchased the Margherita style. (Also available are Mushroom & Herbs and Spinach & Tomato.)

The Spinach & Tomato rice-flour pizza is topped with a mix of mozzarella and feta cheeses, while the others have a blend of asiago and mozzarella. The Margherita variety we tried is more cheesy than saucy. The flatbread can be heated in the oven for its entire cooking cycle (10-12 minutes after defrosting), but at Trevor's suggestion, I threw it on the grill for a few minutes after baking, which imparted a smoky flavor. The thin-style crust was crisp but not flaky. Although I like a bit more tomato sauce on my pie than what I tasted here, my son and I both enjoyed it. The Margherita is a first-rate effort worthy of adding to the pizza rotation in our house.

Bella Monica's pizzas are not made in a dedicated gluten-free manufacturing facility, but - as stated on the packaging - the products are tested for the presence of gluten to 10 parts per million, which is below the 20-ppm definition of "gluten free" being recommended by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The cost is on the high side - the list price for each pizza at Natural Health was $13.49 each, although the store was selling them at an initial promotional price of $8.99 each. Keep in mind, though, that the pizza is about twice the size of the Pizza By George pizzas that we usually buy at between $4.99 and $6.49 each.

At the moment, Bella Monica's flatbreads are available at the following local stores (call ahead to confirm availability):

• Big Bear Natural Foods - Yardley, PA; Lambertville, NJ; Pennington, NJ
• Black Forest - Hamilton, NJ
• Bonterra Market - Egg Harbor Township, NJ
• Bunn's Natural Foods - Southampton, PA
• Frey's Better Foods - Hellertown, PA
• Grapevine Natural Grocery - Newtown, PA
• Kimberton Whole Foods - Douglasville, PA; Downingtown, PA; Kimberton, PA; Ottsville, PA
• Martindale's Natural Market - Springfield, PA
• Natural Health - Clementon, NJ
  
• Newark Natural Foods Co-op - Newark, DE
• Water To Go - Pennsauken, NJ
  
• Whole Earth Center - Princeton, NJ
  

More stores are being added, but if you'd like to have your favorite natural foods store carry the pizzas, pass along the company's sales sheet to the store's management. And if you happen to be traveling in the Raleigh area, check out Bella Monica's restaurant, which offers a full gluten-free menu.

That's Amore

We couldn't be more fortunate to live about a five-minute drive from Pasta Pomodoro in Voorhees, New Jersey. The restaurant has won awards at the last two Philadelphia Gluten Free Cooking Sprees, held as part of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness' Appetite for Awareness. At last year's Cooking Spree, owner/chef Pasquale Masters won the People's Choice award with his gnocchi with marinara sauce, garlic bread and Boston Crème Pie.

The Italian eatery, located in Eagle Plaza on Haddonfield-Berlin Road (Route 561), has long offered an exhaustive gluten-free menu that includes pizza, pasta, garlic bread, entrees, sandwiches and desserts. Our older son is partial to the gluten-free pizza, and he'll usually get an order of garlic bread and dessert to boot.

Chef Masters and co-owner Skip Elmer have their own experiences with food intolerances; Masters has a son who has several food-related allergies and Elmer has celiac disease. As a result, the owners and staff of the restaurant take care to eliminate cross-contamination.

The chef is always creating new gluten-free dishes, so it's likely that a chalkboard special or two will be available during your visit. He might even offer a sneak preview of his entry in this year's Cooking Spree. Even if you don't live in southern New Jersey, a visit to Pasta Pomodoro is well worth the trip.

News & Notes

I wasn't able to attend Monday's celiac awareness night at the Phillies game, but it seemed as though the event was a success. The team sold more than 500 tickets located in designated sections, raising over $2,000 for celiac awareness causes. Aramark, the stadium concessionaire, set up a stand of gluten-free food items behind the sections that included hot dogs, cheeseburgers, chicken fingers, Redbridge beer and Woodchuck cider.

On Tuesday, I reviewed Glutenfreeda Foods' gluten-free burritos, ready-to-bake cookies and instant oatmeal. According to a Twitter post this week, the company is working on another item that will debut in stores this fall.

Congratulations to readers Missy and Adriana and Twitter follower jjeterr, who won the Erewhon cereal giveaway. I'll have another gluten-free food giveaway next month.

Cafe Monterosso in Yardley, Pennsylvania has been added to the restaurant list. The Italian eatery offers gluten-free pizza, pasta and desserts. I've also listed Essene Market & Cafe in Philadelphia, which serves a variety of gluten-free vegetarian dishes.

This past Monday marked the opening of the eighth Iron Hill Brewery location and the first in New Jersey. The chain, which has a gluten-free menu, opened in Maple Shade.

A commenter wrote that Sam's Pizza Palace in North Wildwood, New Jersey no longer sells gluten-free pizza.

Back in March, I wrote about the Appetite for Awareness event sponsored by the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness. The event will be held on Wednesday, September 30 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, and tickets are now available. Early-bird passes for the main event are available through September 1 for $75 each. Tickets for students and for the VIP event also are on sale. Having attended last year, I can tell you that it's a great event with lots and lots of gluten-free food to eat and take home. I plan on attending and hope to meet some of you there.

Two housekeeping notes: first, if you've haven't visited Gluten Free Philly in the last few days, the links to the restaurant and market lists, along with the map links, have been moved to near the top of every page just under the title; second, I won't have a News & Notes post next week.

Enjoy your weekend!

Gluten Freedom

I discovered the Glutenfreeda web site shortly after our older son was diagnosed with celiac disease. For the last 10 years, the founders of Glutenfreeda have published an online gluten-free cooking magazine with lots of gluten-free recipes and product reviews. More recently, the company's Glutenfreeda Foods division has introduced its own gluten-free products that include ice cream sandwiches made in association with Julie's Organic Ice Cream.

Glutenfreeda Foods' first products were ready-to-bake Real Cookies. Each resealable 1-lb. container has between 12-14 frozen, shaped cookie dough pieces that are made with all natural ingredients and no trans fats. The cookie line includes the following varieties: Chip Chip Hooray, Chocolate Minty Python, Peanut Envy, Peanut, Paul & Mary, Snicker Poodles, and Sugar Kookies. It took me about 20 minutes from freezer to plate to bake the chocolate chip cookies, which were soft and chewy.

I also tried the company's gluten-free frozen burritos, which are sold individually and come in four flavors: chicken & cheese, vegetarian bean and cheese, vegetarian and dairy free, and - my favorite - the breakfast style with potatoes, red bell peppers and onions. Like the cookies, the burritos contain all natural ingredients. The easiest way to prepare the burritos are in the microwave oven, but in that case it's likely that you'll have to eat them with a knife and fork rather than by hand. We did not try cooking the burritos in a conventional oven for the recommended 45 minutes but they'll probably come out firmer that way.

Glutenfreeda's newest products are three varieties of flavored instant oatmeal, made from certified gluten-free oats. Each single-flavor box (maple raisin with flax, apple cinnamon with flax, and banana maple with flax) contains six packets, while the variety pack contains two of each flavor. These products are not saccharine like many national brands of sweetened instant oatmeal; the natural sweetness of the fruits blends with the added brown sugar to make a mildly sweet hot cereal. I liked the banana maple flavor the best of the three, which I made in a microwave oven using water.

The ice cream sandwiches can be found at Whole Foods Markets exclusively through the end of July, after which time they will be available at local natural food stores. The cookies, burritos and oatmeal, which are processed in a dedicated gluten free facility, are available now at natural food stores and online at the Gluten Free Mall.

Gluten Free Philly News & Notes

If you're reading this on Friday, there's a few hours left to enter the latest Goodies Giveaway, this time sponsored by Erewhon cereals. Just leave a comment to the post about the giveaway with the three Erewhon gluten-free cereals you want to try, along with your T-shirt size, before midnight Eastern time tonight. Two winners will be randomly chosen this weekend.

While the baseball season is more than half-way through, professional (and, in my house, fantasy) football is about to start up again. On Wednesday, I wrote about the many gluten-free dining options close to where the Philadelphia Eagles hold training camp at Lehigh University.

You can get your fix of European football (of course, that's soccer to us Yanks) at the Iron Abbey Gastro Pub in Horsham, Pennsylvania. The new restaurant has gluten-free items designated on its lunch and dinner menus and also serves Redbridge beer and Woodchuck cider. Iron Abbey is now listed on the Gluten Free Philly restaurant list and the Pennsylvania restaurant map.

I wanted to give props to another eatery on the list - the Greenhouse Cafe in Ship Bottom, on New Jersey's Long Beach Island. On Sunday, we spent the day at the beach in a neighboring town and stopped at the restaurant for an early dinner. Our older son ate the homemade gluten-free pizza, which is prepared separately and baked on its own pan. We were too full for dessert, but were pleased that there were individually-wrapped gluten-free brownies and chocolate chip cookies from French Meadow Bakery on the menu.

P.F. Chang's China Bistro is offering Warrior Card holders 10 percent off their guest checks for the remainder of 2009. To sign up for the card, go to the Warrior Card FAQ page on the restaurant's web site.

Dock Street's gluten-free Sudan Grass Sorghum Ale is still available on tap at the West Philadelphia brewery. According to the beer notes listed on Dock Street's web site, the "slightly tart and fruity" ale is brewed with Pennsylvania-sourced wildflower honey and is spiced with hibiscus, lemon grass, rooibos and rose hips.

Another week, another new cereal from General Mills. This week I spotted Trix Swirls, a limited-edition version of Trix with fruit-flavored sweetened corn puffs. The ingredients do not contain any wheat, barley, rye or oats, although the cereal is not specifically labeled "gluten free." Here's the list:

Whole grain corn, sugar, corn meal, corn syrup, salt, canola and/or rice bran oil, tricalcium phosphate, trisodium phosphate, Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 1 and other color added, natural and artificial flavor, sodium citrate, citric acid, malic acid. BHT added to preserve freshness.

Also new are ciabbatine rolls from Schar, which we found at Wegmans. We warmed the rolls, which are partially baked, for 10 minutes in the oven before serving. The rolls look and taste like ciabbata-style bread and especially work well for sandwiches. They are also available at the Gluten Free Mall.

San-J International, which makes our family's favorite gluten-free soy sauce, has introduced Asian cooking sauces that are safe for celiacs. The line includes Thai Peanut Sauce, Szechuan Sauce, Teriyaki Sauce, Sweet & Tangy Sauce, and Asian BBQ Sauce. I found several varieties at the Whole Foods Market in Marlton, New Jersey, but San-J products are available in the Asian/International foods section of most area supermarkets. Be sure, though, to check the labels for the "gluten free" designation, as several sauce varieties that previously contained wheat may still be on store shelves. Last night, my wife made delicious marinated chicken skewers using the Thai Peanut Sauce.

On the same visit to the Marlton Whole Foods, I discovered individually-wrapped chocolate chunk brownies and crumb buns from Shauna's Baked Goods, a small gluten-free-only bakery in Virginia. Right now, the Marlton store is the only one in the area carrying these products, but owner Shauna Brown tells me she is looking to expand in the Delaware Valley. Interested customers can contact her through the company's website for individual deliveries.

Some disappointing news: Starbucks has decided to discontinue its recently introduced gluten-free orange cake. According to a tweet posted Wednesday on its Twitter feed, the company is doing so because it "heard [from customers] that it was too much of a treat, and not a nutritious snack." KIND Fruit + Nut bars will replace the cakes as a gluten-free offering. Frankly, I never associated Starbucks with offering "nutritious snacks" - to wit, a 680-calorie Venti Mint Chocolaty Chip Frappuccino blended creme with Chocolate Whipped Cream with 21 grams of fat. But, hey, that's just me.

Finally this week, I wanted to report that I attended a teleclass presented by Ali Shapiro, a nutritional counselor in Center City Philadelphia and a frequent health contributor to the local NBC 10! show. Her class on transitioning to a gluten-free diet is geared to the newly-diagnosed celiac and those who suspect that they may have celiac disease. [Full disclosure: in the class, Ali recommends Gluten Free Philly as a web resource :-)] The one-hour, 30-minute seminar is available for download at Ali's web site for $30.

Enjoy your weekend!