News & Notes: February 4, 2011

For those of you looking for information on the go, Gluten Free Philly now comes in a handy mobile-friendly version. Just bookmark the link and you'll find it easier to view posts, menus and everything else the site has to offer on the road, whether you're at the supermarket or out for dinner.

The ShopRite gift card giveaway I posted this week runs through Sunday. Just leave a comment to that post or at the Gluten Free Philly Facebook page.

Maybe soon enough they'll add pizza, but for now California Pizza Kitchen (locally in King of Prussia, Main Line Philadelphia, Plymouth Meeting, Cherry Hill and Newark) has a gluten-free menu that includes soups and salads, two seafood entrees, and ice cream for dessert.

In Center City, Stephen Starr's Latin restaurant Alma De Cuba (1623 Walnut Street, 215-988-1799) also has a gluten-free menu.

The Philadelphia Gluten-Free Pasta Company has opened its retail shop in Media (415 East Baltimore Pike, 610-529-0122). Hours are Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Customers who stop in and purchase ravioli or gnocchi will receive free samples of the company's new dried orzo and mini shells, which are launching later this year. Martindale's in Springfield is carrying the current products.

Pennsauken's Water to Go is now carrying all four varieties of the gluten-free dumplings made by Feel Good Foods.

If you're looking for a Valentine's Day sweet treat, The Grain Exchange is offering a heart-shaped box filled with gluten-free mini cupcakes (in chocolate, vanilla or red velvet) decorated with handmade chocolate roses for ladies and tuxedos for men. The red cupcake box will be placed in a gift box with a clear lid, wrapped with ribbon. Each gift contains 18 mini cupcakes, which have a filled center and are also peanut and nut free, and costs $36.99. Customers can call 215-531-1261 to place orders, which will need to be picked up in Doylestown.

Meanwhile, Sweet Freedom Bakery has heart-shaped cookie cakes and pink frosted sugar cookies, along with Valentine's-themed cupcakes. The bakery will be open on Valentine's Day Monday. Call 215-545-1899 to place orders.

Amazon Grocery has the following gluten-free product sales this month (add another 15% off with a Subscribe & Save order):

• Mrs. Leeper's pasta: 25% off with code PASTA345 
• Pacific Natural soups and broths: 10% off with code PACIFIC7

As always, any purchases at Amazon.com made after clicking the Amazon links at Gluten Free Philly support the site. My thanks to those of you who have expressed your appreciation in this fashion.

New at Whole Foods are frozen meals-in-a-bowl from Colorado-based Evol Foods. They come in four varieties: Bean & Cheese Enchilada (vegetarian), Chicken Enchilada, Fire-Grilled Steak and Chicken Teriyaki, all of which are gluten free. The meals are made with all-natural ingredients and are high in protein and fiber.

Chips are dippable, but popcorn - not so much. That all changes with Popcorn, Indiana's new chip'ins all-natural popcorn chips. The snacks come in four varieties: Sea Salt, White Cheddar, Jalapeno Ranch and Hot Buffalo Wing. The chips are available nationwide at Walmart, Walgreens, BJs, select Whole Foods and Costco retailers.

10 Arts Bistro & Lounge pastry chef Monica Glass will be leading a cooking class on gluten-free desserts at Sur La Table in King of Prussia on Thursday, February 17. On the menu are Chocolate Hazelnut Tarts, Brownies, Yogurt Ginger Panna Cotta Verrines, Chickpea Shortbread, Marsala Poached Pears with Almond Streusel and Whipped Crème Fraiche.

Tickets are now on sale for Celiac Awareness Night at the Phillies game against the Atlanta Braves on Friday, July 8. A portion of the proceeds from purchases using the code CELIAC will benefit celiac awareness efforts.

With thanks to reader Mark M., I'll leave you this week with the recently debuted commercial touting the gluten-free status of most Chex cereals (posted on YouTube by Gluten Freeville). Have a great weekend!

Goodies Giveaway: ShopRite Gift Card

With ShopRite’s “Shop Once. Give Twice.” program, your food shopping can help local participating schools through Box Tops for Education and the ShopRite Partners in Caring Fund., a community-based, hunger fighting initiative that works to provide $2 million annually to charities that aid those in need.

Now through September 30, 2011, visit ShopRiteShopOnceGiveTwice.com to register your ShopRite Price Plus Card and check back each month for participating General Mills products. When you purchase any five participating products on or before the end of the month using your Price Plus Card, you'll earn five Bonus Box Tops to be electronically added to your designated school and 55 cents will be donated to the Partners in Caring Fund. (This program does have some restrictions and limitations; visit ShopRiteShopOnceGiveTwice.com to obtain all of the details.) The eligible gluten-free items for February include Corn Chex, Cinnamon Chex, Kix, Honey Kix, Fruit Gushers, Fruit by the Foot and Fruit Roll-Ups.

You can also enter the ShopRite “Shop Once. Give Twice.” Sweepstakes for a chance to win one of 10 grand prizes of 5,000 Bonus Box Tops for the school of your choice. (No purchase is necessary to enter the sweepstakes; go to ShopRiteShopOnceGiveTwice.com for details about the sweepstakes, prizes, and instructions on how to enter.)

In conjunction with the program and sweepstakes, MyBlogSpark is offering one reader a $25 ShopRite gift card. To enter, leave a comment to this post or on the Gluten Free Philly Facebook page about which General Mills gluten-free product is your favorite.

Some brief guidelines: (1) please do not enter unless you or a family member is on a gluten-free diet; (2) one comment per person; (3) U.S. residents only. Most important is to make sure your comment provides a way for me to contact you, if not entering via Facebook. If your comment does not link back to an email address, blog or website through which I can get in touch with you (some past entrants have blocked their Blogger profiles), post your email address in the comment in the following format: "name[at]domain[dot]suffix."

The giveaway runs now through Sunday, February 6 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. I’ll randomly select one winner the next day and will contact him or her by email or through Facebook, depending on method of entry. If I don’t hear back from the person with his or her mailing address by the following Tuesday at 8 p.m. Eastern, I’ll select another name.

Good luck!

DISCLOSURE: General Mills and ShopRite, through MyBlogSpark, have provided me with a $25 ShopRite gift card and program information, and are offering an additional $25 ShopRite gift card as a giveaway. Neither I am nor any immediate family member is an employee, officer, director or agent of General Mills, ShopRite or MyBlogSpark or their respective parent, subsidiary and affiliated entities, advertising and promotional agencies. My full Disclosure Policy can be found at the blog's Disclosure page.

News & Notes: January 28, 2011

I've thrown in the towel and concede that winter has defeated me. Of course, no one can see the towel as it is buried somewhere under the piles of snow outside my house. On the bright side, though, Phillies pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in a mere 16 days from now.

With Spring comes Passover and, as I wrote this week, there are new gluten-free cereals, baking mixes and even matzo-style crackers that should be readily available when the holiday rolls around. Typically, Passover products begin trickling into markets about a month ahead of time, so I expect that these and other gluten-free items will first show up in mid-March.

Virtually the entire menu at Fort Washington's new Mexican restaurant Cantina Feliz (424 South Bethlehem Pike, 215-646-1320) is gluten free. In addition, the BBQ Chicken Huarache and the Cantina Wedge Salad can be made gluten free if ordered without the Cabrales blue cheese, according to executive chef Tim Spinner. The grouper used for the Baja Fish Tacos is battered with rice flour and coated with a plantain and nacho crust, and the fryer is 100 percent gluten free. For dessert, there's the Mexican Chocolate Crema (sans malted milk mousse) as well as assorted ice creams and sorbets.

Sampan, a pan-Asian restaurant in Center City (124 South 13th Street, 215-732-3501), now has a gluten-free menu. Just be sure to ask that the fries accompanying the filet mignon be pan-fried in clean cookware and not deep-fried (or request another side).

Ry's Bagels' second location in Glassboro (800 North Delsea Drive, 856-270-2575) has Udi's bagels.

I've added a link to the current gluten-free menu for Tinto in Center City on my restaurants page.

All Marathon Grill locations in Philadelphia serve Green's Discovery gluten-free beer, while Fairmount's Lucky 7 Tavern (747 North 25th Street, 215-232-7736) and Chelsea Tavern in Wilmington (821 North Market Street, 302-482-3333) have Redbridge beer.

Updating some earlier product mentions, Feel Good Foods' chicken dumplings are now sold locally at Water to Go in Pennsauken, $7.49 for a box of eight. They steamed up nicely in a skillet and tasted great. The dumplings need to be tended to in preparation so that they don't stick to the pan; just follow the directions on the package.

Ian's onion rings are now at Whole Foods, and on their way there are Kim & Scott's soft pretzels.

Look for Utz's new Rice Crisps at your local market. The brown rice tortilla chips come in three varieties: Sea Salt, Sweet Chili and Salsa Fresca.

Schar broke ground this week on its new gluten-free production facility in Gloucester County. The plant is set to be online in March 2012 and will turn out, among other items, bagels. Thanks to reader Mark M. for the heads-up.

Don't forget to join the new Gluten Free Philly Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed for late-breaking information. Have a wonderful (hopefully snow-free) weekend!

Gefen Records

As I've mentioned in prior posts, many kosher for Passover products are made gluten free. Also sometimes labeled as non gebrokts, those products are prepared without wheat, barley, spelt, oats and rye for religious reasons. New items are introduced every year, and some - like Shabtai Gourmet, whose gluten-free cakes and cookies at one time were made only for the holiday - satisfy demand all year long.

With that in mind, Kedem Food Products, in association with the Celiac Disease Foundation, has expanded their all-natural gluten-free products to include a year-round line of Gefen-brand cereals and cake, cookie and frosting mixes. In addition, the company will debut Yehuda-brand Gluten Free Matzo-Style Squares for Passover this Spring.

The new King Krunch cereals come in four varieties: Frosted Flakes, Fruity Rings, Honey Rings and Chocolate Rings. Although the brownie and chocolate cookies are not new, they previously were only sold for Passover. Premiering this year are a chocolate cake mix, chocolate and vanilla frosting mixes, and sugar-free coffee, chocolate and yellow cake mixes.

The matzo-style squares will be a new option for the holiday, and should make for a much less expensive option than the gluten-free oat matzos that have been available for Passover the last few years. The crackers are made with tapioca starch, water, potato starch, potato flour, expeller-pressed palm oil, natural vinegar, egg yolks, honey and salt.

The best bet for finding these products is in the kosher section of your local supermarket. If the store carries other Gefen products, chances are the manager can order these for you upon request.

News & Notes: January 21, 2011

If you didn't yet "like" the new Gluten Free Philly Facebook page, you missed out on posts about limited-time half-off deals at local establishments Sonata and Cupcakes Gourmet, which have gluten-free options, and one reader's experience at Kokopelli in Center City. Join the online community and contribute today!

Stay tuned for area locations where you can find the new vending machines from Snack Like a Local, which I wrote about this week. The machines will carry a number of regionally made gluten-free snacks and beverages.

Some tri-state restaurant info to pass along. In Wilmington, Domaine Hudson (1314 North Washington Street, 302-655-9463) can accommodate gluten-free requests. According to the chef, the kitchen has gluten-free crackers for cheese and charcuterie, and during prep and service all items are prepared and held with dedicated utensils. The restaurant also serves gluten-free beer and hard ciders.

Reader Daria D. recommends the White Dog Cafe in Wayne (200 West Lancaster Avenue, 610-225-3700), where she enjoyed gluten-free raisin French toast for Sunday brunch. For now, the bread is only available on Sundays and reservations are recommended so that the kitchen has notice of gluten-free requests.

The Ebbitt Room, located at the Virginia Hotel in Cape May (25 Jackson Street, 609-884-5700), can also cater to gluten-free diners with 24 hours notice.

I have two new bakeries to highlight this week. First, Aux Petits Delices in Wayne (162 East Lancaster Avenue, 610-971-0300) has a gluten-free pastry menu and can also prepare wedding cakes. The gluten-free items are made on a separate floor of the bakery using almond flour and potato starch.

Princeton's Moonlight Bakers makes a variety of gluten-free cakes and cookies. The company's chewy chocolate-nut squares are sold at Whole Earth Center in Princeton. Although the desserts are made in a shared commercial kitchen, the bakery's hours there are such that its gluten-free products are made when others are handling wheat flour. In addition, bakers Marilyn Besner and Piroska Toth use certain supplies and utensils just for the gluten-free items.

I'm not sure why Post Cereals didn't publicize this when it recently promoted the gluten-free status of Cocoa and Fruity Pebbles, but the company's Marshmallow Pebbles have been reformulated and are now safe. The new boxes proclaim that the cereal is "new and improved," so check the label at the store, as the old version (with wheat) is still floating around.

Reader Eve B. let me know that our family's favorite gluten-free Italian pasta, Le Veneziane, now comes in farfalle. It's available online from U.S. distributor Quattrobimbi.

With Chocolate Dips, Jelly Belly bean flavors of Very Cherry, Raspberry, Strawberry, Coconut and Orange have been drenched in chocolate. Another new product, Peas & Carrots mellocreme mix, is revived from the company's antique candy molds. The "baby carrots" are mellocreme candy in orange sherbet flavor and the "peas" are green apple flavor. They will begin to ship to stores nationwide by February.

The Giant supermarket in Kennett Square is celebrating the expansion of its gluten-free and natural foods section with samples and an information fair on Saturday, January 29 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. A basket filled with gluten-free products will be raffled off.

The next Supper Club dinner will be held on Monday, February 7 at Joseph Poon Chinese Kitchen in Chinatown, where the group will celebrate the Chinese New Year with a multi-course feast. Seating is at 7:30 p.m. For more information about the club or plans for the dinner, e-mail reader Adriana Z.

Finally this week, I wanted to let people know that registration for Camp Celiac in Rhode Island opens on Tuesday, February 1; the camp will run this summer from August 7-12. For parents interested in a Jewish sleepaway camp, several New Jersey Y Camps in the Poconos will have a separate gluten-free kitchen beginning this summer, according to a recent article in the New Jersey Jewish News (thanks to Gluten Free Fun blogger Erin for tweeting this story). In fact, registration is now open for the camps' two-night Celiac Family Weekend on June 10-12. If the sample schedule is any indication, lots of fun activities are planned. The cost is $250 per adult; kids under 18 are free.

Have a great weekend!