This week I had lunch with a work colleague at Matyson at 37 S. 19th Street in Center City Philadelphia. It has a great atmosphere, and the wait staff are very hip to gluten-free. My lunch companion is a regular there -- her window table preference was listed on her reservation (nice!) -- but the menu had changed so we asked a lot of questions that the server handled with aplomb.
They are all about seasonal and local, so it makes sense that the menu had changed. I had the soup of the day, which was a creamy curried zucchini soup (made with creme fraiche) and the tomato and watermelon salad, hold the feta. The soup was very good, and the salad was good but weird, as one would expect when one combines watermelon, tomatoes, mint and pickled red chilis. The iced tea was delicious. All in all, the experience was nice, the price would have been a splurge for my budget (I think my lunch came to about $25), but my companion was nice enough to treat. The wait staff was knowledgeable and very helpful in modifying menu items to be gluten-free. Matyson is a nice place, well-suited to business lunches, with interesting fare and excellent attention to gluten-free handling. Check it out. Check out the pic of the gf banana nut muffins I made yesterday. They were moist and delicious! I used Namaste's Perfect Flour Blend and followed the recipe on the side of the bag exactly. I will definitely make these again.
I know therre's a tendency to think that everyone who shares a symptom you've got has the same affliction. Celiac is no different. My brother the airline pilot mentioned a couple of health-related things that made me think that he might benefit from a gluten-free diet. He was skeptical, even with the knowledge that there is a genetic connection to celiac. His usual doctor was uninformed and not very helpful. My brother was especially reluctant to try a gf diet because of the no beer, no bread, no pasta sorts of restrictions. Still, he figured it couldn't hurt to give it a go. So, he substituted wine for beer, corn tortillas for bread, and seemed to manage okay without pasta. He dropped 20 pounds in a few months, taking him to a healthy, lean, and dare I say, cut 165. He feels much better, has tons more energy and is a total believer! The hardest part for him has been not being able to just go make a sandwich or have a piece of good-tasting bread when he wants it.
My sister-in-law visited last week, and I sent her home with a package of Pamela's gluten-free bread mix. She took it home, and yesterday dusted off the bread maker, set it up to run, and she and my brother left the house for the afternoon. I got a call from him last night, and he was overjoyed! He said the house smelled like fresh-baked cookies (maybe because of the almond flour?), and the bread was delicious. Let's hope he doesn't enjoy it so much and so often that he gains back the weight! I told him I hadn't tried the bread mix. He hinted that we'd be seeing a bread maker in our Christmas gifts. Better start building the addition on the kitchen. |
Archives
January 2024
|