If I were to be completely honest, I’d have to say that I get equally excited about eating in New York City as I do about Broadway Shows and world famous museums. It’s true. I don’t think there is a better place to go and feel comfortable leaving your suitcase of emergency gluten free food and snacks behind for once. (OK. I did pack rice cakes and almond butter packets, but I get pretty panicky when hunger strikes.) And here is just a bit of proof that while traveling in NYC, you can rest and know that not only will you get to eat, you will get to eat something besides nuts, dried fruit, hamburgers without buns, white rice, and steamed veggies!
The lovely apartment loaned to us for 4 days was just a 2 block walk to Union Square, and the entire area was just brimming with nice shops, grocery stores, and cafes. Whole Foods was located right on the square, and we ate a couple of meals there. I don’t know about you, but seeing a Whole Foods just brings much joy to my heart! If I were a millionaire, (which you’d have to be, really) it would definitely be my one stop shopping location! Organic produce, toxic free cosmetics, cleaning products, clothing, prepared foods, salad bar, kombucha, and gluten free everything! I’m blogging from Austin, TX, where the original Whole Foods is located (Robert calls it the Mecca), and yesterday we made the pilgrimage sans children. I had a peach ginger smoothie (I had just been for a run, and then we dropped my dad at the Austin airport), and Robert had a sticky bun and coffee. My smoothie was SO good – peaches, ginger, vanilla kefir, almond butter, and cinnamon…oh my goodness! Robert watched me blissfully drinking kefir and said, “What have we become?” Ha! I’m sure he’ll get his fill of chicken fried steak and Mexican food while here in the Great State.
Anyway, it was wonderful to know that Whole Foods was right around the corner from us, with its plethora of delicious prepared foods. And it’s not the only one in the city. There is also one in the Time Warner Building which we also tried out – near Central Park. I don’t know if you can tell from the picture, but we are both pretty in love with Indian Food right now, so each time our cartons ended up full of chicken tikka masala, chicken korma, curried chick peas, etc. And then there was the detox salad, the chopped chard salad, the cinnamon rice…..I could go on and on. The great thing is that they are pretty good about labeling everything and quite friendly if you need assistance.
Whole Foods also has a wonderful hot breakfast buffet, but I didn’t want to default to Whole Foods for every meal, especially when there were plenty of gluten free options around. I think breakfast is probably my favorite meal of the day, but lots of gluten free bread-y stuff doesn’t make me feel so great, so I wasn’t really interested in traveling around to try out the places that offer gluten free pancakes, french toast, and muffins – though there are several in the city. I am much more of an eggs and bacon gal, and so we were delighted to find this wonderful restaurant right around the corner (literally) from our apartment building – The Gramercy Cafe. They were so friendly and kindly shared exactly what they put in their home fries – potatoes, and a few onions, and green peppers. So, this was what our breakfast table looked like EVERY day – except the day that it was delivered to me in bed!
It was our plan to eat at the Hampton Chutney Company while shopping in Soho. There is one located on Prince Street. The only problem was that I had it in my mind that it was on Spring Street – a block over. (Or vice-versa. Now I can’t remember!) We even called information twice (iPhone, sometimes I really wish I had you!) and got the address – #68 – while standing at #68 Spring Street. Not here! (Prince and Spring can sound a lot alike on a cell phone in the city.) So, we gave up, much to my dismay, because I just LOVE this place and have been several times, but wanted Robert to experience it, too. (And by now I’m sure you’ve gathered that he was just DYING to experience it, too. Right.) Well, trying to accommodate every desire of mine on this birthday trip, Robert discovered that there is another location and it was not too far from where we had to pick up our running numbers and packets for the New Year’s Eve race. So the following day, we headed over to the Amsterdam St. location and had lunch there. They are an Indian restaurant famous for their “dosas” which are giant crepes made out of lentil and rice flours. They then fill them with many different combinations of ingredients like spinach, arugula, goat cheese, jack cheese, sun dried tomatoes, olives, etc. Mr. Chicken Fried Steak got the closest thing he could find to “Texan” in his grilled chicken, tomato, arugula dosa. Mine was goat cheese, kalamata olives, red onions, and tomatoes, and arugula. Perfectly light, but satisfying – and not too “bread-y!” While ordering, I noticed “cardamom coffee” on the menu, and being in love with all things Indian, decided I had to try it. It was delicious – like chai, but with coffee!
And by the way, I’m not demonstrating a viable method for eating a dosa here – it would have fallen to pieces had I kept going. They require a knife, fork AND fingers. Oh, and you get your choice of chutneys in which to dip each bite – curry for me, mango for him.
(“What exactly IS chutney?” he asked.)
Now, there are some occasions that do call for eating bread-y gluten free stuff, and Babycakes is one of them! A tiny little bakery in what seemed like a hole in the wall location (it was a nine block trek for us from the heart of Soho), Babycakes offers cupcakes, cookies, quick sweet breads, brownies, muffins, and cake – coffee, t-shirts, and their wonderful cookbook, too. I opted for a chocolate cupcake and two chocolate chip cookies – all delicious, and deliciously sweet for not using any refined sweeteners. Almost all of their goodies are free of gluten, dairy, and eggs. It was worth the walk!
After trying to visit a seemingly wonderful museum called the Morgan, with its Jane Austen exhibit, which had been recommended by our sweet apartment loaning friend (it was closed), we walked over to Macy’s and discovered this little bakery somewhere along the way. 36th street, maybe? Our friend Romy first introduced “macarons” to us in Switzerland at a fabulous chocolate shop, causing us to be just way ahead of the current food trends, because they seem to be all the rage at present – popping up everywhere – even Starbucks and Whole Foods were selling them. They were the obvious specialty of this French bakery, and the menu on their door stated that they were gluten free. And we all know that even if we’re pretty sure, it’s nice to see it plain and clear on the menu: gluten free. These tiny pastries are often made of almond flour and egg, looking like little hamburgers filled with sweet cream. So yummy!
If you are interested in making some of your own macarons (not to be confused with macarOOns) you should definitely pop over to Romy’s blog in which she participated in a baking challenge involving these trendy treats! She makes it look SO easy – and absolutely beautiful, too!
Are you hungry yet?
You can’t beat NYC to make your little gluten free gut perfectly happy!
(Or Austin, TX for that matter.)
Love this food write-up! I could just hear Robert's voice asking "What exactly is chutney?" and had to laugh out loud.
Thanks for (another!) shout-out, how cool that you found a macaron cafe and, of course, knew exactly what they were! Yum!
Have a WONDERFUL day tomorrow! 🙂
It all looks so yummy! We are heading to NYC this summer and I am just starting to research the gf thing. Thanks so much for giving me a big headstart!
I love union square are well. I use to work two block north of it. Have you try Republic it's near McDs. Great food!
That dosa just rocked the entire world as I know it!
Happy birthday, Melanie! Wishing you many happy returns and continued blessings throughout the year!
I love that you take pictures of your food. I thought I was the only one who did that.