Monthly Archives: May 2012

The best Ice Cream in Sydney – Pompei’s & Messina

Posted by Glutenfreewheeler on May 30, 2012 2 comments

If it’s ice cream you’re after, put two places on the radar in Sydney – Pompei’s in Bondi and Messina in Darlinghurst/Pyrmont – forget the rest.

Both have their roots in Italy. Pompei’s is handy for beach beauties, with a new kiosk section allowing ice cream hunters to swipe the goods and keep rolling with skateboard/surfboard/shopping bags. Known for their organic and fresh ingredients, the ‘organic cream and caramel’ or ‘milk chocolate’ (40% milk chocolate) ice creams are sublime. The sorbets (milk free) are also sensational – the menu changes seasonally and the ripe fruit is so tangible – you can’t miss the zing of real apple in the ‘green apple sorbet’, or the pieces of peach in the ‘white peach sorbet’.

The Messina shop is tiny for the constant charge of punters it attracts. Imaginative specials keep connoisseurs returning – offering now are ‘Mr Potato Head’, (peanut butter, gelato with potato chips dipped in white chocolate), ‘Prune and Cognac’ and ‘Muummamm.com’, (coconut custard sorbet with banana jam and fried bits). The ice cream is beautifully balanced on trays in giant ‘scoops’ – always check which are gluten free, though the majority are. Cones are obviously off the menu for gluten free types.

The Messina ‘lab’ is next door and cakes are sold there too – I’ll cover it in another post, but will tell you lucky people now that there are several gluten free cake options and they are works of art. Darlinghurst is great for colourful night time action, whether you’re there for daytime dalliance, dinner or dancing, do not go past this place – it’s the work of genius.

 

Messina
Shop 1/241 Victoria St,
Darlinghurst NSW 2010

http://www.gelatomessina.com/

(there’s also a branch at Star Casino)

Pompei’s
126-130 Roscoe Street
Bondi Beach
NSW 2026

http://www.pompeis.com.au/


Pompei's on Urbanspoon

Gelato Messina Darlinghurst on Urbanspoon

Sideways Cafe Deli – Dulwich Hill, Sydney

Posted by Glutenfreewheeler on May 28, 2012 None comments

A much loved institution for locals in the inner west of Sydney, Sideways Cafe has magnetised a loyal following and they pack the place out every weekend.

Despite being squeezed on Saturday, when asked about the toasting techniques for the gluten free toast with my vegie breakfast, the waitress asked if I was a coeliac and then said that she would tell the chef to toast my bread on foil and use a separate butter – thank you! And check out that toast – gluten free bread is rarely so light and fluffy. They always have a gluten free main or two to choose from and a gf cake/sweet option.

Sideways cultivate a jovial mixed crowd and it feels like a place where ideas are hatched and pools of intellect merge, + the odd toddler.

Sideways Deli Cafe
37 Constitution Rd
Dulwich Hill
NSW, 2203

http://www.sidewaysdelicafe.com.au/

 


 

Sideways Deli Cafe on Urbanspoon

Wafu – Surry Hills, Sydney

Posted by Glutenfreewheeler on May 24, 2012 1 comments

Dining at Wafu is a bit like flying with Tiger or Easyjet – you’ll get the benefits only if you successfully navigate the rules. For those who fall between the (many) cracks, humiliation, frustration and financial penalties await. The completely gluten free menu is wonderful for coeliacs (it’s also dairy free, wheat free and egg free) but it’s far from a casual experience.

The reviews of Wafu are hilariously intense – people are polarised and the reactions are strong:
‘Wafu is the most pretentious, disappointing, and infuriating Sydney dining experience I have ever had.’
‘I have never been anywhere so bizare (sic.) in my life’ to:
‘Eating at Wafu is a unique, exquisite experience, not only is the food delicious, but it also exudes the love and care with which Yukako prepares it.’

The Wafu website is even more of an oddity – ‘NOT WELCOME ANY MORE!’ screams the front page in big bold capitals before bemoaning the lack of member integrity. Members are inducted at an elimination-style cooking workshop – general punters such as myself can come on Saturdays and Mondays for ‘vegan nights’.

So – a vegan and a coeliac walk into a restaurant. We were super reverent, it reminded me of my church-going childhood. There were only two other diners (when we arrived and for the whole night) but we were still ignored for a few minutes before being greeted by Yukako (the owner & only staff member), who asked if we had doggie bags. I showed her one, ‘Do you have two?’ she needed to know. We did. Phew! First hurdle. ‘Do you know about chewing?’ Yes, we said, trying to keep a straight face, we’ve been practising. ‘How many times?’ Jeepers., lucky we knew the answer (30 btw), we were in!

Enjoying the unusual experience of being able to eat a set menu without any ingredient dramas, we were blown away by the tastiness of the colourful first course. It was a mix of mainly raw or slightly cooked food bulging with nutrients. Hello tempura – it’s been too long! Curly kale, eggplant, tofu, sushi…

Yukako served the tamari sauce with a giggle and said to only pour what you need – now listen up – don’t be fooled by the girly japanese routine, there’s a review out there saying that a diner was told to drink a bowl of sauce because he had poured too much. Seasonings are food and food at Wafu is not to be wasted.

In principle this is great to see. I’m what Oprah would call a ‘clean plater’ and have often been horrified at food wastage. One of the hardest things about being gluten free is been that I can no longer hoover up my children’s leftovers and I’ve often been looked down upon as stingy or poor in restaurants when I’ve asked to take-away the leftovers.

The other rules at Wafu are pretty sensible too – for anyone who has ever vomited and been astounded at how ‘whole’ the food seems, it’s a good idea to be mindful of chewing and give your digestion a leg up.

Wafu is an educational centre as much as it is a restaurant. Yukako frequently visited our table and talked extensively about her ideals. She happily volunteered the ingredients for anything we liked (the miso & agave sauce was our favourite + the tempura flour was brown rice, cornflour and buckwheat). Yukako spoke with evangelical fervour, often looking upward with her eyes closed in concentration, she is particularly aggrieved by restaurants that claim to be organic and eco-friendly but waste lots of food, cook with aluminium and wash with harmful detergents – fair point. It’s not like you’re being asked to stand on one leg or paint yourself blue – the requests are in your own interest, ‘for your own good’ as your mother would say.

We learnt that it’s hard to eat beans with chopsticks, or to chew sweet potato 30 times. I wasn’t a big fan of the orange soy cake dessert and forgot that I wasn’t supposed to ‘wash food down’ with water – we both lost it then and laughed till there were tears.

BUT….

We got a discount for being good girls and eating or taking all our food. I definitely crunched up my cereal more than usual the next morning. If you can avoid a militant showdown from Wafu it’s somewhere everyone should go to at least once.

Just don’t forget your ‘sturdy’ container or ‘doggie bag’ – and it’s not for your dog btw.

Wafu
460 Cleveland Street
Surry Hills
NSW 2010

http://wafu.com.au


 

Wafu on Urbanspoon

Orto Trading Co., Surry Hills, Sydney

Posted by Glutenfreewheeler on May 15, 2012 None comments

With a bit of rummaging you can find a good gluten free breakfast and Orto Trading Co., has one of the best I’ve seen, check this out:

This was one of several gluten free brunch options. Snug under those mushrooms, the sautéed spinach, the poached egg and the hollandaise sauce is a slab of ‘rosti’; that fancy hash brown claimed by the Swiss Germans. This version is made with feta cheese and it’s got lots of zing.

Orto Trading Co. is a breezy, sunlit urban pocket. The outdoor area features a stack of potted herbs, perfect on a sunny Sydney Winter morn.

Another ‘gf’ option listed on the brunch menu is the ‘Boston Baked Beans’:

I don’t think Howard (below) would have been so down if his beans were made with maple glazed onions topped with a poached egg, crispy pork belly and clumps of thyme.

‘Howard the Celeriac’, my gf twitter buddy in Brixton, London, has kindly allowed me to reprint one of his cheeky cartoon illustrations here. If you’re a coeliac and haven’t come across his work, check it out at www.howardtheceleriac.com and have a good laugh and cry at your own expense. Does this scene look familiar???

Better go to Orto – open for lunch and dinner, (with gf and vegetarian options), closed Mondays and Sunday evenings.

Orto Trading Co.
38 – 55 Waterloo St
Surry Hills
NSW 2010
http://www.ortotradingco.com.au/

 


 

Orto Trading Co. on Urbanspoon

Tahbilk Cafe (at Tahbilk Winery), Country Victoria

Posted by Glutenfreewheeler on May 14, 2012 1 comments

Ashley Thorpe, the new Head Chef at the Tahbilk cafe, has spread the word that he ‘doesn’t like flour’. Hooray! That’s not all there is to avoid in a gluten free diet, but it’s a big chunk of it. He estimates that 99% of his main meals do not contain flour, and it’s only really when he’s making desserts that he breaks out the white stuff.

Tabilk (spelt differently to the winery) is a scenic 2 hours drive north of Melbourne. The cafe is part of Tahbilk Winery, surrounded by bushland and plonked by the billabong.

Our entree was the (divine) crispy skinned pork on cauliflower puree with scallops and microherbs.

It would be stupid not to indulge in a glass of wine at a winery wouldn’t it? Especially at one of Australia’s oldest and cutest (est. 1860).

My main course was polenta, wild mushrooms and kale, my friend had the salmon.

I feel like a successful truffle hunter having found a chef who doesn’t like flour – more please! With the right company, a sunny day, the wine slipping down and the river sliding past, you can’t go wrong here.

 

Tahbilk Winery
254 O’Neils Road Tabilk (via Nagambie)
Phone: (03) 5794 2555

 


 

Tahbilk Cafe on Urbanspoon

Yong Green Food – Fitzroy, Melbourne

Posted by Glutenfreewheeler on May 11, 2012 2 comments

How do you stop a coeliac mid-mouthful?? Tell them they’ve been given the wrong dish! A common human error in the waitering game and when it happened at Yong Green Food in Fitzroy, we unwittingly struck it lucky. We had ordered nachos and were delivered this:

Melbourne is a funky city famous for its innovative ways with food. We assumed this was nouveau nachos, and it was so tasty! What we had actually been served was ‘raw nachos’ – chia seed chips with cashew cream, guacamole and sunfried seeds. It was such an intriguing meal we were sad when it was taken away but too shocked to do anything but check that it was gluten free – it was, phew!

The ‘unraw’ nachos was a bit of a let down after the drama of the raw version. It was still great – nachos are such a palatable comfort food, with tangy cheese, crunchy + soggy chips and beany goodness – but it was a bit pedestrian after seeing the other side.

These quinoa fritters with coconut chilli sauce were crisp and wholesome. Yong’s is a vegetarian restaurant, there are many ‘gf’s on the menu and many more ‘v’s (vegan). All of the dishes pictured were vegan and gluten free.

Fitzroy’s iconic ‘Veggie Bar’ is on the other side of Brunswick Street. The Veggie Bar is a magnetic institution with such reliably fabulous fare it’s hard to justify going anywhere else in the area. But with a menu sporting mango lassi (mango, cashew milk, agave, lemon juice), ‘Rawsagna’ and ‘Dragon Bowl’ soup, Yong Green Food is definitely a contender. And if you’re going to play Russian roulette with your gluten free meals – the odds here are pretty good.

Yong Green Food
Vegetarian and Raw Foods
421 Brunswick Street
Fitzroy
03 9417 3338

 


 

Yong Green Food on Urbanspoon

Sacs – Gluten free cafe/shop, Melbourne

Posted by Glutenfreewheeler on May 3, 2012 None comments

Newly diagnosed coeliacs inducted at Coeliac Australia learn to confidently read labels to check for gluten. It’s a useful skill. As is recognising that ‘just because it’s gluten free doesn’t mean you have to eat it’.

Blithely seeking coffee and a newspaper, I slaked myself into a cake coma yesterday unable to resist the one gluten free option in a cafe. Not only did I order and eat it (classic orange and almond cake, nicely warmed, pretty good I have to say), but I made a point of discussing it with the staff and congratulating them on their clean-tonged serving technique.

Confessing on twitter later, it seems I’m not the only one who feels obliged to partake in any gluten free offerings regardless of appetite or lack thereof..

@itsgottobeglutenfree agree 100% trying to explain to self that I personally don’t need to bankroll the gf market! My poor waistline!

@DavidJ_GF sure we’re all guilty. If Im out & about, see something gf… like never know were next meal will come from!

So true! If you have issues with this then I suggest you beware of Sacs in Melbourne – EVERYTHING in this place is gluten free.

Hiding out in trendy Northcote in Melbourne, this place is a one-stop shop. For immediate gratification, it’s a cafe & bakery, with deli-style take-away options including pastries and cake. It also stocks gluten free groceries (packet mixes, biscuits, breakfast cereal) and has a freezer section with gluten free goods. I have never seen anything like it. There’s one catch. Or maybe two..

Many of the reviews of Sacs say that the service is terrible and the prices are high. It does seem to be an uptight establishment. When I asked if I could blog about Sacs, the owner was very reticent – I felt like I was selling broken vacuum cleaners – and then she called out to ask if I had finished yet when I’d taken a few shots.

It’s such a shame – gluten free people usually feel ‘difficult’ whenever they eat out – surely we should be able to relax at one that is purely gluten free?

Surly service aside, no where else have I seen such an extensive range (and the food I had was great).

Sacs are very fastidious about their gluten free status – my cousins’ daughter was told off for eating some other-worldly food (nuts) in the cafe because of the risk of possible contamination.

Seriously gluten free.

Coeliac Australia members get a 10% discount (though I was asked if I was going to be eating the food as if it wasn’t me I couldn’t have the discount – crikey!)

Sacs
105 High Street
Northcote
VIC 3070
 


 

SACS Gluten Free Cafe on Urbanspoon