Grand Palladium in Mexico -- an all inclusive that does gluten free well

For the past few years, we had avoided all inclusives, choosing instead to rent condos where we could have more control over our meals.  However, we had heard good things about the gluten free provisions at the Grand Palladium (between Akumal and Playa del Carmen in the Riviera May, Mexico) and, I am glad to report, overall we had a very good experience.

The Grand Palladium is a very large property that includes 5 different areas.  We stayed at the Riviera, but since you can eat at any of the restaurants (about 8) , bars or buffets in the property, the particular area that you stay in doesn't much matter.   We were there during February school break, but even so, it didn't feel too crowded to us.  I thought that the beach area and the pools were really lovely.

At the time that we visited (February 2012), the hotel had a system in place to assist guests with food allergies and celiac.  Once we checked in, we met with one of the higher level managers in charge of dining services. He gave us a special color coded restaurant card (in English and Spanish) setting forth the gluten free requirements. (There are other cards for other food allergies.)  The text of this card was quite similar to other restaurant cards -- however, the magic of the card is that everyone in the property's restaurants and buffets has been trained to follow certain procedures once a guest shows them this particular card.  In the buffet, they made sure that we were brought to a table with a fresh tablecloth, and a manger came over to take my daughter's order. In the beach bar, they offered to make up fresh batches of french fries and tortilla chips, that had been fried in clean, fresh oil.  There is also a basic gluten free menu at each of the restaurants offering items such as grilled chicken, grilled fresh, etc. -- however, at La Adelita (Mexican restaurant), Porta Emilia (fish restaurant by the beach) and Portofino (Italian), they were able to adopt menu items from the regular menu to make them gluten free.  (The hotel does have gluten free pasta and pizza listed on the gluten free menu as well; however, it is best to let the restaurant know in advance that you want to order one of those items, so they have it in stock.  My daughter was able to enjoy a very nice gluten free pasta dish at the Italian restaurant.)

In general, one cannot make reservations in advance at the restaurants.  However, because we had a gluten free person in our group, we were allowed to make reservations, and this was also very helpful in ensuring that things went smoothly.  Our gluten free needs were noted on the reservation, so the restaurant knew to expect someone with celiac and could arrange to have some gf breads and other products on hand.

The only night things didn't go so smoothly was the very first night.  This was because we hadn't received the magic card yet as the manager we needed to speak with had the day off on the day of our arrival.  As a result, we couldn't make an advance reservation, and there was some confusion about what kind of gluten free food was available at the restaurant (the steak house.).  So, if you do arrive on a day that the manager can't meet with you, I'd encourage you to insist that you nonetheless be allowed to make a dinner reservation in advance anyway, with a notation about needing to eat gluten free.

The hotel also stocks some gluten free specialty products, including breads, muffins, pancake mix, brownies and some other desserts.  I give full credit to the hotel for ordering these products -- however, some were clearly better than others!  Luckily, the brownies and pasta were both quite tasty.  There were also plenty of naturally gluten free foods available.  Also, when it comes to "processed" foods, the hotel is quite conservative in what they consider to be gluten free, and I think only considers such a food to be gluten free if it is labeled so by the manufacturer. The ubiquitous soft serve ice cream did not have a gluten free label, so they originally told us my daughter could not eat it.  When I pressed a bit, the manager very willingly tracked down the ingredient label for me, and the ingredients were indeed gluten free. Since Mexico does have good labeling policies when it comes to gluten, we were comfortable with her eating the ice cream -- however, I did appreciate that others might feel differently and I think that the hotel's conservative approach (in combination with their willingness to let me see the ingredient label) is the best way to accommodate the range of guest needs.

One of the best things about the all inclusive was that we did not have to explain what gluten free was time and time again -- we just showed our card, and then the existing procedures were implemented.  The waitstaff and servers were incredibly kind and accommodating.  We generally ate breakfast at the Riviera buffet, and lunch at the Riviera pool bar.  At each of these places, they quite readily made up fresh orders of items such as eggs and fresh fruits for breakfast, and grilled chicken, fresh french fries, and fresh tortilla chips for lunch (the guacamole was naturally gluten free, and was amazing!) 

I've heard that the hotel is continuing to develop their food allergy and celiac friendly approaches, and that they might be developing a gluten free section of the buffet.  However, even without this, we found it quite easy to have an enjoyable, relaxing stay, and we would definitely return!

Grand Palladium Riviera May http://www.fiestahotelgroup.com/en/hotels/destination/america/mexico /riviera-maya/  (We booked through Expedia, but it is definitely worth it to check around to different tour packages, as prices to this hotel (and, indeed, most all inclusives) can vary widely.)

Gluten free matzah now available in my local supermarket

For the past few years, I have been baking matzah for our seders, using an almond meal based recipe. The matzah tasted delicious, but couldn't really be used as an ingredient for matzah based recipes, such as matzah brei, matzah stuffing, matzah caramel. Today, my mother discovered that our local supermarket in the Greater Boston area is carrying Yehuda brand "matzah crackers." These look just like regular matzah. We're stocking up!

The Friendly Toast in Cambridge is Friendly Indeed

We were at The Friendly Toast in Kendall Square (Cambridge) last night and were really happy to see that they offer gluten free pancakes -- all kinds of decadent, gluten free pancakes, including chocolate chips, M and Ms (and blueberry too). You can get breakfast all day here too (including eggs). There are salads on the menu too, and apparently they have corn tortillas, so it is possible to get some sandwich fixings on a tortilla. The ambiance is a lot of fun -- take a look at the menu on their website for a preview.

GF Dougnuts -- October Daring Bakers Challenge

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.



I've rejoined Daring Bakers, and this month's challenge, hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up, was called Lets Go Nuts for Doughnuts. I'd been tempted by a mini doughnut pan a week before, so this was a perfect opportunity to indulge! A number of recipes were suggested, but I ended up a basic cake doughnut recipe from the Wilton Mini Doughnut pan (the recipe was very similar to the Buttermilk Cake Doughnut recipe provided.) I used Better Batter gluten free flour mix instead of the cake flour called for in the recipe, and they turned out great. I kept it simple -- glazed them with chocolate and sprinkled them with colorful sprinkles. Many doughnuts were consumed that night, but I froze the rest -- they defrost easily, but I confess I later discovered that they are quite tasty frozen as well!

Thanks for a fun challenge!

Gluten free on Cape Cod

We spent a week on the Cape this past summer where there seem to be quite a few gluten free options. Our favorite was the Box Office Cafe in Chatham -- we went there three times! The Box Office Cafe is a very informal cafe and dvd store -- they do have seating, but it is informal. They have a great selection of gluten free pizzas, salads and sandwiches. The sandwiches are made on a panini style bread which is prepared for each order, so it takes about 15 minutes for a sandwich -- still, it is well worth it. They also have a limited late night menu (after 9) which doesn't have the gluten free pizzas or sandwiches. However, the night that we arrived at 9:15, not realizing about the limited late night menu, the staff kindly made us a gluten free Casesar salad and a gluten free mozzarella tomato salad, even though they were not on the official late night menu.

Another great choice in Chatham, particularly if if you want fried food -- clams, fish, french fries, onion rings, etc. -- is Chatham Fish and Lobster -- all of their batter is gluten free. Call for hours, when we were there they weren't open for dinner.

We also tried BZ's Mexican Pizzaria in Dennis -- although we ended up ordering the one gluten free Mexican item, the cheese enchallada, rather than the pizza it is known for.

If you are planning a trip to Cape Cod, make sure you check out the Underground Cape Cod blog, http://www.undergroundcapecod.com/ Sue maintains a Gluten Free on the Cape list of restaurants and stores, which she will e-mail to you.

Gluten Free in Israel

Emily is going on a five week trip to Israel this summer, so we're gathering information on eating gluten free in Israel. Israel seems to have very good labeling laws and alerts consumers to the presence of all gluten -- not just wheat -- on the ingredient label. Still, it isn't always easy to read a label, especially if Hebrew is not your native language, so we're trying to gather information about specific products that are gluten free -- AND easily available. So far, thanks to some very helpful friends of friends in Israel, we have created the following list (published at this URL -- http://docs.google.com/View?id=dd7mfvqr_15cbxtsrc3 So, if anyone has additional suggestions, please add them to the comments!

Gluten Free Wine Tasting Dinner at Burton's Grill

I just found out that Burton's Grill in North Andover is hosting a gluten free wine dinner on Monday, June 7, at 6:30 p.m., in conjunction with the celiac support group Healthy Villi. The announcement and menu can be found on the Burton's Grill web site. The meal is a four course dinner -- price, including wine, tax and gratuity is $59.95 (or $39.95 without wine) which seems like an excellent value. We haven't been to the North Andover location, but the Burton's in Fenway (Boston) is one of our favorites for gluten free meals.