gluten-free musings

This year was probably most dietarily significant for my discovery of a gluten intolerance. The short story is that I had always known I felt queasy after large pasta meals and just assumed it was because carbs weren't good for anyone. After a five weeks carb-free, however, I was feeling great and thought it was due to the exercise and general better nutrition. As exams rolled around, I started eating carbs again. It wasn't until a few days after I started that I got hours-long attacks of fatigue and nausea. My friends were visiting me for my birthday, and I just couldn't keep me head up at the restaurant. This went on into my first week of my new rotation, and I would barely be able to keep myself awake especially after lunch. Finally, one day I ate some veggie sausages and a few minutes later felt extremely dizzy and nauseous. I looked at the ingredients, and found that the first was wheat gluten. Since then, I've cut out gluten from my diet and been feeling much better. It wasn't that hard to do, as I found that I had naturally been avoiding it pretty well on my own.


Though I am morally opposed to dietary restrictions, I was extremely relieved to find an answer to the periodic, nonsensical attacks of nausea I'd been experiencing for a few years. I tried eating more vegetables, acupuncture, exercise, and chinese medicine all to little avail. This morning I thought about how I came to realize this, and thought that perhaps the reason why gluten issues have been rising across the country is that we engage in this frenzied love affair and then desolate rejection with no other food than carbs. We turn to it in mass quantities whether having pasta for dinner or when feeling sad, and then swear we'll never touch another carb again for days. We are perhaps inducing an intolerance to this simply by shocking our systems just when we've eliminated it from our diets.


In any event, I tried what I thought was orzo yesterday and felt surprisingly little. Later in the evening I had some dizziness but it was extremely mild compared to what it had felt like before. Either I had rice instead, had a sensitivity to something other than gluten, or had eliminated gluten really well from my diet just like the first time I discovered this and after a few days the symptoms would return. In any event, diagnosable intolerance or not, my stomach has been so much happier with gluten free products and I've experienced so much less dizziness and nausea overall that I think I'll stick with this for awhile.

- Jane

christmas dinner

Mashed Turnips with Parmesan and Parsley

Traditional Roast Cauliflower and Roman Egg Drop Soup

A Traditional Beef Stew in Red Wine

The winner of the meal, Radishes in Buttery Glaze

- Jane

christmas morning and a discussion on tea

Christmastime!! It's certainly much less festive this year while my mom and sister are away on a cruise, but I'm excited to spend the day reading and cooking. I submitted my year-off grants yesterday and thankfully can truly spend a day doing nothing before I head back to Cleveland tomorrow.

I woke up in the mood for an elegant but full-bodied drink, and thought a tea latte would do quite nicely. I made this earl grey latte once before for Juewon, but he was very mean to me and claimed to be "lactose intolerant." How ridiculous. I made this version this morning and liked it a lot. I boiled the water in a stainless steel pot, added the tea bag, then added the milk right into the same pot. Since my parents don't own a whisk, I took wood chopsticks to whisk the milk in the pot. The result is very clean and delicious! I also wonder if heating the milk in the tea prevented it from forming the skin it usually does.

Black tea is always comforting, even for those who did not grow up drinking it. The first time I had Lipton even was at the college cafeteria, and instantly found that with a splash of milk I felt comforted and loved. Since then I've grown tired of the tannin-y aftertaste Lipton leaves and explored some different tea bags. My first try was Twinings, and it is probably still the front-runner for me. It's less powerful than some other teas, but it is smooth and has no offensive notes to it. I've also found that Tazo Awake is extremely aromatic. I would probably have switched to it had I not preferred the more subtle tones of Twinings to Tazo's light and fanciful flavors.

When I set out to try PG Tips, the lady at a small tea shop in Pittsburgh led me instead to Yorkshire. She insisted that customers were upset only when Yorkshire was out of stock, and not PG Tips. Intrigued, I purchased her over-priced tea but was sorely disappointed. It tasted not like a traditional black tea and instead like a foul, self-insistent cousin. Not wanting to waste it, I found that steeping it for only 10 seconds or so prevented the stronger, offensive notes from soaking, and that is how I have made it through. Fortunately, my adventures in tea were salvaged through the discovery of Bigelow. It's a very affordable brand of whose I've purchased a wonderful Chai and a perfect Mint. At a hotel recently I sampled their Earl Grey, which was incredibly flavorful and soothing. To complete my journey, I'll have to sample their classic English breakfast and finally get around to trying PG Tips. Yay black tea!

- Jane

full circle

One year!  With a few less than productive months, I am excited to begin anew!  I'll be having a very adventurous next few months and am excited to have J1 contribute as well.  We'll be adding random food photos, recipes, and now restaurant pictures and reviews.  I'm also going to ditch my silly point and click and just use the iPhone 4 camera.  It's easier to carry and provides the same quality.  Yay 2012!

Arugula and spinach salad with grilled chicken thighs, sweet peppers, and feta added on the plate.