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I normally tend to frequent smaller groceries that carry more specialty-type foods.  Having spent a significant portion of my life living abroad, I often crave some specialties to remind me of my colorful past.  Or I utilize the convenience that is Fresh Direct, a local online delivery service that the majority of New Yorkers I know tend to use.  Well, the other day my partner and I made our way to a very nice but rather large chain that is in our area because quite frankly they tend to have terrific sales and who doesn’t like a bargain?

The special offers began just as we entered the store and were faced with a display of innocent looking little Lindt bunnies.  That’s right, a virtual wall of delicious gold foil wrapped Swiss rabbits looking like something directly out of Willy Wonka.  You would think that this alone would be enough to command my attention but no, it was the bright yellow sign announcing 10 of these little animals for $10.  At first, I thought too many calories and continued into the produce section to source a variety of mushrooms for a GF rice noodle dish on that evening’s menu.

Alas, at the urging of my partner (a confessed chocoholic), we edged the cart closer to the bunny den and promptly had 10 little bunnies jumping eagerly into the cart.  Fast forward to after dinner later that evening (which consisted of wonderful fresh ribeye, steamed broccoli, and my famous rice noodles with five mushrooms – the recipe to which will be featured soon on the Recipe page).

As we retired fully satiated the bunnies were neatly lined up on the buffet staring at us.   The temptation was just too great and we each grabbed one, sheared it golden fleece and began to indulge in their sweet chocolate goodness.  I had no sooner taken a bite that I began to notice the ingredient label and thought I would at least see what nutritional damage I was doing to my diet.  Unfortunately what caught my eye was not the caloric count but rather two small words nestled among the sugar and cocoa – two fateful words – barley malt.  Argh!  Once again, I glutenized myself.

Thankfully I had only taken a bite (okay two) rather than shoving the entire thing into my big gob and no real damage had subsequently taken place.  But I was, well, pissed, that I did not follow my own advice of reading EVERY label ALL the time.  See, even we hard-core GFer’s slip from time to time because we get too comfortable sometimes and forget that product formulations change and ingredients you may not think belong are in fact contained.

What is our lesson for the day…READ, READ, READ all labels.

So my partner now has 8 ½ bunnies all to himself. LOL!
 
 
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I have been gluten free for well over 5 years now and am overly cautious when it comes to eating foods I did not prepare myself.  However, as I am sure many of you know it is still a challenge and sometimes, no matter how diligent you are, gluten sneaks in – gasp!  Let’s face it isolating gluten components from packing is not as easy as some think because you need to be very well versed in some of the more non-traditional way gluten can sneak in.

That's right, yours truly had a minor run in the other day and I will be the first to say it was my fault.  I always read product packaging as though it were an exciting novel -- so when you see the guy in the market staring intently at a box, that's me.

For my little brunch party the other day I was perusing the aisles of my favorite gourmet shop and stumbled across a glorious pile of French chocolate truffles.  So, I picked up the box and read the ingredients.  Unfortunately a “replacement label” in English had been plastered over the original French and other European languages citing the ingredients.  Having lived in France I would have preferred to just read the original labeling but looked at the translation and it seemed to be just fine.

Alas, things are not always what they seem.  After my splendid brunch we retired to the living room and I thought what better way to cap off the day that with the truffles – and they were FABULOUS.  However, as I was letting the delicate chocolate morsel melt in my mouth I noticed a bit of a more solid texture.  Curious I thought.  Perhaps some crystallization of the sugar?
I went back to the kitchen and looked at the package, this time peeling off the English overlay and there it was…wheat gluten.  Damn!  Well, thankfully I did not have a bad reaction but even after all this time being gluten free it reinforced that you can never be lax and need to question everything.  Oh well, lesson learned.  I am just sad because the chocolate was to die for and such a shame it was not GF.