Gluten Free in Toronto, ON

Last weekend my husband and I decided to make the two hour drive up to Toronto, ON for a fun getaway. Of course, the first thing I did was research gluten free and celiac-friendly options in the city. I quickly had a list of restaurants I wanted to check out!

We arrived on Saturday, June 28 around 10:30am. It was World Pride weekend in the city and our hotel (The Courtyard Marriott) was smack dab in the center of all the festivities. We quickly checked in before heading away from "festival zone" towards Chinatown which bordered the Kensington Market area where our first stop was located; The Kensington Cornerstone.

Kensington Cornerstone

Let me tell you, this place was an amazing find! Located at the end of Kensington Avenue, with an adorable, cozy patio to enjoy the beautiful summer morning, we found the perfect place to start our gluten free eating extravaganza! Kensington Cornerstone is 100 percent gluten free - the absolute best thing a celiac can hear! 

We split a pitcher of Vodka Lemonade which was delightful and just the right proportion of lemonade to vodka. After a lengthy debate between french toast and a breakfast sandwich I chose the french toast and never regretted my decision. It came out looking beautiful and scrumptious and tasted even better. The bread was thick, perfectly cooked, and the crusts seemed like they had been dipped in sugar and cinnamon for extra enjoyment! I loved every second of eating this breakfast favorite that I haven't had since I've gone gluten free - so at least two years! Drew ordered the eggs Benedict and loved it, including the gluten free bread. What an awesome way to start the day!

First french toast since celiac!

I had told Drew there was a bakery I wanted to go to, but looking on the map I realized it was a lot further than I had thought. I decided we'd skip it. We began to wander around the Kensington Market area, savoring the unique shops and restaurants and hipster vibe. Suddenly, I looked up to see "Bunner's," the name of the 100% vegan, gluten free bakery I had wanted to visit! What?! We went inside and quickly discovered that they had just opened up a second location (this one!) the day before! What luck! We ordered a cinnamon bun which they warmed up and cut in half for us, and I also got a red velvet cupcake and a creamie (two chocolate chip cookies with frosting in the middle) to save for later. All three of these items were absolutely delicious and tasted like they had been jam-packed with gluten because they were that good! I will definitely make a point to go back there the next time I'm in Toronto.

Bunner's 100% Vegan and Gluten Free Bakery in the Kensington Market area

After some more wandering and shopping we headed to our next food-specific destination: Poutini's House of Poutine. Poutine is kind of a Canadian delicacy consisting of french fries, gravy and cheese curds. I'd never had it, but decided that if there was a gluten free version I should probably indulge. Drew loves poutine so he was totally on board for this adventure. We had to walk a couple miles to find this place and there wasn't much to it. No bathroom, cash only, a couple high tables and a kitchen. We were still stuffed from brunch and bakery treats, so we split a regular gluten free poutine. I was pleasantly surprised. For some reason, I expected poutine to be a lot, um...grosser? Haha. It was literally a paper cup's worth, so it wasn't too too much. The french fries were good, the gravy was tasty and not overloading the fries, and the cheese curds were not overwhelming either. All in all, a good first poutine experience!

GF Poutine, a Canadian Tradition

The remainder of our daylight hours were spent walking, window shopping, and enjoying a cold beverage before stopping into the Pride Festival to visit some friends we met while on our Galapagos diving trip last year. Soon, it was time to venture out for dinner.

We headed to the Distillery District, a funky area in the historical district I had visited in the fall. I knew Drew would love the vibe as much as I had. We headed to El Catrin, as it was listed on several websites when I was searching for gluten free in Toronto. The restaurant patio was massive and gorgeous with giant rustic metal chandeliers hanging, and a fire pit in the middle. The line was out the door and around the corner. There was a private party inside, so only patio seating was available. We decided to wait. 

An hour later we were seated. The menu had little icons next to certain items stating "wheat free." I asked about this and the hostess gave me a confused answer about it really meaning gluten free. Hmm. So I asked the server and he said yes, they were gluten free if they have that icon. Not to give away the rest of the story, but at this point, I should have asked to speak with a manager. Unfortunately, the place was crazy and I was starving and I did not. Instead, Drew and I ordered a few items (it is tapas style), and our food came quickly. We had Esquites (a corn dip), Sopes de Tinga (delicious little tart looking things), Cochnita Pibil (BBQ pulled pork tacos), and Carne Asada de Catrin (flat iron steak). Everything tasted amazing!! We loved the experience, the food, and our waiter. Unfortunately, about 20 minutes later I quickly realized I had been glutened. I'll leave out the details, but I will say, if you go here, please make sure you do your due diligence and talk to a manager so you can be assured what you order is gluten free. And maybe it would be better not to go on a Saturday night in the middle of summer so they aren't so busy and can be more careful of cross contamination. I'm not sure what made me sick, but it definitely gave our awesome gluten free food day a less-than-awesome ending.

Taken while I was enjoying my food...

The next morning we went to the Brownstone Bistro for breakfast as I found it on my "Find Me Gluten Free" app. Another disappointment. When I asked about gluten free, our unfriendly waitress sort of laughed and said that the menu she gave us was the menu for Pride Festival and there were no substitutions. OK, then. She also said "you know what you can eat, right?" And I said "Yes, but sometimes there are hidden things in certain items." She didn't seem to care. I ordered an omelet (after verifying with our super friendly waitress that they didn't use anything but eggs in their eggs), and my plate came out with bread on it. I ate the 3/4 of the omelet that wasn't near the bread, begrudgingly. After the night before, I was upset and angry, but felt too defeated to fight. I debated just not eating anything, but I was hungry, so I ate the part I felt should be safe.

Overall, we had a fun time in Toronto. It's a great city that is a melting pot of cultures, making you feel like you could be almost anywhere depending on the area of the city you are in. Plus, we found three awesome gluten free finds in Toronto and I will definitely revisit Kensington Cornerstone and Bunner's the next time we head north!

When in Rome...

Ah, Roma!

Us overlooking the river

Like many Americans, I've always wanted to see Rome. I’d heard and read stories from many people who just rave about the city. One thing I read before we came was something to the effect of the “grittiness” of Rome, but even with that grittiness you can’t help but fall in love. This didn't sound so great to me and so I tried to forget that I read it because I just didn't understand how I could love something described as dirty and gritty and crowded.

Well, let me tell you, that description actually makes a lot of sense and I truly did fall in love with the city despite of and because of its grit! I don’t know how to explain it, but it just gets to you. For me, it was a combination of two things that really put me over the edge: the beautiful ancient architecture around every corner and the food.

Ruins near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Everywhere you turn in Rome is another historically significant and beautiful structure. From the Coliseum, to the Trevi Fountain, to the Pantheon, to St. Peter’s Basilica to the random church on the corner; the beauty is overwhelming. There are fountains and plazas and huge Roman columns, you think you've gotten a handle on the city and seen so much and you turn the corner to find another grand and stunning building/fountain/sculpture/obelisk that you haven’t seen before!

The Colosseum

The beautiful Trevi Fountain

The Pantheon at Night

View from the Pantheon doors

And then there’s the food!!! With my diagnosis of Celiac disease just a few months ago, I was kind of dreading our time in Italy when it came to the eating part. I love Italian food, but since my diagnosis it’s been hard to find a gluten free pizza, bread or pasta that is actually more than just a way to satisfy my craving. I've yet to find any that’s really good. And then I came to Rome. Rome knows how to do gluten free and they do it amazingly well. Drew and I had many meals and often shared two entirely gluten free dishes so that we each could try more things. And all of it was delicious! He didn't feel like he was being cheated and I felt normal again! I found restaurants that had entire menus that were 100% gluten free (Mama! Eat), and many other places could make at least a few types of gluten free pasta or pizza as well. I was in heaven and for those three days we both ate extremely well and filled ourselves with lots of pizza, pasta and wine, and several cappuccinos and even gelato.

My first meal in Rome: Gluten Free deliciousness at Mama! Eat

Gluten Free Nutella Pizza for Dessert at Mama! Eat

If you’re a Celiac, you MUST go to Rome. You have to go out to eat in a place where it’s not a big deal and people just nod and hand you their gluten free menu. You have to taste the best gluten free pizza and pasta in the world. You just have to. It’ll be worth it.

And if you’re not a Celiac, you’re still going to love Rome. It’s beautiful, romantic, and full of amazing food in addition to all the legendary sites!

Gluten Free French Fry Pizza at Voglia di Pizza! Yum!

One of our many Coffees in Italy

I was very sad to leave Rome…luckily we will be back for two days in just a couple weeks, as that is where our cruise departs from. Super happy about that!

Inside Vatican City

Vatican City

Bernini's Four Rivers Fountain at Piazza Navona

For more pictures of beautiful Roma, click here.

Sevilla, Spain: Faith, Flamenco and Flavor

The Andalusian capital city of Sevilla (Seville in English) was recommended to us by many people when we spoke of our upcoming Spanish travels. One thing that especially intrigued me about the city was that around Easter religion dominates the highly Catholic region with a lengthy celebration know as Semana Santa (Holy Week). Semana Santa is apparently celebrated in many cities throughout Spain, and particularly in the Andalusian region, however in my research Sevilla’s celebration was rumored to be the most magnificent. So when our host in Toledo recommended we visit the city, and I realized our time could easily correspond with the beginning of these celebratory activities, I thought to myself (and said to Drew) “Let’s do it!”

Less than 24 hours later we had our train tickets in hand, a centrally located accommodation booked, and excitement building.

We arrived in Sevilla on Saturday evening around 10:30, after a six hour bus ride from Madrid. Our AirBnB.com hosts, Karren and Chris met us at the bus station to give us our keys, a map, and a warm welcome and a few minutes later we were walking up the steps to our next “home.”

The place was perfect; stylish, clean, and centrally located. We rested up Saturday evening and Sunday we began our exploration!

We wandered, walked, and absorbed the city. We immediately liked it. It was bigger than Toledo, smaller than Madrid. It had a great feel and a unique character with its gorgeous old buildings that you see so much in Europe that they almost become common, except for that fact that we just don’t get them at home so they could never get old! It had personality and style, old and new, hidden alleys and bustling plazas.

A typical gorgeous sight in the city

Drew and I in front of the Cathedral

The Cathedral

The Cathedral and fountain

Around two, after exploring for a few hours, we decided to take a rest on a fountain in a plaza near the Cathedral  People had been setting up endless rows of chairs outside the church and in many different parts of the city. We had heard about the religious processionals that were supposed to begin today, but hadn't seen anything.

Resting by the Cathedral

Then we heard something; a marching band. We walked a couple hundred feet to the main road outside the Cathedral and the procession had found us! It consisted of a marching band, followed by hundreds or thousands of people walking in white robes with tall pointed hats. Eerily they reminded us of KKK costumes, but of course they were nothing of the sort. (Apparently the KKK adapted the costumes from these religious processions in Spain into their outfits, which most people now associate with a fearful and gruesome symbolism).

In addition to the robed walkers there were massive “floats” (for lack of a better term) emblazoned with gold, figurines of different religious scenes, and detailed adornment. As the first of these passed us, just inches away, we realized that these “floats” were not moving on wheels or motorized – they were being carried! We saw the human feet along the edge marching perfectly in sync, and even watched the men lower down, and later, pick up the structures. It was incredible! These things are huge, old, and must weigh a ton!

We watched the procession for an hour and decided to walk against its flow to find the end – it seemed that the robed people just kept coming! Finally we found the “caboose” which consisted of a second elaborate float with the virgin atop it. Behind the procession, people were swarming, heading to their favorite bar for a drink and some tapas. This is clearly one of the most important days of the year – everyone is dressed beautifully – men all in suits, women in cocktail dresses and their highest heels (I didn't envy them walking on the cobblestone streets!), and children fancied up in their special outfits.

Taking a break...this is how these "floats" are powered.
Apparently people pay to carry them!

Later that night we headed out to dinner at a restaurant that I read about online, Al Solito Posto – supposedly they had gluten free pizza and pasta and even prepared it in a separate kitchen from the gluten-containing food. I ordered meat tortellini and I even received my own (large!) gluten free roll and crunchy bread stick things. Drew got spaghetti and his was OK – mine was fabulous – but anytime I can get gluten free pasta safely prepared is an amazing moment, so it no longer takes as much to impress me. I guess my standards are lower – if I can eat it I am excited!

GF place mat to alert servers I need GF food!

My gluten free tortellini!

On our walk home from dinner we started to hear music. We quickly came upon a procession. The streets were flooded with people again and our route home was blocked. We managed to get around it for a moment, but quickly realized that they were heading in the direction we needed to go and we would simply have to follow them! And so we did. It was a long, drawn out walk until we got to the plaza where they split off from us. It was exhausting, crowded and a bit frustrating, but overall a pretty special experience.

During our next day in the city we ran into processionals two more times and saw robed people several additional times, walking from point A to B. It seemed that their outfits changed day to day, with the colors evolving and seemingly having some type of important symbolism that was unclear to us.

The next day we walked some more, visiting the famous Plaza de Espana and later the Plaza de Toros where we took a tour and learned about the history and current controversial practice of bullfighting (which is now illegal in several parts of Spain). Little did we know, six bulls are killed in every bullfight, and occasionally horses (and humans) get killed as well. That night we went to a local bar to get a taste of flamenco that is so famous here!

Plaza de Espana

One of the bulls who was a casualty - notice the ear missing - this is part of the "game"

The blur of a flamenco dancer in motion!

Overall, our time in the city was fun, exciting, and varied. We got to experience firsthand the importance of religion to the people, and we also got to see the way they gathered and celebrated post-processional. We watched a flamenco show, enjoyed gluten free food. We walked a lot and didn't find any use for the public transportation available. At one point Drew asked me if I had to pick RIGHT NOW to live in Madrid, Toledo or Sevilla which would I pick? I picked Sevilla; preferring its medium size over the hugeness of Madrid and the slightness of Toledo. Madrid was cool but didn't have a real character of its own – it could be anywhere in Europe to me. Toledo had a ton of character, but everything is almost too similar. Sevilla has character, but variety. It meshes the old and new well and seems to be a great place to live, not just to be a tourist.

Making Many Lists, Checking Them Twice

As our date of departure quickly approaches, there are so many things we need to do. It's extremely important and helpful to make lists and write things down whenever I think of them or read about them because with all the busyness of work, regular life and the holidays, it is easy for things to slip through the cracks.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It's been an eventful week.  Here's what's been done trip-wise, and trip-related:

• Been diagnosed with Celiac Disease
• Booked our Galapagos live aboard diving trip and made payment
• Secured dive insurance
• Made an appointment for our immunizations
• Made a doctor's appointment for a checkup and to acquire Malaria pills (needed in South America and possibly other places we may be)
• Connected with other Celiacs on Twitter - even traveling Celiacs!
• Shared our plan, tentative destinations, and excitement with more family, friends and coworkers
• Began writing up a list of all of the things I do at work that the replacement will need to do
• Finalized the intern we will be hosting starting in January
• Crept closer to figuring out what flights we are going to book ahead of time so that we can make our flight booking appointment with Airtreks.com in the next week or so! (Can't WAIT to have our departure on the books!!)
• Finalized (for now) the things we need to purchase for the trip
• Visited other travel blogs to get packing tips, last-minute planning advice, and ever-growing inspiration and excitement from people who are living our dream right now!

On top of all that, we have to fit in decorating, shopping and wrapping for the holidays; weekends full of visits with family and parties with friends; researching and learning about my new Gluten Free lifestyle; and simply the back and forth and up and down of everyday life!

It's tough planning such an extensive trip at this time of year and with the big life changes I am going through. However, we're lucky because we're not planning TOO much; we're leaving a lot up to whim and decisions in the moment. Not to mention, I sort of thrive under pressure and deadlines and being busy. So, we're making progress, visiting with loved ones, and trying to enjoy every moment of this time of year all while that fabulous date of departure creeps, make that races, towards us. We both know it will be here before we know it and somehow it will all get done, because it has to!

Life Changes

I have to apologize for being MIA for a little while.  We had our big garage sale last week (post coming soon!) and about a week and a half ago I found out some news that has already begun to change my life and kept me pretty occupied during my free time.

I tested positive (through a blood test) for Celiac Disease.  There's a lot to it, but the basic outcome is that I can no longer eat gluten.  This means that I can't eat anything containing wheat, barley or rye, but it's much more complicated than that because gluten is in A LOT of things.  I'm not just eliminating bread, baked goods, and pizza, I also have to look for special soy sauce, eat oatmeal from a "certified" gluten free manufacturer, and check the labels of everything I eat.  Gluten can be hiding everywhere and I'm only just beginning to figure it all out.

In addition, I could easily "cheat" and suffer the short term consequences of not feeling well the next day, but there are much scarier long-term effects that eating gluten can have on a Celiac's body.  Basically, Celiac Disease (CD) is an auto-immune disease in which the small intestine attacks itself when gluten is digested.  So, not following a gluten-free diet when you have CD can lead to other auto-immune diseases, nutritional deficiencies, cancer and other problems.

If the short-term affects weren't enough to make me want to change my lifestyle the day I found out about CD, thinking about the potential long-term damage definitely keeps me motivated to learn as much as possible and start changing the way I eat for good.

It's only been a little over a week, but I've already run a gamut of emotions.  On one hand I feel empowered that I can control my health and this "disease" by simply eating a certain way, on the other hand it's overwhelming and frustrating to have so much to learn and so many labels to read before I put anything in my mouth. 

It's made me a little nervous to think about how I will deal with it when we embark on our journey around the world - especially when I think about real Italian pasta...

But, I'll cross that bridge when I get there, and for now it's just a constant "adventure" as I like to call it.  I do love to learn, so I enjoy reading up on it all - but that doesn't keep me from feeling sorry for myself some days, or sad that I'll never eat a real piece of pizza again.  Overall, I'm trying to stay positive and focus on all the things that I love that I can still eat...popcorn, strawberries, many kinds of ice cream, yogurt, broccoli, most chocolate, etc.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Do you or anyone you know have CD or follow a gluten-free diet?  I'd love for you to share any resources, tips, or ideas, whether they relate to travel or simply day-to-day life.