TRASHED: Our planet and our bodies

Last night my wonderful boyfriend took me to see the premier of the new documentary TRASHED. As you can guess, the film is about the devastating effects that our daunting production of trash have on the health of the planet, including human health of course.

The film was not fantastic, still, it had a lot of helpful information and important points. To me, environmental films like these are always worth watching, because every time I do, I become more committed to reducing my footprint on this planet.  My boyfriend and I both walked away from the film wanting to make strides in living plastic free. We loved the woman whose family of three only had one bag of rubbish to throw out for a whole year! Yay for (almost) zero waste!

Speaking of zero waste, San Francisco is featured as the reigning hero in this film. The last 20 minutes or so are about SF's leading actions towards its Zero Waste 2020 goal. All the plastic from our trash is going into the environment and leaching into the water or being burned into the air as toxins that are storing up in our bodies and being passed onto our babies.

As for my own journey towards zero waste, I've already made some progress. One thing that I have appreciated about the GAPS diet, is that since I am mostly eating meats and veggies, and not processed foods, my consumption of trash has also decreased. Think of all that packaged food in the grocery stores!!! I am now buying less plastic wrap. I don't even feel good about buying food in "recyclable" containers, since so much of our recycling doesn't actually get recycled. Re-use is definitely better than re-cycle.


My current food garbage:
plastic wrapping of meat
Brita packaging
Coconut flour plastic bag (I could buy bulk but it could have gluten contamination)
ties or rubber bands around veggies (I try to save and reuse)
Plastic from my non-dairy culture starter
Tea bag (need to use loose leaf and buy in bulk)
Coconut/Almond milk containers (need to learn to make homemade nut milks!)

Any ideas on how to minimize those?!!!??! Please comment. 

Minako's Organic Japanese Restaurant, Mission District, part 2

Minako, the owner recognizes me because I've been to her restaurant so many times. This time, she confessed to me and my first-timer friend that she was a little bit frazzled because most of the customers, contrary to the norm, were also first timers; she had to explain the system to them, they didn't get it, and thank you for not being a familiar face, she said. She then chided me for asking if the Hamachi Mint could be made gluten free. "We only have three things on the menu that can't be made gluten free!" She exclaimed.

She's a character no doubt, and it was nice to be appreciated as a regular customer. She brought us some yummy snacks-pickled cauliflower and some sort of fermented and spicey noodle like veggie things. Yum!

Are you wondering why do I keep coming back? First of all, she really gets gluten contamination. Also, there's something for everyone- besides being so gluten free and celiac friendly, she uses organic foods, and has many vegan options.

The main reason I go back is for the gluten free Chicken Katsu. I don't know if there is anywhere else you can get that. And her's is damn good. Her mom even makes the Katsu sauce from scratch, so that it is gluten free. This is another reason I love this place. It's a small family business and I love that she knows and appreciates her customers. Additionally this is probably also the only place with gluten free inari (tofu pocket stuffed with rice). They only use gluten free tamari there, that's all you'll find in the bottles on the table. The inari is made with this. While the inari there isn't as stellar as the chicken Katsu, its still great and I get it everytime.

The sushi at Minako's is not my favorite. Some of the rolls are huge, and hard to eat. The rice is brown rice, which, while very healthy, is not my favorite for sushi. However, I usually get the small sized spicy tuna roll - pretty darned good and still a rare treat since gluten contamination at sushi restaurants is such a problem.


I love Minako and her food! This is my favorite gluten-free and celiac friendly restaurant in San Francisco hands down. I will keep coming back over and over just like the majority of her customers!

Nopalito, Inner Sunset, San Francisco

Nopalito has delicious, upscale Mexican food, with many gluten free options. Modern remakes of Mexican classics have a refined feel in this ambient space, with prices that are reasonable.

I was apprehensive about trying Nopalito. My friend's boyfriend works there, and he had told me there were many gluten free options. But I'm trying to avoid contamination. And my ideal restaurant has no gluten I it. Fortunately, I learned, Nopalito has very little gluten ingredients. My friend explained to me that only their pork and meatballs have gluten.

I of course, wanted the other thing on the menu that has gluten - the mole has bread crumbs. This is also the source of gluten for the meatballs. The pork is marinated in beer. There is some risk of contamination, but at least it is minimized by the small presence of gluten. Although bread crumbs are a pretty dangerous form of gluten, easily getting all over the place and into my supposedly gluten free food!

I ended up getting the waiter's recommendation, which was something with perfectly cooked salmon, large beans (fava?), and a really yummy sauce. The tortillas are hand made on site, and you can watch the process as the kitchen is on display. This is always a nice perk for Celiacs.

Other treats included delectable champagne with hibiscus (see picture), ceviche on a crispy tortilla, a dairy free chocolate cinnamon paleta (Spanish for popsicle) and another champagne cocktail, this one with ginger and lemon. All of this was fantastic, and I would highly recommend this place to those who are not concerned about contamination. The risk seems minimal, so I may come back. I'll have to ask some more questions about contamination before my next visit.

Masala Dosa, Inner Sunset, San Francisco, CA

Since I've been diagnosed with Celiac disease, I've been very shy of restaurants. Generally the only restaurants I feel comfortable eating at are fancy, expensive ones, because service is top notch and that includes attending to the needs of the food allergy ridden. I also feel relatively comfortable at restaurants with a gluten-free menu becuase they often have a more knowledgeable staff. Now, the latter is tricky because you have to wonder what definition of gluten-free they are operating under. Five years ago, I tried a "gluten-free" diet, because I had heard about how hard gluten was hard to digest, but it never occurred to me that there could be gluten in fish sauce or chicken broth. Even if you read ingredients carefully for gluten-ingredients, there is then the issue of gluten-contamination, which may not be a big deal for your average gluten intolerant person, but for a Celiac, this trace contamination can be as harmful as eating a cookie. How can I be assured that the chefs are aware of these issues? That they make sure not to prepare my food on surface with flour or bread crumbs? The answer is: I can't. But as awareness increases, I can just do my best to talk to the wait staff, and maybe someday get assertive enough to call ahead and talk to the chef and other staff. But for now, I cannot be sure.

With that frame of mind, I agreed to meet a friend at Masala Dosa for lunch with some apprehension. I often find my gluten-free friendly spots with a simple yelp search. Though, sometimes it can be hard to tell how good the options will be. I found a review for Masala Dosa that referred to a gluten-free menu, so I thought there must be something good there for me. Sure enough, the dosa section of the menu noted that all dosas were gluten free except for one kind. Fun! I had options!

Often times in restaurants where the owners and waitstaff do not speak English fluently, I have a hard time inquiring about whether the food is really gluten-free. With a lack of public knowledge of gluten-free issues, plus a language barrier, it can be hard to get the reassurance I need. I asked the waiter, a very nice guy with an accent, about whether any meats were prepared with flour, or if there was any flour added to the sauce. He said no, but he seemed to understand the importance of the questions, and said he would double check with the chef. He came back confirming that all the curries were gluten-free - no flour on the meat or in the sauce. Since I didn't get to talk to the chef, I have no idea if they really "got it." I can only trust that the waiter conveyed the importance.

My friend and I shared a masala dosa with chutney and a spinach and chicken curry. While not the most amazing Indian food I've ever had, they were both very tasty! The flavors were fragrant and rich and the quality of the food was quite good.

As I don't seem to be having a gluten reaction, I think the food was free of gluten contamination. I will definitely be going back to my new gluten-free Indian hot spot!

I can't eat dairy either, though I think it's easy to avoid the creme sauces and the paneer. I wonder about which items include butter that is not stated in the description. I'll have to ask about that next time.

Samovar, August 26th 2011

I have been here a handful of times pre-food-restrictions. I've always enjoyed their menu, particularly their tea services, which run in the 20's but come with a nice assortment of odds and ends plus tea. Their cheese and fruit plate, with honey comb, was always one of my favorite things to order there. For your average diner, this place is a wonderful treat, although a bit expensive. But today I will review it from the perspective of someone dining with food allergies or restrictions.



Today, I already had lunch and mostly came in for the delicious soy Matcha shake. At $8 it's a bit expensive, and you don't get that much. But I was in the mood to spoil myself a little, and cheat from the Paleo diet (soy is a bean, not a caveman food item).







The Gluten-Free Nitty Gritty:

As an Asian cuisine spot, this has a lot of potential to be mostly dairy free and gluten free, but potential gluten traps like soy sauce.



I decided to get a snack too and looked over the food items. To my delight, they had a key on the bottom to indicate which items are vegan and gluten free! Scanning through for item marked with that beautiful g next it, I was sad to see there were only a few. Of those few, some had soy sauce. Great! This must mean they have gluten free soy sauce. As a Celiac, you have to be extra cautious, to the extent where I've read advice on calling and talking to the chef in advance, asking tons of questions, and leaving if you aren't satisfied. Being new to this, I'm taking some baby steps. I pretty much settled on the marinated portabello salad, but in case it was marinated in gluten free soy sauce, I wanted to make sure they had gluten free soy sauce. The waitress, however, did not know. She was nice enough to go ask the kitchen, and I overheard the person she asked, ask another person, who did confirm that they have gluten free soy sauce. I got the portabello salad, thinking that I should have asked specially about that. I did ask the waitress if the salad was already gluten free and she made some show of checking the key. Perhaps this is all very new, and she is learning. Ideally, she would know the answers to most of my gluten and allergy related questions already.





The Dairy-Free Deal



While mostly Asian based, there are some salads, sandwiches etc that come with dairy. They also have a v* marking, that shows that items can be made vegan. This wouldn't mostly be by making without adding cheese. There are plenty of exciting asian style items without dairy on the menu though!





The Paleo Low-Down



There are nice salad options, although most menu items are either sandwiches or grain based meals. Many items come with crackers, and probably wouldn't be too fun wit hot the crackers. Also, soy is of course abundant on the menu. The portabello salad was probably the only purely paleo item on the food menu. Of course, with the teas, you could get almost anything except the Genmaicha, which is a brown rice green tea drink. For a Paleo dieter, I would say mostly come here if you want to have tea. In that regards, they have a wide variety of very high quality teas. I recommend their Earl Grey. It is exquisitely Bergamot flavored.



Ratings



Normal Dining Rating: 4/5 stars.

Minus a star for being a little pricey and pretentious without have whatever it takes (flavor, pizazz) to make it seem worth the price.



Food Allergy Dining Rating: 3/5 stars.

Minus a star for the waitress not have thorough knowledge of the gluten free options.





NOTE:

3/5 is high for the food allergy dining these days! There is must room for the restaurant industry to learn and grow with respect to the needs to food allergies. Restaurants are picking up on this; the change is happening now.