One of the biggest factors in my leaving Japan was being unable to eat food. I like food. I'm not one of those people who can cook a vat of chili and eat it for two weeks straight. My body just will not consume food it does not want to eat, and if it's bored or uninterested in something, I can't argue. If my body wants pizza and I try to give it rice, it will shut down the hunger after a few bites and I feel full but unsatisfied. Of course, I get hungry again about 30-60 minutes later. Horribly inconvenient.
So just a week or so after moving here, I have pretty well scouted out the best and worst places to get anything gluten free within my own little sphere of the world.
Keep in mind you're not only going to be paying the gluten free tax, but also the Hawaii tax. Food is expensive here.
If you're staying in Honolulu, I'm going to bet you're in Waikiki. If you aren't ... well ... too bad. But surely you can find something you can eat near you.
The first store I hit on my gf run was Down to Earth ( http://www.downtoearth.org/ ). They're an all-vegetarian store with a huge amount of gluten free food. I'm not vegetarian, nor do I have any desire to be, but they don't card you or interrogate you or sniff you for essence of meat before you go in.
They had a lot of frozen items (the usual Amy's as well as some other stuff), cereals, crackers, bread, pretzels, pasta, etc. The only item I was hoping they would have that they didn't (but the brochure said they did) was tortillas. They had the Annie's deluxe gf, so I was happy.
In their deli/bakery they had a couple of pizzas that were listed as gf, as well as wheat-free cookies (I assume not gf due to the potential for cross-contamination). I was intrigued by both, but a bit turned off by fake meat (dude, if you're going to eat meat ... just eat meat) on the pizza and dates in the cookies. I just have a thing about raisins or dates in cookies. Can't stand them. Always taste them. No good.
The next on my list was Whole Foods. This is in the Kahala Mall and a bit of a trek if you're ... anywhere. I had to take two buses to get there, and by the time I got home I had spent over an hour and a half on buses and my food was melting.
It was my first time in a Whole Foods, but I think they're pretty standard, yeah? Really expensive, but lots of gf stuff. I was very tempted by the doughnuts, pie, and carrot cake. Ohhhh carrot cake. But I can't afford $12 in carrot cake or $16 pumpkin pies! They had a lot of nice stuff and I spent a lot of money on it. Mostly things I hadn't been able to find at Down to Earth or the other supermarkets in the area.
The next was Kokua Market ( http://kokuamarket.ning.com/ ). Fortunately for me and my tortilla lust, after forgetting to buy them at Whole Foods, Kokua had some for me. They also had a decent selection of items, including Glutino crackers, bagels, frozen items (mostly Amy's), and instant oatmeal in a flavor I would never touch (ewww banana). They had a bit more pizza than Down to Earth had, and since they're just down the street I bet they stay a little bit competitive in pricing. A little. Chicken noodle soup! Hurray!
All in all, not bad, and probably the least I've spent on groceries thus far, even though I got several items.
Now, don't think you have to go to these hippy-dippy crunchy earth-loving vegan all-natural shops to get your food on.
Walmart is not the place to go for anything. It's not a grocery store for all intents and purposes, and is more of a tourist destination for Japanese people who want to be able to say they went to a Walmart.
The Japanese version of Walmart, in a sense, is Don Quijote (or "Donki" as we usually called it in Japan). I actually found several gf foods in Donki, such as cereals and pastas. It was kind of odd, considering I'd just left Japan due to its dearth of gf food. Of course, in Japan they don't sell the same foods ...
I haven't been to Times, but the Safeway I went to has very little in the way of gf stuff. A few Amy's dinners, a couple of bags of pasta. They do have some lunch meat that is labeled gf (Hormel, IIRC) at least. It's a little disappointing, since it's my nearest store.
Foodland in Ala Moana has a few items (mostly Amy's), but the other Foodland I went to on S. Beretania had a LOT of stuff. Waffles and chicken tenders and cereals. They even had some breads in the freezer case. A decent selection at a relatively normal store. The prices are still kind of insane, but at least you can get one of those little shopper cards and pretend you're getting a discount.
So there you go. Just a short list of my findings. If I find anything else ... I will report back.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Amy's Cheese Pizza with Rice Crust
While I was in Japan I had almost no problem getting rice crusts with which to make my own little pizzas. And they were good, too. I just hated having to buy all the ingredients and assemble them. You never know which cheese is any good, or which pizza sauce, and then I had to figure out ingredients. Black olives and mushrooms were easy. Green peppers a little more difficult. Ham couldn't be counted on to taste any good, and pepperoni? What I really wanted was pepperoni.
So I dreamed of a time when I could just go down to the store and get a frozen pizza and be done with it. Oh sure, I could pay the $17 and go to Z Pizza and have them do everything for me. But until that time, I just wanted to taste a real frozen pizza like I used to make when I was aching for a pizza but didn't want to go out to get one.
The Safeway nearby stocks the rice crust pizza, as does just about every other supermarket I've encountered so far (Walmart is not a supermarket and does not count). It was probably $12-14 as I recall. A bit pricey, but still better than Z Pizza's $4 GF markup. I got it home and took it to the oven.
Now, I'm in a bit of a contamination pickle (nothing to do with actual pickles) here. I share a kitchen with several other people. Amy is telling me to stick the crust on the oven rack and I know I can't do that. So I put it on tin foil. I'm sure this affected my baking. I just know it. But it was my only option.
In pretty much the time stated on the box I had a hot pizza waiting for me. But let's first go into how the thing looked, right? It looked cheesy enough, I guess. There wasn't a lot of sauce trying to escape, as there often is in these kinds of pizzas. So that was a plus in the "not much cheese" department. The crust looked nice too. It smelled kind of frozen pizza-ish on the way out, but no matter if it tastes good.
I would have to say I would give the pizza a 3/5. I am taking into account that it is frozen pizza and that frozen pizza is frozen pizza. The cheese had almost no flavor or texture, which was weird. When I got a bite of the inner part of the pizza all by itself, I could usually taste the cheese, but if there was any hint of that large outer crust, I could not. The sauce might as well have not existed, and then there was the crust. It was floppy due to my tinfoil predicament, and the texture was as you'd expect from GF food. Gritty. But the flavor was nice. It reminded me of those artisan-type breads you'd get at Panera. You know, garlic and sun-dried tomato herb bread or something.
On the whole, I think I might buy it again if I could find some pepperoni to put on it. And maybe some more cheese ...
So I dreamed of a time when I could just go down to the store and get a frozen pizza and be done with it. Oh sure, I could pay the $17 and go to Z Pizza and have them do everything for me. But until that time, I just wanted to taste a real frozen pizza like I used to make when I was aching for a pizza but didn't want to go out to get one.
The Safeway nearby stocks the rice crust pizza, as does just about every other supermarket I've encountered so far (Walmart is not a supermarket and does not count). It was probably $12-14 as I recall. A bit pricey, but still better than Z Pizza's $4 GF markup. I got it home and took it to the oven.
Now, I'm in a bit of a contamination pickle (nothing to do with actual pickles) here. I share a kitchen with several other people. Amy is telling me to stick the crust on the oven rack and I know I can't do that. So I put it on tin foil. I'm sure this affected my baking. I just know it. But it was my only option.
In pretty much the time stated on the box I had a hot pizza waiting for me. But let's first go into how the thing looked, right? It looked cheesy enough, I guess. There wasn't a lot of sauce trying to escape, as there often is in these kinds of pizzas. So that was a plus in the "not much cheese" department. The crust looked nice too. It smelled kind of frozen pizza-ish on the way out, but no matter if it tastes good.
I would have to say I would give the pizza a 3/5. I am taking into account that it is frozen pizza and that frozen pizza is frozen pizza. The cheese had almost no flavor or texture, which was weird. When I got a bite of the inner part of the pizza all by itself, I could usually taste the cheese, but if there was any hint of that large outer crust, I could not. The sauce might as well have not existed, and then there was the crust. It was floppy due to my tinfoil predicament, and the texture was as you'd expect from GF food. Gritty. But the flavor was nice. It reminded me of those artisan-type breads you'd get at Panera. You know, garlic and sun-dried tomato herb bread or something.
On the whole, I think I might buy it again if I could find some pepperoni to put on it. And maybe some more cheese ...
Glutino Penne Alfredo
Of course it's delicious! It says so right on the website!
Now that I'm in America and have at my disposal a seemingly limitless supply of GF yummies, I had to run out and buy ... everything. Well, as much as I can carry at one time and that I can afford, since I quit my job and moved back to America.
I went to Whole Foods and gawked a bit, but ended up buying a handful of frozen items including this Glutino Penne Alfredo. I love me some alfredo. I love me some penne. And if it looks anything like it does on the box, well, count me in!
After paying my $6-8 (it was something like that), I expected quality. So imagine my disappointment when I opened up the box and saw this sad plate of frozen, gray noodles staring at me as if all crying out for me to end their pathetic, gray lives. Okay, I know brown rice pasta is going to be a little sad-looking, but where was the sauce?? Maybe the sauce was hiding.
I put it in the microwave and some sauce started to peek out as it bubbled and rotated in the cancer box. It smelled pretty good. But what about flavor?
After dodging my quasi-housemate's (too hard to explain) dogs to get to the front door, I sat down in my room, stirred up my pasta ... and ...
Wait, all my penne had broken into sad fragments of its former penne shapeliness. What the heck? But that doesn't mean it can't still taste good, right?
I took a bite. It was ... underwhelming. There was the mildest hint of creaminess, like when you reheat macaroni and cheese in the microwave and it mostly tastes like bland noodle and a little bit of cheese. There was just no flavor. So it wasn't bad. It was edible. I didn't throw it away or anything. But it just tasted like nothing. Noodle and noodle.
I wondered if it would be better in the oven. Normally I would cook things in the oven. But I didn't see any baking instructions (even though it refers to microwaving as "baking" on the back for some reason). So if that were a possibility I would try it. However, I don't think I'll be purchasing this--or that mac and cheese I saw next to it in the freezer case--again.
Now that I'm in America and have at my disposal a seemingly limitless supply of GF yummies, I had to run out and buy ... everything. Well, as much as I can carry at one time and that I can afford, since I quit my job and moved back to America.
I went to Whole Foods and gawked a bit, but ended up buying a handful of frozen items including this Glutino Penne Alfredo. I love me some alfredo. I love me some penne. And if it looks anything like it does on the box, well, count me in!
After paying my $6-8 (it was something like that), I expected quality. So imagine my disappointment when I opened up the box and saw this sad plate of frozen, gray noodles staring at me as if all crying out for me to end their pathetic, gray lives. Okay, I know brown rice pasta is going to be a little sad-looking, but where was the sauce?? Maybe the sauce was hiding.
I put it in the microwave and some sauce started to peek out as it bubbled and rotated in the cancer box. It smelled pretty good. But what about flavor?
After dodging my quasi-housemate's (too hard to explain) dogs to get to the front door, I sat down in my room, stirred up my pasta ... and ...
Wait, all my penne had broken into sad fragments of its former penne shapeliness. What the heck? But that doesn't mean it can't still taste good, right?
I took a bite. It was ... underwhelming. There was the mildest hint of creaminess, like when you reheat macaroni and cheese in the microwave and it mostly tastes like bland noodle and a little bit of cheese. There was just no flavor. So it wasn't bad. It was edible. I didn't throw it away or anything. But it just tasted like nothing. Noodle and noodle.
I wondered if it would be better in the oven. Normally I would cook things in the oven. But I didn't see any baking instructions (even though it refers to microwaving as "baking" on the back for some reason). So if that were a possibility I would try it. However, I don't think I'll be purchasing this--or that mac and cheese I saw next to it in the freezer case--again.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Oh, that's disgusting.
Ener-G Foods has vacuum-sealed bread that supposedly stays good for a year on the shelf.
So I would love to know why I plucked this loaf out of the case of 6 and opened the outer bag to find ... wow, that's kind of a dark green-gray shade on that side. And flipped it to see ... wow, that's a bright chartreuse on that side.
So ... I pulled out another loaf and it was fine. Still. The moldy loaf is so moldy that part of the loaf is eaten away by it. Gross. At least it's vacuum-sealed, but ... still gross and a waste of money to boot.
So I would love to know why I plucked this loaf out of the case of 6 and opened the outer bag to find ... wow, that's kind of a dark green-gray shade on that side. And flipped it to see ... wow, that's a bright chartreuse on that side.
So ... I pulled out another loaf and it was fine. Still. The moldy loaf is so moldy that part of the loaf is eaten away by it. Gross. At least it's vacuum-sealed, but ... still gross and a waste of money to boot.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Glutening Tokyo: Convenience Stores
I used to love convenience stores, with their ever-changing selection of items and hot, greasy fried slabs of chicken. Now, since quittin' the gluten, not so much. Going to the convenience store is this awful trial that requires a lot of holding packages over my head (can't flip them over and the ingredients are printed on the bottom), sighing, and shoving them back on the shelf.
What can you eat? Well, there's the typical stuff. Drinks are usually fine. I've yet to find a drink that wasn't. Ice cream, basically you need to use common sense. Cut fruit should be okay. After that? Beware.
Salad: Most salads are fine. Watch out for "pasta" salads that have cold spaghetti at the bottom or salads with fried or marinated meats on top. I've also encountered totally safe-looking salads that list wheat as an ingredient. I can only guess it was in a marinade for some vegetable piled on the top. Salad dressings are hit or miss. I went to Family Mart the other day and they had ZERO safe dressings. Out of six.
Sushi: Sushi in the convenience store is iffy at best. The ingredient label may lump in soy sauce with the regular sushi ingredients, so sometimes it's hard to tell if it contains wheat there or elsewhere. Usually the varieties available are "salad," "natto," "negitoro," and a combination of various types of sushi. The variety pack is iffy, as the eel (maybe in there) and egg (definitely always in there) are not safe. Because the pack does not individually list ingredients for every type of sushi, I wouldn't trust it. Negitoro is mashed tuna with onion. It usually lists wheat as an ingredient, which could be the soy sauce, but since the tuna is mashed, I have no idea what's in it. Natto might be okay. Except it's rotten soy beans. Salad flavor almost always contains wheat in the mayo.
Onigiri: Onigiri are rice balls. I'll lump maki-zushi in with this (looks like a sushi tube). These are almost never okay if they contain any sauce or mayo. A plain onigiri with just salmon in it is usually okay, but be careful and check for 小麦 on the label. Lawson is the worst offender. They seem to shove wheat into everything.
Desserts: Most of these contain cake. Frustrating, yes. Pudding is even only safe about 50 percent of the time. Even things that look like they should be okay are usually not okay. You need to check for wheat.
Meals: These are almost never okay. I have found TWO entrees in the past year that were okay. One was a mistake (shipped to the wrong area, whoops!) and the other disappeared as well. One was jambalaya (at Sunkus) and one was a kimchi pork on rice meal (at Family Mart). Similar meals at other convenience stores were and are not safe to eat. Basically, most meals contain soy sauce or oyster sauce or some kind of sauce. What's in the sauce? Wheaaaat. You can read labels if you want, but it's pretty futile. You can definitely eat the salt-grilled fish at 7-11 and white rice anywhere. Make sure the white rice is not mixed with barley.
(I saw a website talking about the gluten-free fried rice dishes at Lawson and balked. Nothing in Lawson is or has ever been safe to eat. Fried rice in Japan is never ever safe.)
Fast Food: Most convenience stores have hot snacks up front. Your options are limited.
Family Mart: Nothing
7-11: Hot dog on a stick should be okay, in Tokyo. Sometimes this is different for different areas.
am/pm: Pretty sure nothing
Mini Stop: French fries, Idaho stick potato, hot dog on a stick, ice cream (in a cup), and some parfaits are okay
Lawson: Pretty sure nothing
Packaged foods: Chips and chocolate are not always safe!! I've found salt flavor potato chips with both wheat and pork in the ingredients. Watch out for chocolate, as it often contains rice crisps (malt). Also, m&ms and Snickers both use wheat starch here. Plain chocolate should be okay. Plain Choco Flake is okay (no malt). Pringles are not (same as home--wheat starch), but Chip Star (plain flavor) is fine.
I hope this helps if you're about to trek off to Japan. Worst case scenario, you can just buy a lovely, individually wrapped banana.
Unless you're allergic to bananas.
What can you eat? Well, there's the typical stuff. Drinks are usually fine. I've yet to find a drink that wasn't. Ice cream, basically you need to use common sense. Cut fruit should be okay. After that? Beware.
Salad: Most salads are fine. Watch out for "pasta" salads that have cold spaghetti at the bottom or salads with fried or marinated meats on top. I've also encountered totally safe-looking salads that list wheat as an ingredient. I can only guess it was in a marinade for some vegetable piled on the top. Salad dressings are hit or miss. I went to Family Mart the other day and they had ZERO safe dressings. Out of six.
Sushi: Sushi in the convenience store is iffy at best. The ingredient label may lump in soy sauce with the regular sushi ingredients, so sometimes it's hard to tell if it contains wheat there or elsewhere. Usually the varieties available are "salad," "natto," "negitoro," and a combination of various types of sushi. The variety pack is iffy, as the eel (maybe in there) and egg (definitely always in there) are not safe. Because the pack does not individually list ingredients for every type of sushi, I wouldn't trust it. Negitoro is mashed tuna with onion. It usually lists wheat as an ingredient, which could be the soy sauce, but since the tuna is mashed, I have no idea what's in it. Natto might be okay. Except it's rotten soy beans. Salad flavor almost always contains wheat in the mayo.
Onigiri: Onigiri are rice balls. I'll lump maki-zushi in with this (looks like a sushi tube). These are almost never okay if they contain any sauce or mayo. A plain onigiri with just salmon in it is usually okay, but be careful and check for 小麦 on the label. Lawson is the worst offender. They seem to shove wheat into everything.
Desserts: Most of these contain cake. Frustrating, yes. Pudding is even only safe about 50 percent of the time. Even things that look like they should be okay are usually not okay. You need to check for wheat.
Meals: These are almost never okay. I have found TWO entrees in the past year that were okay. One was a mistake (shipped to the wrong area, whoops!) and the other disappeared as well. One was jambalaya (at Sunkus) and one was a kimchi pork on rice meal (at Family Mart). Similar meals at other convenience stores were and are not safe to eat. Basically, most meals contain soy sauce or oyster sauce or some kind of sauce. What's in the sauce? Wheaaaat. You can read labels if you want, but it's pretty futile. You can definitely eat the salt-grilled fish at 7-11 and white rice anywhere. Make sure the white rice is not mixed with barley.
(I saw a website talking about the gluten-free fried rice dishes at Lawson and balked. Nothing in Lawson is or has ever been safe to eat. Fried rice in Japan is never ever safe.)
Fast Food: Most convenience stores have hot snacks up front. Your options are limited.
Family Mart: Nothing
7-11: Hot dog on a stick should be okay, in Tokyo. Sometimes this is different for different areas.
am/pm: Pretty sure nothing
Mini Stop: French fries, Idaho stick potato, hot dog on a stick, ice cream (in a cup), and some parfaits are okay
Lawson: Pretty sure nothing
Packaged foods: Chips and chocolate are not always safe!! I've found salt flavor potato chips with both wheat and pork in the ingredients. Watch out for chocolate, as it often contains rice crisps (malt). Also, m&ms and Snickers both use wheat starch here. Plain chocolate should be okay. Plain Choco Flake is okay (no malt). Pringles are not (same as home--wheat starch), but Chip Star (plain flavor) is fine.
I hope this helps if you're about to trek off to Japan. Worst case scenario, you can just buy a lovely, individually wrapped banana.
Unless you're allergic to bananas.
Nut Thins - Almond
What on earth are these things? I opened them up expecting a cracker, but instead was greeted with a rice wafer with some dots on it. Huh? Okay.
My first impression was: Salt. I don't like salty foods so much, and found the salt overpowering. Then I thought, "Fritos." They do taste a lot like Fritos.
I don't know if I like them. They're odd. But because they're a lot like Fritos, I thought they might be nice in chili. So when I tried that madras lentil stuff, I dipped in a nut thin. Not bad.
Still not sure what these things are though. They aren't a cracker. They aren't a rice cracker. They're just ... ricenut coins of SALT.
My first impression was: Salt. I don't like salty foods so much, and found the salt overpowering. Then I thought, "Fritos." They do taste a lot like Fritos.
I don't know if I like them. They're odd. But because they're a lot like Fritos, I thought they might be nice in chili. So when I tried that madras lentil stuff, I dipped in a nut thin. Not bad.
Still not sure what these things are though. They aren't a cracker. They aren't a rice cracker. They're just ... ricenut coins of SALT.
Madras Lentils
I like curry, but most Japanese curry contains wheat flour. Even some Indian and Thai curries produced in Japan contain wheat flour. So when I saw that Tasty Bites had Indian that was gluten free? Well, sign me up!
I picked this one at random. I'd already tried another variety and it was good, so I thought I would try another.
I boiled it in the bag, as I usually do with curry. Microwaving is never a good idea if you can help it. When I opened it, the first thing I thought was, "Chili!"
I love chili. This is vegetarian, but it absolutely smells like chili. Kind of looks like chili. And hey! It tastes like chili too!
It's a bit spicy, but not awful. The lentils make up the bulk of it, and there are some larger red beans mixed in somewhere. But basically, it's a lot like a vegetarian chili. But not vegan. It does contain butter. And cream. (Mmmm, butter and cream.)
It's not really what I was expecting--I thought it would have more of a curry flavor--but it's tasty nonetheless. The end.
I picked this one at random. I'd already tried another variety and it was good, so I thought I would try another.
I boiled it in the bag, as I usually do with curry. Microwaving is never a good idea if you can help it. When I opened it, the first thing I thought was, "Chili!"
I love chili. This is vegetarian, but it absolutely smells like chili. Kind of looks like chili. And hey! It tastes like chili too!
It's a bit spicy, but not awful. The lentils make up the bulk of it, and there are some larger red beans mixed in somewhere. But basically, it's a lot like a vegetarian chili. But not vegan. It does contain butter. And cream. (Mmmm, butter and cream.)
It's not really what I was expecting--I thought it would have more of a curry flavor--but it's tasty nonetheless. The end.
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