My Dream

I have a dream....that one day I will have a restaurant that is ONE-HUNDRED PERCENT GLUTEN-FREE. Not "vegan and also has gluten-free", not "gluten-free but we cannot guarantee there is not cross-contamination", not "let me go ask the chef", not "you can have grilled chicken with no sauce", not "what is gluten??".

This restaurant will be a SANCTUARY full of tastey, satisfying food that has NO possibility of being contaminated. It will have EVERYTHING! All the food that I know and love and can eat only under the right conditions. I'd like the menu to look somewhat as follows:

Baked Macaroni & Cheese with Truffle Oil and Bread-crumb Crust
Crockpot Chili-Vegetarian or Beef- served with Cornbread and Honey-Butter
Chicken Tortilla Soup
BBQ Hamburger or Turkey Burger with Bacon, Avocado, and served with Fries.
Sweet Potato Fries
Warm Spinach and Bacon Salad in Balsamic Vinaigrette
Jamaican Jerk Shrimp served with Rice, Mango Salsa, and Fried Plantains
Chicken Enchiladas with Salsa Roja, Pinto Beans, and Sweet Corn Tamales

Dessert:
Strawberry Shortcake: fresh berries and creme fraiche on a buttermilk scone
Molten Chocolate Cake served with coffee and vanilla icecream and caramel drizzle
Apple Crisp: topped with golden brown sugar and oatmeal crumble, scoop of vanillabean icecream
Fried Banana Wontons: in a flakey pastry with caramel, cinnamon-sugar sprinkle, and vanillabean icecream

These are just a few that come to mind. Recipes will be made as healthy as possible using fresh and whole foods. And despite how it looks they will be 100% gluten-free. And taste sooooo good that even my brothers won't know they're gluten-free! Celiacs will come from all over the country to ENJOY FOOD again without ANY STRESS. This is my dream. And then maybe one day I won't be hungry.

Globalization you can taste

It's common knowledge these days that "globalization" is the trend we've been recently experiencing that has interconnected all parts of the world like never before- technologically, economically, culturally, and politically. The jury is still out on whether this is a positive or negative phenomenon, which is largely irrelevant because globalization continues to be the name of the game. Economist Thomas Friedman sites globalization's power as taking off in the 1990's, but in reality movement of people and their food was happening long before we coined it "globalization".

For example, pasta is largely considered an Italian food, but the first evidence of the noodle dates back to 2000 B.C. in China. It is thought that Marco Polo introduced Chinese noodles to Italy in the 13th century, and that ravioli is a derivative of Chinese wontons. Coffee was introduced to India from Ethiopia, and made its way to Europe before being brought to Java or Latin America. Also, ctirus fruits were non-existent in Spain and the Middle East until they were traded through North Africa from India in the 14th century.

A current example of edible globalization is the widespread trade of low-cost vegetable oils such as corn and soy which are now available to the developing world. The beauty of this "flattening" of the world is the "fattening" of the world, as poorer countries can now consume fats in amounts equal to those of richer countries. Likewise, Walmarts and regional immitators around the globe place processed, packaged, ready-to-eat foods in even the most rural areas. Indeed, overweight and obesity rates in Mexico, China, India, and the Phillipines are rising to meet those of the U.S., as the global trade of foods continues at an ever-increasing rate.

                                                                                           "The World is Fat", Barry Popkin. 2009