All posts filed under: Shopping gluten-free

The Hummingbird Bakery, London

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The Hummingbird Bakery in London is cupcakes heaven: a pastry shop exclusively dedicated to make of this teeny-tiny cake one true masterpiece. Located in the lovely South Kensington, destination to many museum and art lovers, The Hummingbird is also a coffee and tea room, inside and outside, to enjoy all year long. Luckily for us gluten-free eaters, there are also gluten-free cupcakes :-) I splurged in the Red Velvet, deep red vanilla cake with a light taste of chocolate, topped with cream cheese frosting + the more classic Vanilla, fluffy vanilla sponge cake with a light buttercream vanilla frosting. Shall I say how good they were…!!! They come in this beautiful box …I have to say, I do love care for details. It makes everything more precious. In the shop they sell the book “Life is sweet” in case you might love creating your own cupcakes wonders and much more. The other good news is that at the Hummingbird they can also make gluten-free cakes if you order them in advance. Life is definitely as sweet as they …

Romeo’s gluten free bakery, London

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Hello everybody, it’s been a while since my last post…I know…! Well, I decided to go to London for a few days to see two of my BFF + scope some of the latest news on gluten-free and… I was pleasantly surprised :-) I love London for so many reasons and I do think that they have some of the best gluten-free products ever. The first place that I would like to share with you is a gluten-free bakery called Romeo that recently opened. Located in the lovely Islington, it is a place that feels warm, friendly, laid-back and it sells some of the best fresh gluten-free bread that I have ever eaten! Here there are some freshly baked golden loaves, crusty on the outside, soft on the inside and so good! You can have the white loaf, the seeded one, olive & rosemary (my post cover picture), with onions. The main ingredients are potato, tapioca and rise flours, eggs, yeast, salt, vinegar, water: at Romeo’s they keep it simple and genuine. And it doesn’t stop to bread, …

Pain de Sucre, Paris

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Pain de Sucre (Sugar Bread in English) is one of those pastry shops in Paris that looks like it is made in heaven…each cake, tart, éclair, brioche, ice-cream looks just perfect, the colors and the shapes are a symphony to the eyes. For us gluten-free eaters there is one thing - I say one but I hope there will be more in the future - that is naturally free of gluten and it is so good that is totally worth the trip….Marshmallows! This is a sweet that we don’t have in Italy, I don’t even think we have a word in Italian to translate it… ?!!? So I was much more pleased to discover it for the first time and eat it. In the past when bakers or pastry chefs were left with much egg white, instead of throwing it away, they started making this simple yet delicious sweet. Marshmallows at Pain de Sucre are really sublime! The ones I put on the post cover are with rose-water, the ones below with dark chocolate & coconut + green pistachio…yummy! At Pain …

That stone that turns

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La Pierre qui tourne, literally the stone that turns, is a newly discovered French brand of delicious organic gluten-free cookies (they have a wide range of cookies with gluten as well). The legends says that in the forest of Compiègne, on the slope of Mount St Mard, close to a giant tree hides a peculiar stone that looks like a frog. At Christmas Eve, at midnight, the stone starts turning by itself… well, enough magic to inspire Benoit and Isabelle, the co-founders of La Pierre qui tourne, to call the brand after it and start baking some of the best gluten-free cookies that I have ever tasted. From rice flour to almonds, from butter to eggs, all the ingredients are natural, certified organic, top quality, selected from the best suppliers and naturally gluten-free (pls just notice that there is no crossed grain logo on the package yet, so if you are really allergic to gluten, do not try them until you see the logo, they tell me they are just waiting to receive it shortly :-)) Here I chose to have the …

Eric Kayser, Paris

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Eric Kayser is an institution in Paris: he is one of the most skillful artisan baker who has developed during the years, top quality bread using and mastering liquid leaven, technical innovations, new recipes and a constant search for the best ingredients. When I lived in Paris for the first time, in 2004, when I got off work and out of the metro Odéon I used to walk to his shop in rue de l’Ancienne Comédie and would buy the baguette tradition or the baguette with raisins, my favorite actually. When I came back to Paris for the second time, in 2012, I knew I had celiac disease and thought I would never step into one of his shops ever. Well, never say never…! One year ago Kayser answered the raising demand of French people for gluten-free bread and started to make his own :-). And even though it is not baguette, now you can enjoy the “Gonesse” bread with rice flour, the “Mendiant” with rice flour, buckwheat and dried fruit, the buckwheat bread that I just bought as …

La Madia, Turin

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La Madia is a pastry shop in Turin dedicated exclusively to gluten-free. It was founded three years ago by the nice and cheerful Loredana who, combining a good dose of savoir-faire and determination, made it become one-to-go place in the city if you are looking for comfort gluten-free food. Yesterday I had the sweet tooth and I decided to go there. I always travel with the subway/underground so I took Line 1 - Molinette stop - and to my surprise… this subway line was looking clean, tidy, and Rossini was being played through speakers…! How wonderful, I thought, to have classic music underground, and to that people responded beautifully just being quite; for a subway user like myself this was a complete fist and a nice one indeed :) When I arrived at La Madia, I felt twice lucky as I found freshly home-made “bugie”! This is one of those dream-come-true moment because everybody who is familiar with this typical Italian pastry made in late January and February to celebrate Carnival knows how hard work it requires (today most local shops …

Bien, Paris

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Bien means good. Bien is an organic grocery store recently opened in Paris, with two venues in the 3rd arrondissement. Bien selects with care the best suppliers and products mostly from France, sourcing them locally and following seasonality. I can say that the fruit and vegetable that you find here are really fresh - and I underline the word “fresh” as I sometimes find it hard to find fresh fruit and vegetable in Parisian stores. Bien is a place I do like to go, they have a nice selection of gluten-free products from organic and allergen-free brands like the German Schintzer and a newly French one that I just discovered “La Pierre qui tourne” - you can read more about it in a new solo post. Here there are some snacks that I love from Schnitzer, the Canihua one is my favorite, this little dark seed from South America is naturally gluten-free, full of protein and antioxidant. And I also discovered PPURE, an Italian brand of organic, gluten-free pasta made of corn and eggs, and drawn in bronze as all best …

Chambelland, Paris

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Every time I go the this lovely artisan bakery in Paris, Chambelland, dedicated exclusively to gluten-free, I take the rue Oberkampf and I can’t but remember the words of Jean Genet when he describes this street in the book “L’atelier d’Alberto Giacometti” : “Giacometti et moi - et quelques Parisiens sans doute - nous savons qu’il existe à Paris, où elle a sa demure, une personne d’une grande élégance, fine, haute, à pic, singulière et grise - d’un gris très tendre - c’est la rue Oberkampf, qui, désinvolte, change de nom et s’appelle plus haut la rue de Ménilmontant. Belle comme une aiguille, elle monte jusqu’au ciel. (…)” * … I let you discover how it goes if you read the book, it is completely worth it… …As it is completely worth it walking into this bakery and pastry shop all together, and splurge in a wide choice of gluten-free fresh bread, focaccia, tarts, cakes, cookies, brownies, muffins, they are all delicious…well, as a regular customer, I have tested almost all of them, so I can tell ;-). Chambelland is the story of Thomas and Nathaniel …

Gay-Odin, Naples

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Gay-Odin is the story of a chocolate factory that opened in Naples in the late 19th century. Yesterday, in the Chiaia district, the most exclusive area of the city, amongst the tailors and coffee, a new scent began to emerge: chocolate and Neapolitan people were delighted to discover it. Today you can be still delighted to enter one of the many Gay-Odin chocolate stores spread around the city and indulge in its many creations. The chocolate is selected from the finest cocoa beans coming from Central America - Venezuela and Ecuador - and equatorial Africa. Here it’s me opening a beautiful and precious chocolate box by Gay-Odin that was given to my father as a gift. It depicts an ancient painting of the city of Naples. I love it! As you know, chocolate is naturally gluten-free, I am celiac and I felt ok in eating it but if you are really allergic to gluten I would suggest you ask the vendors before you buy it to be sure that there are no cross-contaminations. pS in summer they make wonderful ice-creams with …

Power to Food

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Today I was walking in Via San Michele del Carso in Milan and my attention was caught by an organic supermarket, Superpolo, and I couldn’t resist in entering … Actually I am drawn to supermarkets, I can’t say why but I could spend hours wandering among their shelves, full of so many products to see and to discover… and this time, I found Inspiral, an English brand, that is organic, vegan and gluten-free, with beautiful packaging offering a wide range of raw, yummy and healthy snacks! So no excuses for me not buying and trying them ;-) I had the crispy purple corn kale chips coated with a cheesy-tasting cashew sauce, the green kale leaves are air-dried not fried, that is good to know ;-), and it is also said that purple corn is very good for our health. Below the Loveberry superbites, light, yet super tasty, basically delicious. Oh, don’t forget kale chips coated with beetroot and acerola, a real health booster! And their packs are compostable and eco friendly too, Inspiral does love the planet :-) Surfing on …