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Dear listmates,

I left some restaurant reviews on tripadvisor.com, but I also want to share some experiences with this list & archive. I note Dimitrios wrote this week about his great time in Spain also! 

I’m a biopsy diagnosed celiac. Overall, my experience confirmed the testimony of bloggers I had consulted that restaurants in Spain as a whole are much more aware of gluten in the diet than those in Portugal.

And at all price ranges, the food I ate was delicious and a great value this summer with the strong dollar. I sought out some recommended places for celiacs, and discovered others on my own.

Make your needs known (“Yo soy celiaco.”) and be prudent. Ask for any naturally GF tapas - Although we usually vetted the menu before taking a table, there was always something available for me when our party of 3-6 adults stopped for a drink and snack. I really enjoyed the olives, cheese, chorizos and ham. 

In the heart of Madrid night-life, gluten-free tapas w/ GF bread were advertised and served at Taberna La Concha (Calle Cava Baja, #7, a block from where our daughter was living!). 
The Spanish tortilla (olive oil, potato, egg, and sometimes onion and more) is a reliable go-to GF menu item, I returned for a second and third time to eat the amazing goat cheese and caramelized onion tortilla at El Buo (Calle Humilladero, 4), by the Mercado de la Cebada at La Latina metro station. 
Upstairs at the Mercado San Anton, La Cocina de San Anton (Calle de Augusto Figueroa, 24) served me a bakery-wrapped GF dinner roll with salad and choice of several GF entrees.
We tried three different GF paellas at family-run El Arrozal, (Calle de Segovia, 13), where GF bread was also served. The large professional poster about preparing GF food that I happened to see in the kitchen when I walked back to the restrooms reinforced the good reviews this place has in the celiac community.

In Granada, our stomachs were growling by the time we strolled down Calle Navas, a pedestrian street lined with restaurants. Greeters eagerly gestured their welcome, but the winner was the man at La Chicota who answered my “Yo soy celiaco!” with a menu that had common allergens all marked with icons. The server he sat us with spoke no english, but they both confirmed my choices with the kitchen staff.

In Sevilla, the waiter at Soravito (Calle Valparaíso, 13, near Plaza dec España), was a bit snooty to start, but we won him over, had a better chat about GF in English with the bartender, and amazing fish tapas and entrees.
The next day, GF lunch tapas with my own portion of GF bread was found in the tiny Bar Alfalfa (Calle Candilejo, 1), just a short walk from the best GF gelato we had at Bolas Helados Artesanos
(Cuesta del Rosario, 1). 
After a flamenco show, we had a fine GF dinner with notable beetroot soup at Arte y Sabor (Alameda de Hercules, 85), a restaurant that also highlights vegetarian and vegan dishes. 

In Barcelona, one notable find was the sandwich shop Conesa (Carrer de la Llibreteria, 1, on the Plaça Sant Jaume). As I waited in line, I could see the entire tiny kitchen, and noted the gluten-free prep area and dedicated panini grill even before I ordered from the GF menu. Wow! Entrepà like a real Catalan! Served hot and wrapped to keep it uncontaminated, with a GF sticker on the paper. And right behind Conesa is the GaelicBCN Bar, where my family got lunch and I was welcome to eat my GF sandwich while downing a few of their gluten-free SCHNITZER BRAU (German beer from millet)!

The most unusual GF dish to die for was the (also vegan) eggplant “tapuy" at Patxoca (Carrer Mercaders, 28, Barcelona) - broiled in olive oil eggplant, finished with a glaze of brown sugar and served under a heaping portion of seaweed tossed like pasta with a tahini dressing. 

And while in Barcelona, don’t forget to have a GF Creme de Catalana for desert, without the cookie garnish!

In Lisbon, Portugal, we had a top notch, fine-dining experience at the Ad Lib restaurant (Avenida da Liberdade, 127, in the Hotel Sofitel). I had a lobster salad and GF beetroot risotto with broiled brie. We were served assorted salad tapas, courtesy of the chef, and I was served my own unopened package of Schar’s deli bread, with enough leftover for two sandwiches the next day.  Dinner for four including drinks, dessert and tip was $180 at the current exchange rate! 

I did get glutened once, when I should have “gone with my gut” and not my late-night hunger when I trusted the effusive staff at Theophilus, a waterfront cafe two doors east of the Sandeman port house in Porto, Portugal. The deep-fried fish filet was either NOT the only thing fried in that oil, or had in fact been lightly dredged in wheat flour. Grrr. It did have an ever-so-light crispiness on the surface… They had assured me and my iPhone’s Translate app that only fish went into the oil, nothing more. Thankfully, I did not lose my dinner as usual, but I did have an hour of feverish sweating and nausea-on-the-verge in the middle of the night, and then a familiar mental fog and emotional sensitivity for a day or two… Did the GlutenEase pill that I took before every restaurant meal help? Can’t say, and I’m not volunteering for a controlled study…

I’m a good home cook, but I miss the food we had in Iberia already!

Jack

* Please remember some posters may be WHEAT-FREE, but not GLUTEN-FREE *
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