Last week our crew got together for Chinese hot pot. Our Taiwan-born friend put out an amazing spread of protein and vegetables to cook in communal pots of broth arranged around the one kitchen that can accommodate us all. One pot of broth was allium-free; another was designated for no fish or seafood. (The vegetarians couldn’t make it.) All of the hot pot ingredients were gluten-free.
For my first go-round, I selected some lamb slices, a slice of tongue, and a piece of tripe. The tongue and lamb were excellent. I can’t say I enjoyed the tripe. Chewing it was akin to gnawing on a pencil eraser. Maybe I’d be more favorably disposed if the tripe were in a spicy bowl of menudo rather than on its own. Tomatoes, cumin, and chiles can mask a multitude of unpalatable food tastes and textures.
Our host, whose wife and two daughters have gluten issues, showed off a gluten-meter. He apparently got it via a Kickstarter campaign.The meter is about the size of a blood glucose monitor. You put a small sample of a food item in a capsule, insert the capsule in the meter, and in 3 minutes you know whether the item contains gluten. He tested the fish balls and confirmed that they contained no gluten. As with glucose meters, the gluten meter’s main cost is in the disposable test capsules. One could starve and go broke testing the menu items at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Other attendees brought assorted salads and desserts. Julian had suggested that I bring some mahogany-glazed chicken wings that he’d tried earlier in the week. They were good; however, a look at the bottle of hoisin sauce confirmed that the dish would not be gluten-free. So I cobbled together a fruit salad with pineapple, Cara Cara oranges, kiwi fruit, frozen peaches, and frozen pomegranate seeds. The salad provided a contrast to the umami overload of the hot pot.
Many of the known twenty-somethings and wish-they-were-still-twenty-somethings were in attendance. The conversations ranged from medical consultations to family fishing expeditions, with occasional furtive glances at the score of the University of Washington football game. As I said in my original Feeding Between the Lines post, the primary purpose of our gatherings is camaraderie. Good food is the (gluten-free) gravy.
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