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Sammies and Wraps

Posted on July 31, 2011 | 1 comment

Now, doesn’t this look good? Well, it was. After trying the cupcakes and cookies at Sticky Fingers Bakery, I decided to give something savory a chance. Enter the Chick’n Ranch Wrap.

Chick'n Ranch Wrap

They didn’t have any gluten free bread when I went (boo), so I was relegated to the wrap section of the menu. And this was a great choice – really refreshing, and I kind of love the soy chick’n strips? I don’t usually go for fake meat, but the mix of the avocado, creamy dressing, and crisp lettuce just worked. The only downside is that it was pretty small (aka normal portion sized), and cost $8.50. Egads. It made me miss the humungo wraps from Terri in NYC that only cost $7.

I must find something that doesn’t fit into my hypothesis about DC food vs NYC food. Which is that everything is either A) half as good or B) twice as expensive or C) bland or D) A, B, and C all at once.

Not to hate on DC or anything. But, come on, it’s no New York City.

Case and point:the veggie burger from Java Green.

Java Green veggie burger

Looks okay, no? It was… just okay. Maybe it was an ordering fail on my part, but when they say “spicy burger sauce”, I expect a giant burger slathered in sauce, this was some kind of appropriately-sized health food? Also similarly, cost $7 and I ate it in about 30 seconds.

I had such high hopes for you, Java Green. At least they had an impressive selection of desserts to choose from provided by Sweet n’ Natural. Chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cake, something with blueberry frosting, and carrot cake – which I will always favor.

And it was good to the last bite. Not quite as good as the carrot cake sold at Mozarelli’s in NYC (can you tell that I’m a bit homesick for NYC these days?), bust still a great piece of cake.

At least the sandwich gave me enough fuel to get to the outdoor showing of West Side Story in Navy Yard. Oh yeah.

The dialogue in that movie is hilarious. At the most serious/heart-touching moments the entire crowd was roaring with laughter. Also after some initial Googling – I found this awesome spoof video “Web Site Story”… oh, the Internets.

1 Comment

Posted in Restuarant Reviews

Tagged bakery, cake, celiac disease, dc, Gluten-free, lunch, washington dc, wraps

How to not break gluten free wraps

Posted on June 14, 2011 | 2 comments

This question has actually come up twice in the last 48 hours, so I figured it must be something that people are wondering. I eat gluten free wraps a LOT – specifically the Food for Life brown rice tortillas. I dip them in hummus, fill them with tuna salad, and make them into quesadillas. When you get them from the frozen section of the grocery store, they are hard as a rock and sometimes covered in little ice crystals…not very appetizing. I usually break off half of one since they’re pretty large, and put the rest back for later.

So, here’s the magic trick to getting the wrap not to break when you use it…

Treat them like corn tortillas and use one of these two prep methods.

Method A:

Wet hands with water
Rub both sides of the tortilla
Put on a plate and microwave for 12 seconds
If it’s still a bit too wet, flip it over and add 5 seconds more

Method B:

Quickly run a paper towel under water
Mush it into a ball so the entire thing is a bit wet
Ring it out so the towel is just damp all over
Wrap tortilla in paper towel
Microwave for 15 seconds

If you use one of those two methods, the wrap will definitely not break on you. Now, it isn’t going to stay totally moist and wonderful forever. But it will definitely stay like that for your meal. If I’m packing one for lunch, I try to put a layer of hummus on it in the morning (then fill with whatever you want), which seems to keep it moist until lunch.

Hope that helps!