Coeliac Results and Possible Fructose Malabsorption

This is probably boring for some of you so feel free to skip over this post but I might be helpful for anyone else struggling with the complex coeliac testing or even for just for me to get a better handle on it..

• So first I tested positive to the coeliac antibodies (200+)
• I then had negative biopsy which is considered by many to be the "gold standard" for diagnosing coeliac disease so typically that would be enough to say that I don't have coeliac disease since it means that my intestine looks like a normal intestine instead of a typical coeliac one. However it was negative for me but my specialist wasn't convinced so requested that I go gluten free for 6-8 weeks and re-test my coeliac antibodies and do the gene test.
• My coeliac antibody test did go down from the original 200+ to 90 after eating gluten free which suggested that reducing gluten was having an effect on the test. Although I don't know if that is a conventional way of testing, I haven't found anything about it online at least, so not sure how effective it is.
  
• I then tested positive to the following coeliac gene test HLA DQA1*05, and HLA DQB1*02 but not to DQb1*0302 (DQ8).
  

This is the confusing part. And this is my rough understanding from lots of googling:

• If you test negative to all of the gene tests then you don't have coeliac disease (which is what I was hoping for). But a positive test result does not automatically mean that you have coeliacs disease, although .90% of coeliac disease patients have both HLA DQA1*05, and HLA DQB1*02.
• So it looks like I might have coeliac disease but the negative biopsy doesn't make any sense. Although I've read on coeliac forums that sometimes people have negative biopsies and years later get tested and have positive results.

Today I went to see another specialist who suggested that I try the fructose free diet for a week to see if that helps because I'm still getting sick and I have noticed that sometimes it is after fruit. He also suggested that I return to eating gluten free so that I can have another biopsy. Although I still don't understand how a second biopsy would be different and I hate the idea of having another procedure so close to the previous one. I also had a bone density scan today because low bone density is common in untreated coeliacs.

I'm confused. I might try the fructose free diet first and then decide about returning to eating gluten and the second biopsy. Don't get me wrong, I would love to eat gluten again, but to start eating it only to stop again would be worse I think. It took me a while to adjust the first time around. Besides I've already got a new toaster, sifter etc and de-glutened my house.

My new fructose free diet means no fructose foods as well as other foods that are considered 'windy' so no:

1. apples, pears, mango, paw paw, watermelon, dates, figs, lychee, quince, persimmon nashi fruit
2. onions, leek, asparagus, artichokes
   
3. broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts, & legumes (due to their 'wind producing' rather than fructose content)
4. no dried fruit/fruit juice
5. no honey (or agave), sorbitol, mannitol & xylitol and sugar free gums

The specialist explained that if I do have fructose malabsorption issues it's not as strict as being coeliac so I would be able to include small amounts of fructose.

But how does a vegetarian survive for a week without the 'wind producing' legumes like chickpeas, lentils?

I might start the fructose free diet next week when I'm finished this week's food co-op box which included cabbage and broccoli.

Disco Beans Cafe and Art Space

My vegan friend from New Zealand is in town with his Swiss partner and his English/French speaking three-year-old daughter. A good excuse to eat out.

So K and I took them to Disco Beans Cafe and Art Space last night. The brightly coloured Japanese cafe has only been open for a week. It has a large communal table and some small tables. From what I remember, it was a sock shop and performance/gallery space.

The walls are covered with a colourful collage of Japanese and Chinese magazines

Be nice! We are new!

They do "home style Japanese food". You can pick from "Dream Bean Curry" (black bean pumpkin curry), Udon noodles, noodle soup, "Belly Plate", raw vegan strawberry frozen cheese cake (called "Strawberry Fields Forever"!!!) and a mochi sorta thing with aduki bean paste. You can choose the vegan or fishy version for most of their dishes. K was super excited that they could make most things gluten free.


The vegan rice noodle soup (gluten-free) is THE BOMB. I like the combination of black sesame, enoki mushroom, snap peas and seaweed. There are also some sliced tofu sheets, similar to the Inari sushi type, in the noodles. I couldn't pinpoint what is in the Shoyu style broth but it is very tasty and authentic.


The "Belly Plate" consisted of a mixture of rice, millet and quinoa, pan fried tofu with a miso-ish plum sauce, marinated mushrooms and a fresh salad with pickled cabbage.

The non-gluten-free version has a different sauce.

We all wanted to try the "Strawberry Fields Forever" but it was sold out. We decided to save room for CocoLoco and give the other desserts a miss.

Check out their Facebook page and threethousand's review.

Disco Beans
238 High St, Northcote
Open Wed-Sun noon-3pm and 5.30-9.30pm

On my walkman:
Yes I'm a Witch - Yoko Ono VS Cat Power, Jason Pierce, Le Tigre...etc

Revisting My Childhood

My father and his siblings grew up in a Public Housing Estate in Hong Kong called So Uk Estate (蘇屋邨). My late grandparents were still living there after my father & Co. married, moved out and had children. They knocked most of the buildings down because they are way too old and the 6 remaining buildings will go in 2012.

In the 80's/90's and maybe the early millennium, we often went back to So UK Estate to visit my grandparents and sometimes have dinner at Lily Chinese Restaurant (百合酒樓). The grand kids, who are all in their 20's/30's now, would sit around a special table and eat children-friendly food. My favourite were deep fried fish fillets with corn sauce, sweet and sour pork, Cantonese style steak fillets and lemon chicken.

I made lemon tofu chicken last week using the amazing Health Wise gluten free batter mix from Absolutely Gluten Free. K thinks it taste a lot like batter from fish and chip shops.

The tofu chicken part is damn simple:

- Cut tofu to bite size.
- Marinade the tofu in a bit of salt (and/or gluten free soy sauce), white pepper (I use black pepper), paprika and dried thyme.
- Dip them in the batter mix.
- Shallow-fry (or deep-fry) them!

With the Lemon sauce, I used this recipe from Christine's Recipe. It is a bi-lingual omni home cooking blog. Christine is a Chinese mum in Queensland.

When they are ready, pour the lemon sauce and serve!

I did the dish again, two big packs of tofu worth, at the gluten-free flour testing party at Cindy and Michael's home and five of us finished the whole thing in a blink of eye.

If you are too lazy to make the sauce, you can just sprinkle Chinese five spices or salt and pepper on it. Enjoy it with Cooper's Pale Ale or Gypsy Pear Cider. La Dolce Vita!

I also made the Cantonese Style Steak, combining different traditional omni recipes online.

What you need is two packs of tempeh.

- Halve tempeh lengthwise, then halve each half crosswise, then halve each portion crosswise again so you will get 8 thin "steak fillets".
- Boil them in water for 5 to 7mins.
- Marinade them in gluten-free few splashes of gluten-free soy sauce, a tablespoon of sugar, a dash of rice wine vinegar, some white/black pepper and few drops of seasame oil.
- In the mean time, slice 2 medium onions. Fry them but remove it from the pan/wok before they turn brown. Put it aside.
- Fry the tempeh til they are brown on both side.
- In the meantime, mix 2 tablespoons of Tomato Sauce and Spring Gully Gluten Free Worcestershire Sauce (vegan-safe and available at Coles), 1/2 tablespoon sugar and salt and dash of rice wine vinegar together in a bowl.
- Add cooked onions and sauce to the tempeh fillets and gently stir fry it on low/medium heat. Add in corn flour water mixture (1 tablespoon of corn flour with 4 tablespoons of water) and cook til the sauce thicken up.

Here you go:


On my walkman:
The North Wind Blew South by Philamore Lincoln

My fav cafe...

is Trippy Taco

I think it was my fav place before I went gluten free, but one I started eating gluten free my passion for it just grew and grew. It is really is an injustice that we haven't blogged about it yet, considering how much we eat there. Although, part of me didn't want more people going there, it's too busy as it is.

It's a small veg mexican cafe (although it did have a brief period of serving chicken) with about half dozen tables inside, and 2 small tables outside. It always seems to be packed, with a regular flow of take away customers too. So it might not be the best choice if you want food fast.


And what's not to like? It's cheap-ish, super vegan and gluten free friendly,tasty, kind of healthy, filling and there are board games to play with while you wait.

So what's g/f? The tacos, fries, nachos, and I think their quesadillas and possibly one other dish. Most of the dishes can be made vegan by replacing the cheese with cheezly.

I'm addicted to their tacos, with super yummy soft corn tortillas, the best tortillas I have tasted, yes better than mamasita in my opinion although Toby would disagree. You can choose from black bean or tofu fillings with the tacos and burritos. I generally get the black bean filling, because it's so rare to have a black bean option in Melbourne and also we don't have canned black beans in supermarkets here for some reason. But the tofu ones are just as delicious, with grilled spiced tofu. It comes with cheezly, avocado, lime, tomatoes and various forms of lettuce. For around $9.50 (with the cheezly surcharge) they really are good value for money and fill me up quite nicely.

When I'm feeling super hungry though, or just in the mood for fast food, I can't resist sharing their fries which are covered in salt and some sort of addictive spice combo, I can only pinpoint the obvious paprika and perhaps a tiny bit of chilli. They kind of remind me of nandos fries which are vegan but not g/f. Toby and I have tried replicating them at home but haven't managed to come close.
Toby however is a big eater, so generally orders the wheat based burrito. I've had it in pre g/f days and agree that's is more filling but flavour wise not as nice as the corn based tacos.

They also have a few vegan options for dessert like a sweet corn tamale but my latest obsession is going to Trippy for dinner and then getting a few take away choc peanut butter g/f cookies from las vegan cafe, which is only a few doors down. Both place are pretty close to vegan wares too, if you want to get some vegan shoes while you are in the area.

Fore more trippy reviews, check out here, here and here.

Trippy Taco
48a smith st
Collingwood
9415 7711

Rocky Road!!!!

When we got invited over to a friends place on sat night for dinner, I decided to bring along some dessert. My first thought was rocky road, I've been dreaming about it since the last potluck when we made rockyroad ice cream. I decided to follow this recipe, but made some tiny adjustments:

650grams (roughly) chocolate
1 packet of dandies marshmallows from radical grocery, chopped
1/4 cup desiccated coconut
200g turkish delights, chopped
1/2 peanuts (I used crushed peanuts but will use whole or half pieces next time)

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl while you melt the chocolate, and then add the melted chocolate and mix again. Put mixture into a lined slice pan and refrigerate for about an hour and then cut into squares.

It was tasty, quite rich and super easy to make. While I liked the texture of turkish delights, I think the flavour overpowered the marshmallows so next time I think I will substitute the Turkish delights for cranberries or cherries. If you are making them for someone who is g/f then make sure that the turkish delights are g/f, the ones from coles had wheat in them, but I found a pack at A1 bakery that was g/f and vegan.

By the way, I've decided to remove my name from this blog for work reasons.

Plush toppings are great but.....

Their g/f bases really are horrible. This was my second time trying the g/f bases. The texture is quite hard and cardboard like. I've tried g/f pizzas at eat pizza and nostralis and both have pretty good bases. I know that plush like nostralis don't make their own g/f bases, so I just want to point out there are better g/f vegan pizza bases out there plush. Please consider changing them, even if it costs more, I'm willing to pay a little more for a better base. It's such a shame because we are big fans of plush and think that their toppings are the most interesting.

This time we shared a garlic pizza, I love the simplicity of this pizza- cheezly, garlic, and parsley.

A tom yum pizza with tomato , mushrooms, capsicum, fried tofu, coriander and tom yum sauce, it's mild and tasty:


and tropical with pesto, pineapple, red onion ad fried tofu. I love the addition of pesto on a Hawaiian style pizza:

and my fav satay, with mushrooms, zucchini, satay sauce, red onion, and coriander. Satay sauce really does belong on pizza.

Plush Pizza
85 Burwood Rd
Hawthorn
9819 1188
www

Pressure Test Tempeh Stroganoff

As you might know, Kristy and I are big fans of Masterchef Australia. Although season 2 is way too melodramatic (Contestants can't stop bringing up unrelated personal stories and the three judges constantly try to make them cry) and lack of show stopping dishes, I still enjoy the show as I am passionate about food.

I saw the recipe card of the Pressure Test Beef Stroganoff at Master Chef's official supermarket and decided to make it for dinner. Conveniently, they sell Spring Gully Gluten Free Worcestershire Sauce which was labeled "suitable for vegans". The recipe ask for 500g piece of beef, so I grabbed two packs of 400g Simple Soy original Tempeh from Asian supermarket as my "core ingredient" (we doubled the recipe).

Kristy suggested Tastebook's Vegan Heavy Cream/Creme Fraiche Substitute recipe, which is basically Tofuttii Cream Cheese, soy milk and lemon juice.

vegan crème fraiche

Sweet paprika flour coated Tempeh

Browned

caramelizing sliced mushroom

I did a few sets of Russian Kettlebell Goblet Squat when the Stroganoff were simmering. Yes, I'm a hard living comrade.

no handmade fettuccine

The end product tasted very nice, even though I sort of burnt the tempeh and mushrooms. Matt Preston might say it is disgusting..........(insert Ad break) ....................ly delicious.

Talking about Master Chef Australia, ex-vegan ex-contestant Skye is selling some raw vegan sweet treat at the Northey St organic markets in Brisbane (check out her website). Marion and Adam (my favourite!) were both food bloggers. I still haven't got the time to read all of old entries but they both look very nice.

On My Turntable:
On Fire (Remastered LP) - Galaxie 500