The tour continues, this time I am back to where it all started. Home to the town where I grew up and have been hearing about a huge gluten free movement starting. Monroe is a cute town in the Hudson Valley about an hour from the city. Tons of farms, shopping, outdoor sports and great vineyards. Both places I visited have great on-line stores and totally worth checking out.
First stop, was Katz bakery. It is a gluten free and kosher bakery. The stuff is great with all fresh and high quality ingredients. It is a small business that started in someone’s basement and has blown up in to a nationwide distributor. Everyone that runs the place is super nice ad believe in what they do. It’s funny that a a great gluten free bakery would open up in the town I grew up in. They make the best gluten free donuts I have ever tried and they are only 180 calories. They also make a traditional Jewish dessert called rugelech that is like a flaky dough similar to philo dough with a sweet cinnamon or chocolate filling. When I was deployed in Iraq my mom sent me a huge box of her homemade ones and it is one of the many things I was worried I would never have again. Katz has a great on-line store and you can even get a free sample box shipped to you. Check the out at http://www.katzglutenfree.com/Katz_Assorted_Gluten_Free_Sample_Pack_p/kasp.htm
The next stop, I made was a tradition Italian specialty shop that I grew up on named Little Italy. My small home town does not have the Italian Market like we do here in the city but this is the best next thing. A family run shop making all the homemade Italian dished, salads, mozzarella cheese and much more. They even do some great catering and community work. Over the years two of the owners sons had friends that were gluten free so they started to sell gluten free product in the store. It became a hit and now they have one of the two five door fridge’s dedicated to gluten free products. They sell gluten free breads, pizza, pasta, chicken nuggets, homemade gluten free mozzarella sticks, eggplant parm and much more! They offer fresh made gluten free sandwiches using Boars Head Meat and homemade roast turkey and ham. I tried the ham and cheese which was wonderful. It’s hard to find quick gluten free eats in town so this place is truly a gem. This family cares about what they do and the community they are apart of. It shows in a everything they do and how they treat every customer. The best part is that they have an on-line store selling all the gluten free goodies. It is something special because they only sell the gluten free products that they approve and think are good. They recognize that gluten free food is always more expensive and they try hard to provide all product at a reasonable price which is hard to find on-line. Check it out at http://www.bestoflittleitaly.com/categories/Gluten-Free-Products/