Gluten Freebird

First, huge congrats to Eric Ziebold of Freebird favorite CityZen for his James Beard Award.

I am out in L.A. burning some color into my pale complexion and scoping the gluten-free scene. Surprisingly, the celiac awareness hasn’t hit a lot of L.A. yet.

Let me explain Top Tastes. I want this feature to round up the best dishes and specials from the prior week. It’ll showcase restaurant specials so that you know what to order if you happen to head to the same restaurants. This week is a mix of L.A. and D.C.

I’ve stopped into a few cupcake shops (Yummy Cupcake and Vanilla Bakeshop) to find out about gluten-free offerings, but they haven’t caught on. Working on ‘em, though.

The grilled fava beans, served in the pod, at Literati II in Brentwood are probably the most novel thing I’ve eaten. The pods are grilled and topped with shavings of cheese. You can eat them in the casings, though apparently some people eat the pod as well.

The cajun soft shells at The Ivy are unbeatable. They are quite honestly the best soft shells in the world. They are crisped, juicy, spicy and can be done without the light flour coating.

I love tart creaminess of crème fraiche ice cream, so my scoop of tangy crème fraiche was tops, but if we’re going for tang, I have to give thumbs up to the new yogurt shop TangySweet in Dupont, which is the perfect heat-buster (get it with raspberries).

For the sake of comparison, I also had SweetGreen’s Sweetflow last week, which is a bit less creamy, but still delicious. I love that you can order unlimited toppings for no additional cost.