Gluten Freebird

I trekked up to New York for work this week. New York may be hot, busy, and gritty, but it’s also a gluten-free mecca. I started plotting my meal plan ages ago and boy did it work out nicely.

Gluteneer and I finished up the cleanse with a rocking gluttonous affair on Friday night. There was foie, wine and a whole lot more, so it meant that I could head to Manhattan ready to eat anything.

I’ve often fantasized about my first meal if I magically found out that I could eat gluten. I wouldn’t radically alter my diet (I like the more protein-focused meal plan), but I would head straight to Chinatown for dim sum, Peking duck, potstickers and lots of breaded, fried goodness.

I typically opt not to go for Chinese in D.C. It’s steamed chicken and veggies, sauce on the side. No thanks. I prefer to remember old friends like General Tso, Ma La and Kung Pao.

So, I decided to look for gluten-free versions of those delights in New York.

Joy!

I found delight in Lilli and Loo, a gluten-minded Chinese restaurant just up from Bloomie’s on Lexington. The restaurant offers an extensive pan-Asian menu with gluten-free items that included kung pao chicken, pork dumplings, noodles, and tempura. In a seemingly novel step (sarcasm), the restaurant cooks with gluten-free soy sauce, so the same flavors can be emulated without tainting the food. (Restaurant owners, take note: You could make many gluten-free diners happy by doing the same.)

On a menu of lettuce-wrapped chicken, kalbi beef, shortribs, and curry, it was hard to narrow down my choices, but I ended up ordering steamed pork potstickers and Borneo orange chicken (white meat) with brown rice.

The potstickers were a bit of a disappointment. The texture was thick and gummy, tough to chew especially as they cooled. I ended up cutting into the filling and leaving the casings behind. Happily, they came with gluten-free dumpling sauce.

The orange chicken was a delight. Moist chicken breaded, fried, and served in a spicy, tangy sauce, I thought I’d gone back to gluten. Sure, the sauce had gnarly bits of orange rind, but it also had crunchy scallions, broccoli and a portion large enough to feed me for three meals.

Next time, I’m hoping for a date with a certain gluten-free General.