Once upon a time, I could eat anything. I traveled the Valley of the Sun, nibbling here and there, happy in my gluten-filled world, blissful in my celiac-disease ignorance. I had many favorite dishes that I would return to again and again…

One of my earliest food memories — when I was probably 3 or 4 — was oatmeal at the hospital daycare where my mother would drop my sister and me on the way to her early morning nursing shift. I remember her scratchy-crisp starched white uniform, a disoriented bleary-eyed feeling,…

Sometimes you just have to get the real deal. Sometimes you just can’t take one more stand-in, substitute, sort-of-like, kinda-similar wheat-free thing. Sometimes, when you get the real deal, it’s even better than the wheaty version, and there is a sublime feeling of the pieces of the universe falling in…

My high school singing group, The Sounds of Young Hawaii, spent a month in Japan the summer of my senior year, and we ate sushi, chicken-feet soup and, for breakfast, a bowl of hot rice into which we cracked a raw egg and let it cook, then wrapped the concoction…

Gluten avoiders looking for pizza are like the undead, staggering around moaning, drooling, eyes darting from venue to venue, minds foggy with memories of pizzas past and just enough brain matter left to keep hope alive. After all, we’ve eaten pizza in Chicago, New York, and Italy, and we know…

First, a confession: I don’t really cook. Or, at least, I didn’t really cook until recently. Which isn’t really accurate, either. I can cook, and I have cooked. It’s just that my mother is a great cook, so I didn’t really feel the need to learn, and my husband is…

Sometimes, when a friend invites you to dinner, you just want to say yes, without going into a long explanation of all the gluten-y things you can’t eat. You want to go back to that innocent, carefree, ignorant time when you had no idea you had to be careful about…

In a tiny corner of my mind lives a memory of total peace. A timeless golden glow where my parents are young and happy and laughing with their friends, drinks in hand as they sit outside next to the water, and my sister and I and an army of other…

It’s an interesting phenomenon when you tell people you are a gluten-free eater. Most of them think it’s a choice, and that you’re a “healthy” eater, focused on nutrition. They picture greens, nuts and berries. Well … not necessarily. See also: – Chompie’s Gluten-Free Bagels and Memories of Fifth Avenue…

The search for a bagel that lives up to New York’s finest is universal for everyone outside The Big Apple. For those of us who eat gluten-free, it’s a lost cause. We’ve already gone through Kubler-Ross’ five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and, finally, acceptance. But we have…

OK. Last week, I learned a lesson in jumping to gluten-free conclusions about a place. When I went to AZ88 The Bar on the Scottsdale Mall with a group of some of my favorite women, and when the waitress fessed up to having no gluten-free beer, I was ready to…

Since going gluten-free, I have developed a fear of flying. Not the flying part, but the eating part. See also: – Mother’s Day in Phoenix: Moms Eat Gluten-Free at Tryst Café (with Bottomless Mimosas) – 10 Cool Things at the Gluten-Free Expo Frankly, the whole gluten-free thing can make you…

I can’t decide what I’ll have for my Mother’s Day brunch, but I know where I’ll be. See also: – Ted’s Hot Dogs in Tempe Now Offers Gluten-Free Buns. Rejoice! I’ve already made my reservation for Tryst Café, which uses local, organic ingredients. They’re having a promotion for Mother’s Day…

Okay. The expo was crowded, the lines were long, and people always seem to lose their sense of dignity when there are free samples of anything. But there was a lot to be happy about at the 2013 Phoenix Gluten-Free Expo held over the weekend at the DoubleTree Resort in…

Ted’s Hot Dogs in Tempe has reached near perfection. It now offers gluten-free buns. When I found out last week, it made me scream with joy, as in, “No way. NO WAY. Are you kidding? Oh, my God. Can we go there now?” We happened to be at brunch for…

When I was in junior high, my family moved to Hawaii, and I was enrolled in a school where I was often the only white student in my classes. At lunch, I would play cards — Hearts mostly — with a group of Japanese girls who took pity on the…

Just because you need to eat gluten-free, doesn’t mean you have to skip Passover at your Bubbe’s. Manischewitz, the world’s largest matzo manufacturer, has a new line of gluten-free products just in time for the holiday. Manischewitz was founded by Rabbi Dov Behr Manischewitz in 1888 in a small Cincinnati,…

Waffles. Belgian waffles. Crisp. Hot. With melted butter and warm maple syrup. Sunday brunch is just one of the regular food happenings at my mother’s house, and it’s all about the waffles. But going gluten-free meant waffle changes for me. See also: – Don’t Call Judy Nichols Names; She Knows…

What, you say? You’re gluten-free? Well, come sit by Judy Nichols, author of Chow Bella’s newest weekly column, “Gluten for Punishment.” If you have suggestions or questions, leave them for her in our comments section. Enjoy. Don’t hate me because I’m gluten-free. It’s not by choice; it’s by diagnosis. About…

Chow Bella has a valentine for you. For the rest of February, we’re handing out Candy Hearts — stories of food and love from some of our favorite writers. Enjoy. When I met my husband, Tom, in grad school in Tucson, he was cooking on a two-burner hotplate in his…

Ah, the holidays. Christmas is all about love, sharing, sweetness and light — and keeping the antacids handy. In keeping with the spirit of the season, Chow Bella presents “Eating Christmas,” in which some of our favorite writers nosh on the real lessons we learn this time of year. Today,…