One of the most challenging things about eating and living gluten-free in Shanghai / China is being able to find the right ingredients for all the gluten-free recipes.
Not all products have ingredient labels. - Most ingredients are written in Chinese.
- Translations are not always consistent or precise. MSG has many different names. Starch in Chinese is ?? and it’s not clear whether it’s wheat, potato, tapioca, or other starch. There’s only one word for flour (??) and that could be wheat, rye, rice, or other flours.
- Manufacturers might include only the main ingredients and leave out a few items.
- Local packaged foods don’t use special labels like kosher, gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, etc…
- No mention of whether the product was made in the the same equipment used to process other food items that are allergy-related.
- Imported items have the original English labels, but unfortunately, customs stuck the Chinese translation over the English version. The two don’t always match but you can’t read the English labels either.
- Import stores like City Shop and Pines are never consistent with what they carry. Today they’ll have gluten-free cereals and the next week, they won’t.
- Selections for non-allergenic, organic, and/or whole foods items are limited. Almost everything is processed.
- Most items don’t have the nutrition facts information.
What challenges have you faced when shopping for the right ingredients for your gluten-free or allergy-free recipes?
I bought a bunch of gluten-free recipe books from the U.S. last year, but haven’t had much time to experiment. This month with our ahyi back home in Sichuan, I’ve been spending more time in the kitchen. One frustrating aspect of cooking/baking gluten-free in China is not being able find the right ingredients. Most ingredients [...]
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The VitaMix comes with a variety of recipes ranging from appetizers, beverages, sauces, soups, salad dressings, and desserts.
There aren’t that many recipes that is completely Jason-friendly, meaning recipes using ingredients that Jason can eat. I went through the recipes to mark the ones that Jason can eat.
Today’s experiment was the chicken spread and [...]
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The other day I was looking for mayonnaise at Carrefour supermarket and couldn’t find regular plain mayonnaise. It seems as if all the mayonnaise sold in Shanghai/China are the sweetened kind packaged in plastic squeeze bottles. Kewpie seems to be a popular brand but whatever happened to regular plain mayonnaise sold in a jar without [...]
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The only choices for peanut butter at Carrefour in Shanghai are Skippy’s and cheap Chinese peanut butter, both full of sugar, hydrogenated oil, and even MSG! We buy organic peanut butter from Trader’s Joe whenever we visit the U.S. and bring them to China. Due to limited luggage space in addition to other food [...]
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Wow, it’s been almost two months since I lasted posted on this blog. Sorry for the long absence. Working full-time and preparing gluten-free meals every day has become such a chore that we hired a housekeeper, we call them "ahyis" in China, to help us with daily meals. Our ahyi cooks dinner and packs our [...]
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The other day, a friend shared about his experience making coconut macaroons and how simple they are to make. I can’t remember when was the last time I made coconut macaroons, probably when I was a kid helping out in the kitchen. So I decided to try making coconut macaroons. I went online to look [...]
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This recipe is taken from 125 Best Gluten-Free Recipes.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups rice flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup tapioca starch
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup cranberry juice
1/3 cup water
2/3 cup orange marmalade
1 tsp cider vinegar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup cranberries, fresh or frozen
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large bowl, stir together [...]
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