Heading to Beijing for a few months to do an environmental law internship. Great firewall = shoddy internet access = no blog updates for a while. From China all the way back to the gluten-free world: hope everybody has a great summer.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Life at NYU Law » International Food Festival
(Originally posted on March 8, 2012 at Life at NYU Law » International Food Festival)
The beginning of the spring semester has proven to be a surprisingly challenging period of 1L year. For one, the “fear-adrenaline” that was steadily pumping through my veins first semester has run dry. More or less knowing what to expect the second time around, I find it can be difficult to muster the desire to thoroughly read that 10-page dissenting opinion at 1:00 in the morning on a sleep-deprived weeknight. To make matters worse, six weeks of wining and dining at various law firms’ 1L receptions briefly tricked me into thinking I’d already been hired for some cushy job. Even the Belgium Waffles coffee shop around the corner that I single-handedly kept in business for much of last semester… is now out of business.
So what does one turn to during these trying times?
Extracurricular activities. Frequent list-serve updates are a welcome distraction on long library nights, and every now and then, amid the 1,436 solicitations for apartment sublets on Coase’s List, there’s an invitation to one of the various student groups’ eye-opening events. Or, in the case of last week’s International Food Festival, mouth-watering.
Last Thursday, NYU Law’s International Law Society, SBA, and Asia Law Society came together to sponsor the annual event, with support from IAA, Law Women, SALDF, PORTMANTEAU, LSHR, ALA, and MELSA. That’s some serious acronym firepower. Hundreds of students (and even some admitted students) congregated in Vanderbilt Hall’s Golding Lounge to sample delicacies from around the globe. All of the event’s proceeds were donated to the World Food Programme, the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger.
I sampled Nigerian coconut candy, Iranian ghormeh sabzi, and Ethiopian alicha and shiro. I gawked at no fewer than seven different varieties of French cheese. I noshed on a German vegetarian casserole curiously named Westphalian blind hen. And I avoided gluten like the plague.
Once I was nearly food-comatose, I returned to my apartment with newfound vigor to finish re-reading that 10-page dissenting opinion. Just kidding… I made that part up. That sounded like the proper ending though, right? But ultimately, even if events like the International Food Festival (and Saturday’s LaLSA Ball, while we’re at it) haven’t directly motivated me to do more work, they have certainly been welcome distractions along the way. Extremely delicious distractions.
The beginning of the spring semester has proven to be a surprisingly challenging period of 1L year. For one, the “fear-adrenaline” that was steadily pumping through my veins first semester has run dry. More or less knowing what to expect the second time around, I find it can be difficult to muster the desire to thoroughly read that 10-page dissenting opinion at 1:00 in the morning on a sleep-deprived weeknight. To make matters worse, six weeks of wining and dining at various law firms’ 1L receptions briefly tricked me into thinking I’d already been hired for some cushy job. Even the Belgium Waffles coffee shop around the corner that I single-handedly kept in business for much of last semester… is now out of business.
So what does one turn to during these trying times?
Extracurricular activities. Frequent list-serve updates are a welcome distraction on long library nights, and every now and then, amid the 1,436 solicitations for apartment sublets on Coase’s List, there’s an invitation to one of the various student groups’ eye-opening events. Or, in the case of last week’s International Food Festival, mouth-watering.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
United Airlines Inexplicably Stops Offering GF Meals
This puzzles me. While the rest of the world is becoming more receptive and aware of celiac disease and the increasingly high demand for gluten-free products, United Airlines is apparently committed to returning to the ignorant days of the past.
On Friday, I'll be flying to Beijing for a week. I had booked my flight about a month ago through Continental Airlines, fully aware that the airline was soon merging with United, but not concerned because I had flown with both before, and had never had a problem requesting gluten-free meals aboard either of their flights. But today, when I called United Airlines to confirm my special meal, I was rebuffed. After patiently waiting for roughly an hour and a half as an automated voice told me about how wonderful the airline is, I finally got through to a customer service agent who informed me that the newly merged airline has made a decision to stop offering gluten-free meals on ANY flights. So Continental offered GF meals... United offered GF meals... but now with the merger, Continental + United = No GF meals? Uhh... why?
It is clearly a decision to cut costs, with no consideration of customers whatsoever. I'm generally not one to use this (or any other) platform to vent against a corporation, but this really pisses me off. The best explanation that the customer service representative and his supervisor could offer me was that special meals need to be ordered in "bulk," and that in their minds, the demands of "one customer" didn't justify offering gluten-free meals on their flights in the future. One customer? Really?
Ultimately, I will bring my own food for my 14-hour flight this Friday, and I'm sure it will taste better than the sub-par GF meals that the airline would have offered me, anyway. But that's not the point. When a corporation makes an economic decision to exclude sufferers of a medical condition from the selected customers that it chooses to cater to, that company's name needs to be smeared. And those excluded sufferers need to tell United Airlines about how they feel until the corporation changes its new anti-celiac policy. I'll be the first one: Dear United Airlines, I may be just "one customer", but I am not the only one who your boneheaded decision will drive away from any and all future business. As a newly merged international corporation, you're doing a great job of showing your loyal customers just how you feel about them. Thank you for not caring.
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| GF Meals? Not on United. |
It is clearly a decision to cut costs, with no consideration of customers whatsoever. I'm generally not one to use this (or any other) platform to vent against a corporation, but this really pisses me off. The best explanation that the customer service representative and his supervisor could offer me was that special meals need to be ordered in "bulk," and that in their minds, the demands of "one customer" didn't justify offering gluten-free meals on their flights in the future. One customer? Really?
Ultimately, I will bring my own food for my 14-hour flight this Friday, and I'm sure it will taste better than the sub-par GF meals that the airline would have offered me, anyway. But that's not the point. When a corporation makes an economic decision to exclude sufferers of a medical condition from the selected customers that it chooses to cater to, that company's name needs to be smeared. And those excluded sufferers need to tell United Airlines about how they feel until the corporation changes its new anti-celiac policy. I'll be the first one: Dear United Airlines, I may be just "one customer", but I am not the only one who your boneheaded decision will drive away from any and all future business. As a newly merged international corporation, you're doing a great job of showing your loyal customers just how you feel about them. Thank you for not caring.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Dish Freely iPhone App Now Available
If you live in the NYC area, eating gluten-free just became even easier. Earlier tonight I stopped by the launch party for Dish Freely, the new Yelp-like food and restaurant finder created solely for the gluten-free community. I enjoyed some free Bard's Tale GF Beer and Krumville artisan GF baked goods while learning about Dish Freely from its creators: David, Luke, and Roger.
In addition to finally forcing me to update my iPhone to iOS5, Dish Freely seems like it will be a useful tool. You can search either by dish or by restaurant, and can search for what's new, nearby or top-rated. The content is all community-created, meaning that as more gluten-free eaters use the app, the number of gluten-free options in the database will only continue to grow. Definitely a promising idea - there's a glaring lack of quality iPhone apps out there to assist gluten-free diners. In the past I've installed GlutenFreeFinder and iEatOut but neither app can identify both restaurants and dishes, and neither allows users to add content in the way that Dish Freely does. Also I am sure other celiacs can attest to the struggle of sifting through Yelp reviews in the hopes of finding the magic words *gluten-free*... no more.You can click here to download the app. NYC was already the center of the gluten-free universe, and now there's an iPhone app to help confirm that.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Life at NYU Law » Assessing Damages
(Originally posted at Life at NYU Law » Assessing Damages)
Before I began law school, friends who had already gone through 1L year told me that I needed to treat it like having a full-time job. Even if I were out of class at noon, they cautioned, I should probably be studying for the rest of the day, as if I were on the clock for an employer. Now I can appreciate the analogy; during the months of November and December my classmates and I have been putting in some serious overtime. After both my Contracts and Torts classes culminated in the final weeks with sections on “damages,” it’s only appropriate that I reflect back on the semester and, well, assess the damage.
1. I read a lot.
I was assigned more reading in my first semester than I was during four years of undergraduate study. And unlike in undergrad, I was actually required to read most of it.
2. I highlighted… a lot.
For most of my life I assumed that a highlighter was an infinite entity: I never imagined using one to its limits. But now? I don’t think I have ever been so wrong about anything. At the very least, I have done my part to keep BIC and Sharpie in business.
3. My fears were (mostly) misplaced.
The thing I feared the most coming into law school was the infamous “Socratic Method.” Reading Scott Turow’s One L over the summer had me terrified about some grizzled legal scholar making a mockery of me in front of my peers as he methodically dissected my subpar preparation. Once classes began, my anticipation grew as a few unlucky classmates were the first to be cold-called.
It finally happened when I least expected it. During the fourth week of classes, I took my assigned seat near the back just a minute before my 9:00 a.m. Contracts lecture. I was still yawning and patiently waiting for my coffee to kick in when my professor walked to his lectern at the front of the class. The first words out of his mouth were, “So, Dan, let’s talk about Evertite.” If the caffeine had been failing me, adrenaline had no trouble taking the reins. Before I’d even managed to open my casebook to the correct page, the interrogation began. Luckily, I had read the case the night before and was prepared. For the next 50 minutes I answered a barrage of questions, only being afforded a few chances to collect my thoughts when other students volunteered answers.
But before I knew it, my professor announced our 10-minute break, and I was released from further questioning. Ultimately I realized that being the target of the “Socratic Method” was not so horrible after all. Over the entire semester, I sat through 84 lectures and was subjected to just a handful of harmless “cold-calls.” Certainly not what I had imagined, although I will never forget that first time.
4. Exam period was as draining as advertised…
Over the course of the last several weeks, I easily spent twice as much time in class or studying than I did doing the things suddenly much lower on my list of priorities, like sleeping and eating meals. Down the stretch, I inevitably neglected friends and family in my life. And I admittedly have little idea about what’s been happening in the world outside of the triangle between D’Agostino Hall, Vanderbilt Law Library, and the Belgium Waffles coffee shop on 3rd Street that refilled my IV drip with caffeine every so often.
5. …but the camaraderie helped.
It was comforting to have classmates going through the same thing as the workload intensified. I appreciated being surrounded by people who were just as busy as I was, if only so I felt less horrible about spending a Friday night struggling to teach myself Civil Procedure. Having said that, I knew things were bad when I found myself silently nodding “Hello” to suddenly familiar faces around the library, despite the fact I had never seen many of them outside of the building.
6. It feels good to be done.
And that is the understatement of the year. At times it was difficult to remind myself that there was an end to the madness as I went through the motions of preparing for and taking exams. But upon finishing my last one, I did not feel the instant elation I had expected. After emerging from three hours of furious typing I was more frazzled than anything; it took me a few hours to decompress. It did not hit me that I was actually done until I woke up the next morning without a full day of craning my neck over my books ahead of me, without any assignments to stay on top off, and without any more exams looming. The moment almost made the struggle feel worth it… almost.
Many congratulations to all of my fellow first-year students for making it through the fall semester. It began with an earthquake, and there were definitely a few rough patches along the way. But as far as I know, all of us survived. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to go into hibernation for three weeks. See you next semester.
Before I began law school, friends who had already gone through 1L year told me that I needed to treat it like having a full-time job. Even if I were out of class at noon, they cautioned, I should probably be studying for the rest of the day, as if I were on the clock for an employer. Now I can appreciate the analogy; during the months of November and December my classmates and I have been putting in some serious overtime. After both my Contracts and Torts classes culminated in the final weeks with sections on “damages,” it’s only appropriate that I reflect back on the semester and, well, assess the damage.
1. I read a lot.
I was assigned more reading in my first semester than I was during four years of undergraduate study. And unlike in undergrad, I was actually required to read most of it.
2. I highlighted… a lot.
For most of my life I assumed that a highlighter was an infinite entity: I never imagined using one to its limits. But now? I don’t think I have ever been so wrong about anything. At the very least, I have done my part to keep BIC and Sharpie in business.
The thing I feared the most coming into law school was the infamous “Socratic Method.” Reading Scott Turow’s One L over the summer had me terrified about some grizzled legal scholar making a mockery of me in front of my peers as he methodically dissected my subpar preparation. Once classes began, my anticipation grew as a few unlucky classmates were the first to be cold-called.
It finally happened when I least expected it. During the fourth week of classes, I took my assigned seat near the back just a minute before my 9:00 a.m. Contracts lecture. I was still yawning and patiently waiting for my coffee to kick in when my professor walked to his lectern at the front of the class. The first words out of his mouth were, “So, Dan, let’s talk about Evertite.” If the caffeine had been failing me, adrenaline had no trouble taking the reins. Before I’d even managed to open my casebook to the correct page, the interrogation began. Luckily, I had read the case the night before and was prepared. For the next 50 minutes I answered a barrage of questions, only being afforded a few chances to collect my thoughts when other students volunteered answers.
But before I knew it, my professor announced our 10-minute break, and I was released from further questioning. Ultimately I realized that being the target of the “Socratic Method” was not so horrible after all. Over the entire semester, I sat through 84 lectures and was subjected to just a handful of harmless “cold-calls.” Certainly not what I had imagined, although I will never forget that first time.
4. Exam period was as draining as advertised…
Over the course of the last several weeks, I easily spent twice as much time in class or studying than I did doing the things suddenly much lower on my list of priorities, like sleeping and eating meals. Down the stretch, I inevitably neglected friends and family in my life. And I admittedly have little idea about what’s been happening in the world outside of the triangle between D’Agostino Hall, Vanderbilt Law Library, and the Belgium Waffles coffee shop on 3rd Street that refilled my IV drip with caffeine every so often.
5. …but the camaraderie helped.
It was comforting to have classmates going through the same thing as the workload intensified. I appreciated being surrounded by people who were just as busy as I was, if only so I felt less horrible about spending a Friday night struggling to teach myself Civil Procedure. Having said that, I knew things were bad when I found myself silently nodding “Hello” to suddenly familiar faces around the library, despite the fact I had never seen many of them outside of the building.
6. It feels good to be done.
And that is the understatement of the year. At times it was difficult to remind myself that there was an end to the madness as I went through the motions of preparing for and taking exams. But upon finishing my last one, I did not feel the instant elation I had expected. After emerging from three hours of furious typing I was more frazzled than anything; it took me a few hours to decompress. It did not hit me that I was actually done until I woke up the next morning without a full day of craning my neck over my books ahead of me, without any assignments to stay on top off, and without any more exams looming. The moment almost made the struggle feel worth it… almost.
Many congratulations to all of my fellow first-year students for making it through the fall semester. It began with an earthquake, and there were definitely a few rough patches along the way. But as far as I know, all of us survived. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to go into hibernation for three weeks. See you next semester.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Gluten-Free Hawaii: Oahu & Big Island
Long time no update - I blame law school. The increased workload thoroughly consumed me in November and December and the only real gluten-free travel I did amounted to a staggering number of round-trips between my apartment and the library. But with nearly a month-long winter vacation at hand I'm doing what I can to change that.
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| Waikiki Beach on Oahu |
In the past I have been to some of the most exotic islands in the world, but until last week I had never even visited the best in my own country: Hawaii. I'd read some accounts of travelers' experiences staying gluten-free on the islands and knew it was possible. But during my vacation I spent time all over Oahu and Hawaii's Big Island and was amazed both by the level of gluten-awareness nearly everywhere I went as well as by the amount of gluten-free foods to be found in local Hawaiian cuisine. And with the heavy Asian influence on the islands, safe options are readily available at numerous Thai and Vietnamese restaurants.
Eating Gluten-Free on Oahu:
My trip started and ended in Oahu. The Waikiki area is tourist-friendly enough that the servers at most every restaurant I visited had knowledge of the gluten-containing foods within the menus and could make alterations as needed. P.F. Chang’s may be the most gluten-free friendly chain restaurant on earth, and the Waikiki location is no exception. Although my server did admit that I was the first person to ever order a gluten-free lunch special on his watch. This had me thinking that Honolulu lacked celiacs…
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| Gluten-free vegetarian burrito |
…until I discovered Ruffage Natural Foods. Oddly enough I found this hole in the wall by yelping “sushi”, which as it turns out they don’t even sell. But the Yelp gods clearly meant for me to discover Ruffage one way or another. Ruffage is a vendor of many health food groceries and also freshly prepared vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free lunches, dinners, and smoothies. Extremely-knowledgeable-guy-behind-the-counter walked me through all of my options, which ranged from sandwiches on gluten-free bread, to Japanese fusion rice bowls, to Mexican inspired platters. I immediately became a regular at Ruffage for the rest of my stay after I tried the veggie chili burrito on a gluten-free corn tortilla. Another brilliant concept: at your request, Ruffage will even prepare sandwiches for flights by separately wrapping the bread and the fillings. The turkey-avocado sandwich may have been the best meal I've ever had at 30,000 feet. The owners have another location a few blocks away at Veggie Star Natural Foods with essentially the same menu. |
| Kalua Pig |
Ono Hawaiian Foods near Waikiki also had great authentic local options. I'll cover Hawaiian cuisine more thoroughly below, but here I had a combination plate that included delicious Kalua Pig. The gluten-free dish is prepared by smoking/steaming the salted meat over hot rocks and stuffed banana & ti leaves for hours before it is shredded and served. I avoided the Pipikaula and the Chinese Long Rice because each was prepared in soy sauce, but the server willingly made substitutions as I requested them.
Oahu's North Shore is known for big waves, beautiful beaches, and shrimp trucks. The Thai woman working the Famous Kahuku Shrimp Truck instantly understood my allergy and altered the garlic-butter shrimp preparation to avoid wheat flour. She sauteed my dish in a separate, clean pan and even gave me a second scoop of rice to replace the glutenous mac-salad that is normally part of the plate. |
| Garlic-butter shrimp & rice |
Alternatively I could have ordered cocktail style shrimp or a plate of steak and rice. Even if you are like me and would get ripped into small pieces if you ever attempted to surf, these shrimp alone make a drive up to the North Shore worthwhile.
Eating Gluten-Free on Hawaii's Big Island:
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| The Famous One Pound Lau Lau |
My first exposure to Hawaiian cuisine came on the Hilo side of the Big Island at Kuhio Grille, which is "Home of the Famous One Pound Lau Lau". What is a Lau Lau, you ask? Assuming some base knowledge, the menu offers "pork or chicken and beef with fish" wrapped in Taro leaves. Hmmm. The or/and/with thing killed me and I was boggled for a few minutes as I attempted to determine what the Lau Lau actually included. But fortunately I didn't have to recall any of my LSAT logic as the server informed me the only option that day was "pork beef and fish". Glad we got that cleared up. Just like the Kalua Pig, the ingredients used in Lau Lau are fairly simple and all gluten-free. As for the side-dishes, the Lomi Salmon and creamy Poi pudding were both safe, although I shied away from the Huapia coconut dessert because it was starchy and no one really seemed sure of the ingredients (I've now found it is usually cornstarch and may be safe after all).
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| Kilauea Volcano crater |
When I visited Volcanoes National Park, I ate at Cafe Ono in Kilauea Volcano Village. The cafe is kind of hard to find and is only open for lunch but has several gluten-free selections on their vegetarian menu, including chili, 4-cheese spinach quiche, Moroccan lentil soup, and various salads. The cafe is part of an interesting art gallery and there's a goat roaming in the bizarre garden outside which only adds to the experience in my opinion.
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| Impromptu GF Menu |
Also not too far from Volcano, in Pahoa, Ning's Thai Cuisine is a solid option.
The Kona side of the island was also well-equipped to handle the dietary needs of travelers, albeit in some unconventional ways. For one, the server at Rapanui Island Cafe brought out the "gluten-free menu", which was conveniently handwritten out on the back of the restaurant's business card. It is not exactly the most official authority (an item was crossed out - uhh, did they later realize it wasn't safe after some poor celiac ordered it?) but I appreciated the effort nonetheless.
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| Sesame Poke & Garlic Edamame |
One of my favorite dishes was another Hawaiian specialty, Poke, which is kind of like a sashimi salad. Da Poke Shack has great lunch bowls and plates with various safe options for seasonings and side dishes like edamame and seaweed. All of the food on display is prepared beforehand so there may be some concern about cross-contamination. But the servers were knowledgeable about which styles contained soy sauce and other gluten ingredients.
Now I'm back in the Massachusetts winter and missing both Hawaii's food and its 80-degree climate, but happy to report another successful gluten-free travel experience. Aloha!
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