Hilary Davidson’s Gluten-Free Guidebook is the home of the Reader Report. Along with Hilary’s own great travel focused posts, she shares her viewers travel tips from around the world.

It’s no wonder that Hilary does a travel based blog as she has written both Frommer’s New York City Day by Day and Frommer’s Toronto. After one of Hilary’s posts, you will get a great feel for a particular city and what it has to offer in terms of gluten-free dining options.

Beyond the travel related posts, she’s posted some great content like, “Would you pop a pill to eat gluten again?” and “More about that celiac pill“. She poses some wonderful questions and opinions that need to be read by every celiac.

Hilary Davidson’s Gluten-Free Guidebook is yet another great example of a great gluten-free blog with an incredible amount of valuable information that will help you make great travel decisions as well as furthering your insight into the gluten-free diet.

Gluten-Free Guidebook »

Uber-networkers Kim and Kelly started the Celiac Chicks blog back in 2003 and have produced one of the largest collections of relevant gluten-free information on the Internet. Restaurant visits, event reviews, celiac awareness, giveaways, gluten-free travel, product reviews, and so much more — there is so much to read here, that you will walk away “in the know” about what’s happening in the world of both celiac disease and the gluten-free diet.

I can never guess what they will write about next as their is so much variety in their posts. Their knowledge is enviable and their access to important figures in the celiac community continue to make their work both important and a great resource for anyone wanting to learn more about the gluten-free diet.

Celiac Chicks »

I look at dozens, if not hundreds of posts on “gluten-free this” and “gluten-free that” every week (and deeply enjoy doing so). I look at recipes, travel tips, celiac research and every other imaginable topic that could possibly be related to the gluten-free universe. It truly amazes me how much information (both good and bad) is out there and how many people are talking about the gluten-free diet (this can only be a good thing).

There are some blogs that seem to have been around forever. Gluten-Free Girl, Celiac Chicks are two that immediately come to mind. They both are iconic, ever-present and full of great information — I would almost put these in the class of celebrity blogs. In fact, if all goes well, the Gluten-Free Girl is going to get her own cooking show sometime soon.

Beyond that, there are thousands of blogs devoted to gluten-free recipes, some of them come and go without notice and then others stick around and stand the test of time — showcasing new and innovative recipes week after week.

Without question, one of my all-time favorites is Elana’s Pantry. More often than not, she uses ingredients like almond flour and agave syrup and has an overall focus on healthy gluten-free options — I have NEVER been disappointed with anything from Elana.

Another favorite is Karina Allrich’s, Gluten-Free Goddess — simply amazing vegetarian and gluten-free recipes and an awesome level of presentation that makes it all look as good as it tastes.

For travel tips, you’d be hard pressed to find a more informative blog then Hilary Davidson’s Gluten-Free Guidebook. Hilary is an accomplished writer who has written travel guides for Frommer’s, as well as articles featured in Discover, American Archaeology, Fitness, Reader’s Digest, and Martha Stewart Weddings. In terms of gluten-free travel tips, Hilary has travelled the globe and has found some great gluten-free options in so many locations, that you’re sure to find something relevant to your next trip. Anytime I travel, I look here to see if she’s been there and what she recommends.

Anyhow, I’ll be posting more recommendations in the months to come, but these for me represent the best of the best and my current “go-to” list of online gluten-free resources. There are obviously many more great choices, but these are all a great place to start for anyone exploring the gluten-free lifestyle and diet.

Anybody who knows me knows that I’m a huge fan of networking through channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. I’m also a huge fan of more traditional in-person methods, such as social get togethers, happy hours, and business events. The online methods have their advantage for sure — a much wider reach to far more people, but they still lack that personal contact that a smile and a handshake will get you. These in-person meetings will be remembered far longer than any online method possibly could.  That being said, the perfect follow up to such a meeting would be to connect in the online world (if of course this is a person you would want to connect with).

Managing Celiac Handbook, I come across a lot of events and needless to say, I’ve attended quite a few. I’ve met a lot of great people and discovered a lot of amazing gluten-free resources. One group that I am a member of (but I’m sorry to say that I haven’t actually attended one of their events) is the New York City Celiac Disease Meetup Group. With well over 1,000 members, over 100 events already held, and at least seven already planned in the coming months, they have been a consistently strong player in the NYC celiac community.  Everything from happy hours to charity fundraisers to wine and cheese events — I think I even saw a yoga event in there somewhere. My point being that their meetups are as diverse as one would expect in NYC. While I would rarely recommend something that I haven’t personally tried — I feel very comfortable in recommending this meetup group as a group that “gets it”.

I do a lot of traveling, but unfortunately, New York City has not been one of my destinations — but it will happen — hopefully sooner rather than later. There are just too many great celiac friendly restaurants, bakeries, and businesses — I really have no reason to stay away much longer. Once that trip happens, you will undoubtedly be hearing from me talking about what is quite possibly the gluten-free capital of the world.

Before arriving in France for the summer, we spent a hellish week in London — while I love London (I spent a few years there back in the early ’90′s), this visit was especially bad as there were five of us (myself, the wife and three kids) dealing with jet lag and not being close enough to an Underground station. It was just way too much walking.  Oh well, live and learn.

In my usual tradition of seeking out a supermarket, I decided to revisit an old favorite, Sainsbury’s. Back in 1993 when I was in London last, I hadn’t been diagnosed with celiac disease and I had no idea what a gluten-free diet was and I’m pretty sure that Sainsbury’s didn’t either. Now, Sainsbury’s offers a wonderful gluten-free line, freefrom. Literally, hundreds of products ranging from frozen dinners to desserts to cereals to loaf bread. They also carry a decent selection of third party brands as well. Looking for a good breakfast item, I decided to try their freefrom Granola Style Cereal. The first thing I noticed about this granola is that it wasn’t loaded with corn like so many gluten-free granolas that I’ve tried in the past but it did have a bit more sugar than I usually like in my cereal. All in all, the granola was tasty and had some great ingredients not commonly found in store bought granola — buckwheat flakes, sunflower seeds, hazelnut nibs and flaked almonds.

The next thing that I had to try from Sainsbury’s was Genius gluten-free bread. I’ve been hearing about this for months on the Celiac Handbook Facebook page and I was really anxious to try it. With some sliced turkey and sharp cheddar cheese, I made myself and my kids some sandwiches and I have to tell you, it was one of the best store-bought gluten-free sandwich breads that I’ve tasted. A light and fluffy texture, it didn’t crumble and best of all, it didn’t require being frozen.

We’ll be back in London in August for two weeks and this time we’ll be staying somewhere that makes the city a little bit more accessible and require a lot less walking. This next time around, we’ll be focusing on restaurants with gluten-free menus as well as sampling more of what the local supermarkets have to offer. If there’s something or some place that you think I have to try, leave a comment and let me know — I’m always open to suggestion for good food.

I want to start off by saying that I’m very lucky to be sitting in a beautiful little bed and breakfast in the village of Monts in the Loire Valley. It’s not all fun and games, it’s a working holiday — it’s something that my family and I are attempting to make a yearly tradition (this is year two). With the power of the Internet, a laptop and a good wifi connection, I can do my work from just about anywhere. The trick is making sure I sit down and actually get some of that work done and with so much to see and do while on holiday, that can be tough sometimes.

le moulin de Monts — Home for the Summer

As with any trip I take, one of the first places I like to visit is a local supermarket — in this case, it’s the Super U in Monts. While my French language skills are not all that great, I do have a good grasp on which items on a packages list of ingredients to avoid and when traveling I try to stick with as much fresh food as possible. The selection of packaged food hasn’t been that great and I am indeed sticking to the fruits, vegetables, beans, meat, dairy, etc. It’s really not a bad way to eat, but I do miss the convenience of an occasional gluten-free packaged snack.

Watching my wife enjoy a baguette (or my kids with a pain au chocolat) from the local boulangerie can be a little envy-inducing, but I’m happy that they’re able to enjoy some of France’s most beloved staples. I’ve yet to find a gluten-free boulangerie or even a gluten-free baguette for that matter. I know they exist, but I just haven’t found them yet. There are a couple of local restaurants here in the village and most have been very friendly and accommodating and I have had positive experiences all the way through. I’ll be doing some individual reviews of these after another visit or two.

We’ll be heading to Paris in July and I know there are some great choices there with stores like Naturalia and La Vie Claire. There’s also a 100% gluten-free restaurant that I can’t wait to try, Des si & Des mets.  We’ll be moving north toward Brittany and Normandy from there and will stop at numerous places along the way. I’m hoping by the end of this trip to have some very positive things to say about living sans gluten in France — I’m keeping my fingers crossed.