PLAINVIEW'S PASSOVER PARADISE

See this?


















Here's a close-up.


















And look over here!


















I took the above shots on Friday at the ShopRite of Morton Village in Plainview, Long Island. Weeks ago I found many gluten-free Kosher for Passover products at the very same location, but on this return visit I found even more gluten-free goodies. Many of the above products are gluten-free—and they're just a sampling of the supermarket's current gluten-free stock.

The bait that drew me back to the store: gluten-free frozen mini-eclairs that my mother had spotted. I tend to be skeptical about the quality of Kosher gluten-free foods...and the cream in the mini-eclairs wasn't really cream...but those frozen eclairs—from Frank's Gourmet Bakery—were good enough to win me over (especially when still unthawed) and pique my interest about what else I might find there.

The above shots show the displays that greeted me as I entered the store. Many (but not all) of the items were gluten-free (labeled as such or as "non-gebrokts"); many (but not all) of the latter were from Shabtai Gourmet. When I last covered Shabtai, I mentioned "a very decadent almond pasty marble cakey treat that I'm having trouble identifying" that I now know is the French Chocolate Coffee Cake. I have now also had my first experience with Shabtai's very sweet and moist Krakofsky Cookies, made with almonds and honey.

Moving deeper into the ShopRite, I found another zone of interest: the central freezer section. Making several passes through this area, I found the frozen mini-eclairs and Kedem non-gebrokts gefilte fish (not frozen) as well as a trove of other products including gluten-free Spring Valley Cheese Blintzes made by the MilMar Food Group of Goshen, New York.

The Spring Valley Cheese Blintzes were near these products (many of which were gluten-free).


















It was around this point that my basket overflowed...

















...and I had to get a shopping cart to hold all the gluten-free booty. I figured I had to seize the moment because the products might only be there for Passover.

So yeah: Keep an eye out for gluten-free foods that might only be available for the next couple of weeks or so. Your best bets will probably be stores that specialize in Kosher food or at least temporarily stock up with foods that are Kosher for Passover. Be open-minded about trying out the foods—don't expect them to uniformly excellent or especially nutritious. And keep in mind that many of the foods might be frozen, so that you might have to find a way to keep them from melting after you buy them.

And remember: Look for the labels "gluten-free" and "non-gebrokts." The label "Kosher for Passover" is not sufficient, as it might well be applied to a product made with traditional matzoh or matzoh meal, which contains gluten.

And if you are thinking about going to this particular ShopRite, keep in mind that there are even more gluten-free goodies elsewhere in Plainview, where Dr. B. Well Naturally, Get Healthy America, and Fairway can be found along Manetto Hill Road. And there's even a Trader Joe's nearby!

Photos: David Marc Fischer