Day Three + Four: July 16-18 Tucson to Palm Springs
The next day, it was business as usual. We awoke and walked into the hotel dinning room for a very formal breakfast. Leo got in-house made croissants the moment we sat down and the aroma alone was enough to set my gluten free mouth to watering. They were served with homemade orange marmalade and rolled butter. Leo deftly split one open and slathered a layer of the butter and the marmalade into the buttery flakiness. I could feel the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Was this what junkies or addicts felt like when they came face to face with their favorite fix. I wasn’t going to go all skid row in front of my son, so I opted to just taste the marmalade, which was perfection on a spoon, nectar spun from nectar. Not too sweet and not too bitter either, which is the challenge when making any citrus based marmalade, so I knew the croissants were just as pure.
But I wasn’t surviving on apples at this stop. No sir. I got a very decadent shrimp and crab omelete (I meant it when I said I love omelettes) with fresh fruit and a double soy latte. I usually only take my coffee with almond milk, but I wasn’t going to split hairs. I was just so grateful to have two nourishing meals in a row, I didn’t have a single complaint. Everything was cooked by a learned hand–especially the eggs and the shrimp, which can become dry and rubbery if not cooked at the right temperature or with the proper patience. And as Jacques Pepin says, both are deceptively difficult to master, because they are seemingly so simple.
Leo got a stack of griddle cakes, bacon and hot chocolate so we could “make a morning toast with our drinks.” Leo is already really into celebrating the moment and makes a toast every time we sit down for a special meal. Today’s was “Here’s to getting to the beach!”
The avacado was lightly dressed in a light lemon white wine vinegrette, adding just a hint of citrus to the shrimp and crab and highlighting the creaminess of the eggs, but not overpowering them. We took our time and enjoyed the masterfully collected decor, which is a mix of Italian, Spanish, Moroccan and French antique furniture and objets d’arte. The light fixtures were especially fine. In fact, the furnishings and the vaulted ceilings of the main sitting room reminded me of the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood (which is also very gluten free friendly). Best of all? The Arizona Inn was once a private residence, so the hotel is nestled in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Tucson, so you feel extremely safe. And for all of us gluten free peeps? I highly recommend this hotel as a gluten free conscious place to stay. Every meal I had, the waiters were ceaselessly attentive to my gluten free needs the food was delicious.
Like all good things, our time had come to an end. We had to get back on the road so we could inch ever closer to Santa Barbara.
Crossing the state line into California
Besides, the ultimate oasis of the trip was only six hours away. The Parker Meridien in Palm Springs.
After cooking in the car for six hours, we pulled into Parker and didn’t leave for two straight days.
We swam in the morning and the evening. We rode bikes around the sprawling property that was so lush and verdant, the place is notorious for it’s terrible cell service.
We played croquet and patanque and during my down time, I got the low down on the gluten free situation in Palm Springs, which, according to the staff, isn’t so good, but the rumor is that there is one bakery in town that has been trying to get funding for two years, to no avail. Then, our last night there, I was informed that there is a gluten free, dairy free place called Canyon Flours Bakery, which I’m gonna stop by on my way back, as we had to meet our friends at 3 pm the next day and had to hustle out of town.
Norma’s Menu Design
As a parting gift from the kitchen, three candied orange slices…
It is a veritable paradise. We ate at Norma’s where they have a huge selection of gluten free items including the lobster and mango salad, chicken paillard, and a laundry list of frittatas and omeletes for breakfast. They even had frois gras french toast and the “zillion dollar” lobster frittata with 10 oz. of Sevruga caviar that they were charging a jaw dropping $1,000.00 for. Naturally, I passed on both, but I got a good laugh out of both.
