2026 Hatch Chile Season: The Gluten-free Chicano’s 2018 Debut
Michael Sedano
My Barbara had been diagnosed with Dementia of the Alzheimer’s type earlier that year, 2018, and the full impact of the disease had not struck me. I was all “la – dee – dah” about the future, or lack thereof. At least in writing. I remember the meeting with the neurologist. As he described the progression I doubled up in my chair and cried, “I don’t want to lose her!” Barbara, the doc, and our daughter looked at me unable to offer the slightest consolation.
Time
All we had was Time. I always capitalize “time” in context of the dementia. Alzheimer’s people have only Time; no hope, no cure, no treatment. Time to change the medications. Time to deal with progressive changes. Time to remember. Time to rue what inevitably happens. Time happens then after-Alzheimer’s time begins.
I write because it’s hard to cry when you don’t want to pay big bucks to repair a keyboard. I write because writing is therapy, an escape and a confrontation. I write because writing is preferred to shaking one’s fist at the unfeeling universe who would answer that unasked question, “why not you?” “why not her?”
So I wrote about other matters and invited my alter ego, The Gluten-free Chicano, to take over from my reality-avoiding self. Following the reprise, with updates, of that 2018 dismal day, I share a 2026 gluten-free chile relleno quiche recipe.
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| One peeled chile, freeze the rest. |
Gluten is another word for fearful dining. I’ve read some people go to restaurants with cards explaining everything and hand these to waitstaff. My way relies on a canned answer to what’s it gonna be? “I cannot eat anything that has flour or wheat. Can you please alert me if I order anything with flour or wheat?”
People with gluten allergy get sick when they consume wheat, barley, rye, and US-grown oats. Rice, corn, and potatoes are fine food for most people with the gluten bug. Certain gente who eat food contaminated with wheat, their bodies start itching incredibly, maybe they throw up and get horrid stomachs. One time a restaurant served me champurrado—that’s supposed to be safe--and my throat swelled up just enough to distract my attention from the maddening itch.
Gluten intolerance—the worst is celiac disease--appears to be a growing condition in America. The gluten-free foods industry, inclusive of magazines, runs strong from Canada to Argentina. I was delighted when an Italian restaurant in Montréal on a visit in 2010 served gluten-free pasta. The newsstand on Soto sells at least one Argentine celiaco magazine.
Foodstuffs & Mexican Cooking
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| Dad's Redlands, Ca Horno |
Everything a chicano cooks is chicano food. When I make a baloney sandwich, for example, I slather Best Foods mayonnaise on a leaf of lettuce, lay down two slices of Oscar Mayer and a sliced tomato, slather Morehouse mustard on a second leaf of lettuce, and that’s a Gluten-free chicano baloney sandwich.
La Bloga won’t practice culinary nationalism. Note, however, among the many beauties of chicanexican cooking is its naturally gluten-free ingredients. The Gluten-Free Chicano cooks traditional preparations as well as gluten-free adaptations of fare such as chiles rellenos, soufflé, pankekis.
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| gluten-free individual cheese soufflées |
Restaurants & Eateries
Restaurants & Eateries fall into four groups of gluten awareness:
Never Mind, just a salad.
Bad Dog!
Right Attitude…
Please, May I Have Some More?
Time brings change. In the best way, for celiacs and the gluten-intolerant populace. Nowadays restaurants carry a “gf” bug on the menu, and good places will alter a dish, like chicken piccata, to serve a welcome gluten-free version. That said, the four restaurant categories accurately describe the gluten-free eating taxonomy. in 2026
Never Mind, just a salad.
These are noodle houses, pizza parlors, bakeries, places featuring deep fried breaded entrées. A green salad or such is likely to be uncontaminated. Eat elsewhere is usually the better choice.
Bad dog!
A significant majority of restaurants and food workers handle food questions with professionalism. Establishments who employ eye-rollers or exasperated tipas tipos are bad dog! places, as are those who ought to do better but fail.
The price of dining at Disney Hall shouldn't include allergic reactions, but this was the possibility at St. Valentine's dinner at Patina. One ingredient looks like black pearl barley to me, so I ask the order taker, who informs me most snottily, "Sir, that is a 'legume.'" That's not information, so I request he ask the chef what kind of 'legume' this might be. The waiter instead repeats his know-nothing response, this time more forcefully. "Sir, as I said, it is a 'legume.'" Please ask, I insist. The fellow disappears for a moment, returns exasperatedly and repeats the legume tale again. I doubt the fellow asks the chef. Diners should not be paying a hundred bolas to be poisoned by ignorant staff. Bad dog!, Patina. (Patina is a now-defunct eatery, Michelin star notwithstanding.)
Egregious surprise was in store the final time I visited the trop chèr Ruth’s Cris Steak House in Pasadena. I’d enjoyed Ruth’s Cris meals in Vegas, Houston, and Phoenix and welcomed the chain to the neighborhood. I was especially encouraged that the newspaper advertisement touted Ruth Cris' gluten-aware menu and staff.
I compliment the waitstaff on the restaurant’s gluten-adverse advertising, advised the person of my need for gluten-free ingredients, and order. The salad arrives with croutons. When the steak arrives it has a pat of butter on top. I ask if that is just butter and the chastened waitstaff checks. He returns to whisk away the steak—the butter has flour. Bad dog!, Ruth's Cris Steak House.
One theme restaurant menu touts a gluten-free version of its double chocolate brownie hot fudge volcano delight dessert. Dang, that sounds pretty tasty until the waitstaff clarifies the gluten-free version is ice cream and a different chocolate sauce. Bad dog!, Claim Jumper. (Claim Jumper in Arcadia is now closed).
Maybe these places have improved. I doubt I'll ever return to find out.
Right attitude.
An attitude is a predisposition to act one way rather than another. But attitude is not action.
A restaurant in trendy Eagle Rock emails invitations to come dine on its imaginative Mexican food. The majority of delectables include a wheat ingredient. I complain. The advertiser replies almost immediately with a “you're not the only one so we’ll look into it”. A ver, if CaCao Mexicatessen follows through on its right attitude. (I never got answered, and after a single visit, didn't return to CaCao, the attitude stunk. I saw you the first time, sabes?)
Please, may I have some more?
P.F. Chang’s is a celiac’s dream restaurant. A separate gluten-free page in the menu, trained staff, gluten-free tamari sauce. For all I know P.F. Chang's kitchen has a space reserved for gluten-free food prep. (This restaurant closed its Pasadena location around 2024.)
Food4More, aka Whole Foods, sells gluten-free pizza in the comida corrida section and Bard's beer in grocery. Von's and Ralph's now have a gluten-free freezer section for fake breads and cookies. (Bard’s beer is no longer marketed on the west coast but finished high in La Bloga’s gluten-free beer tasting, https://labloga.blogspot.com/2011/10/gluten-free-chicano-diga-me-on-line.html.)
Domenico's in north Pasadena sells a chewy gluten-free take-out. The restaurant charges up-a-size for a medium gluten-free garbage pizza. So it goes. (Domenico’s sells the region’s best antipasto salad. Settebello sells the world’s best gluten-free pizza.
DISH in La Cañada deserves special mention for a single experience. After years of waitstaff impatient with questions, or blank stares from dumbfounded food workers unaware of gluten allergies, DISH employed a woman who exclaimed, “My Dad Is gluten-free!” Nonetheless I ask her to alert me if I order anything with wheat and she practically hugs me in reassurance. A hug for the Old Guy. (I recently dined at DISH and it’s improved 1000% and it was already top-notch!)
2026: El Gluten-free Chicas Patas Bakes Chile Relleno Quiche
Photos by Bull Cook Thelma T. Reyna
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| Peel and de-seed. |
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| Don't be too particular about seeds. |
Peel and de-seed roasted chiles. I eschew the gloves when the chiles are sweet/mild variety. I also taste first to ensure the chiles are the less-picoso variety.
2. Prepare the crustless quiche mix. Quantities depend on volume. 3 or 4 eggs to a cup and a half or two of milks.
a. Milk, half and half, sour cream, or crema Mexicana (table cream or agria).
b. Blanquillos beaten to a frothy joyousness.
c. Chopped chiles.
d. Quesos – cheddar and jack or mozzarella.
e. Salt, pepper, cayenne.
f. Fresh jitomate.
g. Onion option. Mix chopped with the milk and/or add rings to the bottom and top.
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| An electric beater serves well. |
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| Chiles and cheese as a base for the custard. |
4. Lay chiles rajas (or chopped or both), topped with cheese, grated or sliced, in the prepared dish.
5. Pour over the quiche mix.
6. Place jitomate slices and sliced onion atop.
7. Decorate with rajas and cheeses.
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| Measured liqid fills just below the rim. |
8. Bake on a cookie tin for 40+ minutes. A quiche is done when it doesn’t jiggle a lot when shaken, or when a butter knife blade emerges clean from the middle (not the edge).
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| Careful not to spill and slide into the heat. |
