Post 6: All-American, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese Food
Mel's Diner:
This kitschy American Diner was my first "diner" experience. Did you know they serve "Breakfast All Day"?! So what's a gfree girl suppose to do at a diner?! Well, most burgers, sandwiches, and dinner plates specials are off limits. So... I chose the 3 Egg Omelette Scramble called Tex-Mex with hash browns instead of an order of toast. IT WAS DELICIOUS! Filled with ham, peppers, onions, mushrooms, cheese,
and topped with rancheros sauce. Along with the breakfast for dinner omelette I decided that in order to have the true diner experience I had to get an milkshake J
The Creamy dreamy Creamsicle Milkshake was calling my name. Plus it gave me a good excuse to sneak a few hot salty fries from my dining partner and dip them in the creamsicle shake!
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| Tex Mex Omelette Scramble |
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| Creamsicle and Strawberry Shake |
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| Waitress was super sweet and gave us a side of fruit! |
Bento Box:
I have eaten here a couple of times now and I
always order the $8.99 Bibimbap. I know I know its a Japanese restaurant and I order a Korean dish?! What???!! Okay to my credit Japanese cuisine is not my favorite AND most Japanese food contains gluten. So, the verdict?! Bento Box makes a mean Bibimbap. Is it the best? No, but its pretty good for $8.99! Nice variety of vegetables and the beef is always super tender and juicy mmhh makes my mouth water.
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| My all time fav: Bibimbap! |
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| Friend's Rainbow Roll at Bento Box |
Panda Express:
Nearly impossible, but I ate here (even if it wasn't much of a meal)! I would argue that 98% of the menu contains gluten EXCEPT white steamed rice and a couple of their sauces. The sweet & sour sauce and the plum sauce does not contain gluten. So that's exactly what I did, I ordered white rice and got the server to give me a side of their sauce. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. And if the company you're eating with questions whether or not what you're eating is filling enough tell them it isn't!! Then get them to take you out to frozen yogurt or Jamba Juice afterward :P LOL, that's what I did.
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| Steamed White Rice |
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| Side of Sweet & Sour Sauce |
Cooking Papa's:
This joint makes true authentic Chinese/Hong Kong Style cuisine in the bay area. I was at a family gathering and due to the craziness and lack of time everyone decided that it would be less stressful just to get takeout! In general Asian food has a lot of cross contamination so I was super careful on the delicious yummies that I chose. All of which were bomb.com! Here are some of the pictures I took.
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| Homemade Chinese Veg was Gfree! |
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| Rice and Rice Noodle Dish was Gfree |
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| Arial Shot! |
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| Nom Nommers!! |
Until next post!
~ T
Post 5: BJ's Party for 2 Pizza Nite!
Have you heard of BJ's Restaurant & Brew House's new $19.95 Party for Two deal?! Sounds like a gimmick right, "Share a 3-course meal, including dessert for only $19.95!" Well let me tell you it’s not a gimmick, it’s a real bargain and gluten free at that!
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| BJ's Restaurant & Brew House |
What better way to enjoy a nice meal with none other than my best girlfriend?! Good conversation, good food, good times. Until one of us gets a boyfriend...I'm pretty sure both of us make the best dates J LOL.
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| Digging in to our pizza! |
What’s in BJ’s Party for 2?!?
Choice of:
Small house salad
Caesar salad
Wedge salad
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| House Salad |
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| Wedge Salad |
Choice of any medium regular/gluten free Pizza:
Gluten Free Portobello Mushroom Pizza
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| Scrumptious! Fontina Roasted Mushrooms with Balsamic Vinaigrette |
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| Completely gluten free of course! |
Pizookie:
Gluten Free Chocolate Pizookie with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
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| How does this NOT look good?! |
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| Mmm Melty Vanilla Bean ice cream over a piping hot cookie |
Besides the long wait for our food, everything was delicious. In fact, BJ’s gluten free pizza was one of the best Kris and I ever had.
The salads weren’t outstanding, typical restaurant starter salads.
I got the House Salad with Italian dressing while Kris had the Wedge Salad.
But the pizza was SO good. Thin crust with melt-y fontina cheese topped with sweet caramelized onions and grilled Portobello mushrooms. Gosh I want some right now!
Now for the Pizookie! I personally loved it, but that’s because I have a major sweet tooth, actually Kris calls it an extreme sweet tooth :P hehehe. The Pizookie was a bit overcooked, but I’m not complaining.
It was a great deal for the two of us to fill our tummies with some quality gfree pizza J
Till next post!
- T
Post 4: California State Fair 2012 - Popcorn, Nachos, & Caramel Apples
Ahh the state fair I automatically think of deep fried foods, cotton candy, and amusement rides. Not really a place teaming with gluten free options, but surprisingly I was able to find some goodies to nosh on!
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| California State Fair 2012 |
Of course being the popcorn fanatic that I am I had to buy some caramel kettle corn from a food vendor called Dynamite Kettle Corn. Definitely DELICIOUS! The popcorn was super buttery with just a hint of the burnt caramelized sugar crunch that I look for in good caramel corn. Nom nom nom!
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| Best Caramel Kettle Corn |
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| Secret Late Night Snack! |
Next up were the nachos that I shared with my friends. Normally I am not a nacho kinda person, in fact I actually don’t like nachos. The artificial cheese goop that is slathered over perfectly tasty tortilla chips makes them all soggy and yuckyL. But there are ALWAYS exceptions. Surprisingly I munched on a few of my friends’ nachos and I could not stop. I think the added jalapeños cut through the fake cheese sauce which made it all the more addicting. LOL
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| Always order with Jalapenos! |
We always save the best for last right?! I treated myself to a gourmet caramel apple. To be exact it was the Salted Caramel Apple from the DeBrito Chocolate Factory: Home of the Outrageous Caramel Apples.
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| Debrito Vendor Booth |
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| Assorted Gourmet Chocolate Creations |
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| Assorted Caramel Apple Creations |
I don’t think my pictures do my caramel apple justice. Thick caramel surrounded by a ribbon of chocolate then dotted with sea salt = TO DIE FOR!
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| Rings of Salt and Chocolate |
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| Sliced right down the middle |
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| You know you want some :P |
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| Dripping with Caramel |
Enjoy the pictures I took from the California State Fair!
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| Me and Nic! |
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| Kangaroo with her Joey in the Animal Pens |
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| Eggplant |
- T J
Post 3: Azna Gluten Free Bakery
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| Azna Gluten Free Bakery: Cameron Park, California |
Our second summer adventure took Kristen and me to a gluten free bakery in Cameron Park California. I was pretty psyched to visit Azna’s GF bakery because I’ve heard a lot of good things about their cakes and breads, but honestly their food did not blow my mind like I thought it would. To their credit we sorta came at a wonky time where they were running out of the fresh baked/made items.
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| Scones and Pastries |
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| Muffins |
So what did eat? According to their website we had their “award winning lasagna” that is gluten and soy free. The verdict? It was okay. Not spectacular but not inedible either. Lasagna was flavorful but everything seemed a bit mushy. The bread served with the lasagna was delicious! It was a little chewy which was perfect for mopping up the lasagna sauce.
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| Gfree and Soy Free Lasagna |
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| About to Dig in! |
The second item that we shared was the black bean wrap. And it was interesting. When you think about a “wrap” I don’t know about the rest of the world, but I personally think of a tortilla or some sort of flat bread that is wrapped around protein and veg. Well the black bean“wrap” was more like a salty short bread crust similar to pizza dough than anything else.
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| Black Bean "Wrap" |
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| Chow time for Kristen! |
The dessert that I ordered to share was the double chocolate brownie. It looked SO decadent and delicious behind the counter, but I think that I can speak for both for us that the brownie sadly did not rock our world L
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| Double Chocolate Brownie: Looked so appetizing behind the counter. |
The top layer of chocolate ganache was good but the rest of the brownie was super cake-y and gelatinous. It didn’t even taste very chocolate-y despite being called a “double chocolate brownie”.
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| So Ready |
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| And Super Excited |
But it was anticlimatic.
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| Looks very rich but it was thick and gelatinous |
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| Top layer of ganache was nice and chocolate-y J |
All in all, the food that we personally ordered was okay; would I order the same things again? Probably not; however, I would definitely want to try their other gluten free baked goods.
Hopefully the next time we visit Azna Gluten Free Bakery we will choose better!
Cheers!
- Kris & T
Post 2: Jack’s Urban Eats
Jack’s Urban Eats never fails; always a solid good meal. No
frills, just good eats and of course plenty of gluten free options!
You can pretty much customize any of their sandwiches,
salads, fries, and carved meats. I always get the customize salad and fries. As
Nicole George says “their fries are bomb.com!” whether urban, garlic, or sweet
potato they are all mighty tasty
J
Since you can create your own salad you can add all the gf
toppings your heart desires! However, I would omit the croutons and their
marinated tofu. I am pretty sure Jack’s tofu is marinated in some sort of soy
or teriyaki sauce, so beware! If you are extremely gluten sensitive I would not
recommend adding tofu to a salad. I personally was unaffected by the tofu, but
to those with extreme gluten sensitivity I would be very careful.
Happy Eats
J
- T
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Custom Salad: Spinach, jicama, onions, tomatoes
Garlic Fries |
Post 1: Mikunis
A couple of weeks ago a group of friends and I decided to go to the sushi restaurant Mikunis. So what's a gluten free girl to do? All sushi restaurants use soy sauce and tempura batter, a gluten free no no!
Not to worry, working at a sushi restaurant myself I knew my options. Most bento boxes are off limits; they contain a delicious myriad of deep-fried tempura vegetables and shrimp. Be extremely careful when looking at sushi besides nigiri and sashimi. Most house special rolls contain gluten, either in the form of tempura shrimp, bbq unagi, and teriyaki sauce. Safe bets are kappa maki (cucumber roll), tekka maki (tuna rolls),
California rolls (made with real crab meat), spicy tuna rolls, variations of a rainbow roll, tamago, fresh nigiri and sashimi.
So what did I order at Mikunis? I ordered the lightly seared Poki Albacore Salad with gluten-free ponzu sauce. It wasn’t bad, but it definitely was not the best. The albacore was a little mushy and grainy which meant that it was not fresh; basically the ponzu sauce and micro greens saved the rest of the dish. Mikunis serves regular edamame and then they have what they call super spicy edamame. Being a light weight to spicy foods it sure packed a punch!
Lightly Seared Poki Albacore Salad: 2 Stars
Regular Edamame & Super Spicy Edamame packs a punch!
On Mikunis's website they offer a gluten free menu which I have linked below:
http://www.mikunisushi.com/en/menus.php?layout=category
Happy gfree eating!
xoxo
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