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Inkaterra at Machu Picchu

19 Aug

While in Peru, I was able to cross off an item on my bucket list when we visited Machu Picchu. We ate dinner at our hotel, the Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel. I started with the Peruvian Salad that had (HUGE) corn, black beans, cheese, potatoes, carrots, red onions, aji peppers, black olives and cilantro. Then, I had the beef tenderloin with garlic accented potato puree and broiled bananas.

I wouldn’t have thought that the bananas would go well with the dish but they were really good. This restaurant was the site of my first Pisco Sour, which at altitude was a bit dangerous!

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Rafael in Lima, Peru

18 Aug

One of my favorite meals of our trip was at Rafael in Lima, Peru. The restaurant made me feel like I could have been in NYC. My brother and I shared a bunch of dishes while we were there. We started with the roasted vegetable stew with asparagus cream and basil pistou. This was perfect for the day as it had been overcast and rainy. Our second appetizer was the roasted beetroot carpaccio with goat cheese, almonds and organic sprouts.

This dish was nice and light. I just think that goat cheese makes any dish that much better. Our third appetizer was the Tuna Tataki.

This was prepared with Buffalo Mozzarella and Sicilian Pesto. When this first came out, each tuna was on a piece of bread, but our waiter quickly remedied that by making us a new one. It was then time for our main dishes. The first was the Grilled Angus Flank Steak with braised juices, parsley pesto, accordion potatoes and a smoky salad.

The meat was very tender and flavorful. The other entree we ordered was the Char-Grilled Yellow Fin Tuna.

This was served with roasted shrimps, Pistou emulsion, salad provence and potatoes. Everything was really wonderful here, including the Pisco Sour I had to go with the meal!

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Chicha in Cuzco, Peru

17 Aug

One of the nights we were in Cuzco, we walked through a couple of beautiful plazas to Chicha. My brother and I shared two starters. The first was the Chupe 5 Sabores which had quinoa, ulluco, squash, tofu and chinese bean sprouts with a spicy curry with had coconut milk and lemongrass. It had a really nice flavor to it and was plenty to share. We also had the Humitas Chicha which consisted of two tamales.

There was one yellow tamale and one green tamale, each served with a sauce. The green tamale had one with onions and peppers and some oil, and the yellow tamale had a sort of creole sauce. For our main dish, we shared the Kapchi casserole.

This was a generous potion of an already hearty dish. The casserole was made with fava beans, potatoes, andean cheese, milk, egg, rocoto pepper and fine herbs. It was served with some rice. I liked the dish but would have preferred it to have a bit more spice to it. For those that are dining with someone that can eat gluten, word at the table was that the bread they served was fantastic!

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Dinner at Hotel Monasterio in Cuzco, Peru

16 Aug

For one of our nights in Cuzco, we decided to stay at Hotel Monasterio and have dinner at their El Tupay restaurant. I am so glad that we did! As they served the regular bread, they gave my brother and I a slab of GF bread that was good. I started with the grilled shrimp.

This was served with a yellow chili salad, roasted pepper, quinoa and a citrus foam. It was nice and light. For my main, I had the creamy corn.

It was prepared with herbs, grilled veggies, sprouts and smoked oil. I loved this as corn is one of my favorite vegetables. It almost reminded me of mac and cheese in a strange way!

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Astrid y Gaston in Lima, Peru

14 Aug

Our first night in Lima, Peru, we had dinner at Astrid y Gaston. After presenting our GF Spanish travel cards, my brother (who also has Celiac) and I ordered two starters and two main dishes. The first starter we had was the trio of ceviches. My favorite was the one in the middle which had a little heat to it. We also had the “La Procesion de la Papa”, a selection of three native potatoes topped with meat and fish.

This was a hearty appetizer. For our main dishes, we ordered the duck and the tuna. The duck, or El pato en su garbanzal, was served with chickpea sticky rice and traditional radish salsa.

I loved this, but it was very rich. I would have a hard time eating the entire thing myself. The tuna was served with sweet potatoes and was fantastic.

There was a balsamic sauce that it came with that complimented it perfectly. I found our meal here to be very enjoyable!

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Lunch at Hotel Monasterio in Cuzco, Peru

14 Aug

I apologize for things being a bit quiet over here. I just returned from a family vacation to Peru and Turks & Caicos! This is the first of many posts on restaurants that were accommodating as we travelled the past couple of weeks! When we were in Cuzco, Peru, we stayed at the Hotel Monasterio, a former monastery and national monument dating from 1592! They had a beautiful courtyard that we had lunch in. I provided them some Spanish cards found online that I printed. These listed what I could and could not have. I started with the Creamy Andean Potato Soup.

They just had to omit the garlic chips that this dish typically came with. For my main, I had the grilled grouper.

This was served with a creamy quinoa with vegetables and a warm tomato vinaigrette. I loved this dish as it was light but incredibly flavorful.

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8 Year Anniversary

1 Aug

Today marks my 8th year since being diagnosed with Celiac Disease. That seems crazy to me since it feels like just yesterday that I got the call from my doctor in New Jersey telling me a week before my birthday that my life was going to completely change. Initially, I found a lot of support through my brother that had been diagnosed a few years prior. Since then though, I have found an amazing group of people that are in my life that have been incredibly supportive and have helped me as I have learned how to live gluten-free. Grocery store trips don’t seem to overwhelm me, food tastes more interesting and I have embraced the experience of eating out again. So, if you are newly diagnosed, hang in there! It will get so much easier…. and tastier!

Happy anniversary to me!

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Bell Street Farm

28 Jul

Today we spent the day in Los Alamos so that we could try Bell Street Farm. Not only did we get to visit this cool market/eatery, but we also lucked out because it was the Los Alamos Chair Faire! You may be asking yourself, what is a Chair Faire?  Well, it is exactly what it sounds like… a fair that showcases chairs. From the website,

Benefitting the Olga Reed Elementary School in Los Alamos, the event offered folks a chance to sell their chairs of any kind, whether they be quality antiques, hand-crafted artisan works, unique artist painted chairs, or treasures from the garage, “last-stop-before-the-dump.”

As fun as the fair was (the music was actually great), the highlight of the day was the Bell Street Farm. I ordered the pork belly-wrapped shoulder, sauteed crispy with roasted potatoes and onions and topped with 2 ‘over-easy’ eggs.

This is typically served with bread on the plate, so make sure you communicate that you can’t have it. I really enjoyed this dish. If it were a little later in the day, I may have ordered the Charcuterie and Cheese since I saw that they had Mary’s Gone Crackers gluten-free crackers available for purchase. How cool is that?

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Arch Rock Fish Happy Hour

26 Jul

Last night, I met up with a friend at Arch Rock Fish‘s Happy Hour. I started with some grilled corn, which I knew that I would love. Then I had the East Coast Lobster Tail.

This was served with some drawn butter and tasted very fresh. The last thing I ordered was the Spicy Tuna and Salmon Roll.

This was good, but I didn’t find it spicy at all. I made sure that they omitted the wasabi that would typically be placed on the plate. When you go here, they will give you a whole booklet that shows the allergy information for every item on the menu. Just keep in mind that it does not factor in cross contamination so stay away from anything fried!

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The Farmer and the Cook

22 Jul

Just about a 35 minute drive from Santa Barbara is a special spot called The Farmer and the Cook. This all organic, vegetarian cafe get most of their produce from their nearby farm. More importantly, on weekends, they have gluten-free pizza! I started with a special salad that had sweet corn, green beans, avocado, lettuce and a barbeque tomato vinaigrette. I then ordered the GF Mexican Pizza.

This pizza had caramelized onions, goat cheese, summer squash, red peppers, jalapenos and pesto. The crust of the pizza was predominantly garbanzo flour and had a really nice consistency. One of my fellow diners also got a gluten-free pizza. 

This one was the Yukon Gold Potato and Rosemary Pizza. It had potatoes, parmesan, mozzarella, red pepper, caramelized onions, garlic and rosemary. All of the ingredients used were so fresh and full of flavor. There is a small market inside where you can purchase produce and packaged goods, many of which are gluten-free! Additionally there are baked goods including a GF peanut butter cookie that was calling my name.

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