Tonight we decided to try Palazzio and their GF pasta. We shared the caesar salad without croutons. Then, I ordered the fusilli shrimp pompeii with the GF “noOodle“. Our waiter explained that it is 95% water and 5% yam flour. Yeah… that sounded weird to me too. It had something of a thin rice noodle consistency. I ordered a saucy dish since the waiter mentioned it was a bit strange tasting on its own. It wasn’t bad. I prefer rice pasta, but at zero calories, I am not complaining.
For breakfast this morning, I thought I would try Backyard Bowls. The Backyard Quinoa Bowl is entirely GF and seemed like a good item to get to go and eat at the Sunken Gardens with my pup. I don’t know if it was the tastiness of the bowl, or the perfect weather over at the courthouse, but it was one of those mornings that just made me so happy to be back in Santa Barbara.
Last night we went for an early dinner at Arigato. I went prepared, bringing my San J soy sauce packets. To my surprise, our waitress informed me that they had GF soy sauce available for me to use. She walked me through which rolls I would be able to have. It seemed like all of their sauces were off limits. Additionally, their smoked salmon and crab had gluten. I ended up having the Banzai Roll and the Wipeout Roll with fresh salmon substituted for the smoked salmon. I also had 4 pieces of toro which were particularly tasty. Sushi is sometimes hard for people who eat GF, but our waitress was incredibly helpful and knowledgeable about what I could and could not have.
Tonight to celebrate my first day of work, my husband wanted to take me out to a nice dinner at Tre Lune. As delicious as that sounded though, all I really wanted was some pizza so that I could kick my feet up and enjoy some food in the comfort of our (temporary) home. After meeting my friend’s beautiful new baby boy, we went to pick up some pizza from Pizza Guru. We ordered two medium-sized GF pizzas… the Mystic Pizza and the Peaceful Pesto. They were both decent. As far as the toppings, we both thought they could have had a little more kick to them. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the crust which was firm enough to hold the toppings. It was pretty thin, but thicker than the cracker type crust you often see with GF pizzas. They also seemed very cautious of cross contamination. We just got the pizzas but apparently you can order GF wings, bread sticks, beer (Green’s), and even chocolate cake!
We spent the whole morning looking at houses and building up our appetites. After reminiscing about the good old days in IV, I had a craving for Silvergreens so we went to the downtown location. On the menu, I saw the magical words, “Gluten-free pasta available”. Woohoo! Once I made sure that they took the necessary precautions to keep my villi safe, I ordered the Chicken spinach pesto pasta. I really enjoyed the goat cheese on top. I am just excited that there is another affordable option for GF pasta in Santa Barbara!
I know that most people on a GF diet would run in the other direction rather than eat at a place that is a bakery. Don’t. This morning I had one of my favorite breakfast items… the huevos rancheros at D’Angelos. It is hard to put it into words how tasty this dish is. If you are not a fan of huevos rancheros, you should order one of the omelettes at D’Angelo. They are equally as good as long as you ask for no bread.
While perusing the menu at Sojourner Cafe at lunch, I saw that they had gluten-free pasta available on one of their items of the day! It really seems like local places are starting to cater more to those with the GF diet which makes me very happy. I ended up having the coconut curry butternut squash soup along with a caesar salad without croutons. I will definitely keep an eye on the special menu though in case another GF pasta shows up!
I also have to give a little shout out to one of my favorite people in Santa Barbara who just happens to also have Celiac Disease. She and her husband just had their first baby this morning. Congratulations!
gluten-free in sb 