Tag Archives: california

Flavor of India

1 Sep

We were in the mood for Indian food, so we decided to try Flavor or India. I started with a salad that came with raita dressing. We then shared a few dishes. The first was the Benghan Bharta.

This eggplant was cooked with onions, tomatoes and fresh spices. I asked for it spicy which added a lot of heat to the dish. We also split the Saag Paneer.

This was fresh spinach cooked with homemade cheese and seasoned with aromatic herbs. To diffuse the spiciness, we also ordered the Pilao Rice.

This basmati rice was mixed with peas and seasoned with turmeric. I found it easy to dine here. Our waiter was familiar with what I could and could not have.

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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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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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Friday Night at Petros

14 Jul

One of the best things about going to dinner with another Celiac is that you can share dishes! On Friday night, a Celiac friend and I went to Petros. We started with the Shrimp Sagnaki which I loved. It consisted of shrimp with a tomato basil feta cheese sauce. This sauce had the perfect amount of heat to it… I found myself eating just the sauce after all of the shrimp had been eaten! For my main dish, I had the fish of the day which was Sappara.

I chose to have this grilled with olive oil and lemon juice. It came with a generous portion of the Petros Horiatiki Salad.

One of the things I love about eating Greek food is that it is so easy to be healthy! This was the perfect summer meal.

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Autism Family Night at the Santa Barbara Zoo

12 Jul

Tonight was Autism Family Night at the Santa Barbara Zoo. To support those families that whose lives have been affected by autism, the Zoo’s Ridley-Tree House Restaurant served up a limited menu that featured gluten-free and dairy-free items. I ended up getting the Grilled Veggie Stir-fry which was served over rice. The only alteration I had to make to the dish was to omit the mushrooms since they had been prepared with soy sauce. This was fine by me since I am not a huge fan of mushrooms! It would be wonderful if the Zoo would place GF friendly dishes on their permanent menu for those who have to avoid gluten.

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Cafe Luna

25 Apr

My celiac friend and I spent the day exploring Summerland and the antique shops that line Lillie Avenue. When hunger struck, we stopped at Cafe Luna to get some food. They do not have GF bread, but they will make any of their sandwiches into a salad. I had the turkey sandwich as a salad. It came with cheese, sun dried tomatoes and onions with a balsamic vinaigrette.

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Gluten-Free Pizza Night

22 Apr

We wanted to have a low key dinner last night so we headed over to Pizza Guru. We ordered two pizzas to share. The first was the White House with no chicken. It came with a garlic white sauce, basil, artichoke hearts, onions and mozzarella topped with cilantro and sun dried tomatoes. We also ordered the Guru Baja.

This pizza had a baja black bean base, shredded pepper jack cheese, red and green peppers, carmelized onions and was topped with lettuce, pico de gallo, crumbled cotija cheese, cilantro-lime sour cream and avocado. I really liked the heat from the pepper jack cheese. As we were leaving, I bought a GF chocolate chip cookie to enjoy when we got home!

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Root 246

14 Apr

From the moment we sat down, it was clear that we were going to have a great meal at Root 246 in Solvang. Our waitress, whose sister also has celiac disease, was incredibly helpful and informative. We started with an order of the nuts which were warm and served with lemon, thyme and salt.

My dad and I then shared two starters… the oysters and the mussels. The oysters were meaty and fresh.

The mussels and the sauce that they were cooked in were absolutely wonderful.

They were served with fries (GF!) that successfully soaked up all of the delicious sauce. Our waitress was very clear explaining that the fries were in a separate fryer. However, the fryer is next to another fryer (not connected to it), so there is a chance that oil could splatter from the fryer next to it. I took my chances because I was really craving fries.

For my main dish, I ordered the scallops which were served with pork belly. YUM. I am not ashamed to say that I finished every morsel of this dish. They were meant to be served with crispy mushrooms, but since those were not GF, I had it without them.

We ordered three side dishes to accompany our mains: broccolini with garlic and crushed almonds, crispy kale with salt and shishito peppers.

I enjoyed all three, but I think the kale was my favorite. It sort of melted in my mouth.

The shishito peppers were interesting and flavorful as well.

I wasn’t planning on having dessert. My mom ordered a scoop of their Tahitian Vanilla Ice Cream. My dad ordered the butterscotch pudding taster with a peanut butter cookie. When our waitress, Dana (I think that was her name), brought their desserts out, she brought me some sort of a chocolate flourless cake so that I would have something to eat.

Any restaurant that insists that I eat GF dessert is all right by me. We really thought his meal was fantastic. Even though I feel like I lucked out having our waitress, I got the impression that any of the staff there would be as competent as her.

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Seal Sanctuary and Brunch

21 Mar

I didn’t have to work today and it is so beautiful out so we decided to go for a walk to the Seal Sanctuary with our pup. Once we got there, we took turns looking at the seals since dogs aren’t allowed within sight of the sanctuary. This is one of those special spots in the Santa Barbara area.

This time of year, it is a protected birthing habitat for the seals. We could see the young seals playing around with the older seals. If you time it right and come in January and February, you might get to see them being born! After we finished our walk, we had worked up an appetite. On the way home, we stopped at the Summerland Beach Cafe since they had a huge sign saying that they were dog friendly. When we sat down, our dog was given a water bowl and a dog biscuit. I ordered the Rigoberto’s Rancheros with my eggs over easy.

The potatoes were made with onions which I always like. My only thought was that the cheese could have been a bit more melted but overall, it was a very satisfying dish.

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Downey’s

20 Mar

Tonight we went to Downey’s, which is consistently rated one of the best restaurants in Santa Barbara. I was interested to see how gluten-free friendly they were. Our waiter was really good, running down the menu and letting me know what was safe and what to avoid. I started with the mussels. They were prepared with a bit of curry and served on lentils. Then I had the steak prepared with grilled asparagus and pureed potatoes.

This was very good. After this course they brought out a cheese platter that we could choose from. I asked if we could have a plate made without the stilton since blue cheeses typically start their mold from bread. When they served the cheese though, it was on a plate with bread and crackers. I thought that they would have remembered that I could not have bread and crackers near my food. I ended up just eating the ends of the cheeses that were furthest from the gluten. Overall the two dishes I had were wonderful, but I was disappointed that at that stage of the meal, there was such a careless mistake.

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