Tag Archives: california

Nutbelly Pizzeria and Deli

5 Jan

This morning, we started the day right by going on a hike. My favorite hike in Santa Barbara is Inspiration Point because it doesn’t take too long but there is a great payoff at the top of the trail. Pictured above is the view you see at the top. After the hike, we decided to get some lunch. I had read somewhere that Nutbelly Pizzeria and Deli in Carpinteria has gluten-free pizza. So, we headed South on the 101 for a few minutes to reach our destination. It is located on the main street in Carp, called Linden Avenue.

I started with the Mediterranean salad. This was okay. It was a pretty good size. I probably wouldn’t order it again though. You know what I WOULD order again? The ridiculous tasty pizza I got.

I got the cheese pizza with garlic added on. This pizza was fantastic. There were tons of minced pieces of fresh garlic and the crust was such a good consistency. It held up like “normal” pizza crust does. My husband and I both put it in our top 5 best GF pizzas we have ever had. I asked some questions and it turns out that they make their own GF pizza dough. It is a mixture of rice flour and tapioca flour. If you needed another reason to go here, they have Au Bon Climat wines by the glass, my favorite wine from this region!

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Anderson’s Danish Restaurant & Bakery

4 Jan

Photo from Anderson's Website

It was so incredibly nice out today in Santa Barbara so my husband and I went for walk along State Street after I got off of work. I have always been intrigued by Anderson’s, so we walked inside to take a look. Inside is a large baked goods case with tasty looking items. I asked one of the staff if they happened to any gluten-free items. What followed was amazing. He pointed out about ten items that were GF, all of which sounded like they would be incredibly good. He also offered a sample of any of them to us. I couldn’t resist, so I chose an item that sounded like it would be a good choice… something with a chocolate exterior and a creme filling. It reminded me of Yodels, a treat I used to love back in the gluten eating days. I will definitely be returning to try everyone one of those items… especially the APPLE PIE!

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Whole Foods Sandwich

2 Jan

We went to see The Descendants tonight at the Hitchcock Way Movie Theater. Go see this movie while it is still in the theaters. It was the perfect combination of funny and sad. Afterwards, we decided to pick up some dinner from Whole Foods. I went to the sandwich counter and asked if they could make a sandwich with GF bread. The guy said that he could. When I asked what kind of bread they use, he said Udi’s which made me really excited since their sandwich bread is great. However, it turned out he used Ener-G’s Tapioca Bread since they had an open package of it. It was pretty thin and crumbly and made me think that this is what most gluten eaters think all GF bread tastes like. The fillings were tasty though. I will definitely go back and try another sandwich on a day that they use Udi’s, especially since the guy was great about changing his gloves and being careful about cross contamination.

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Sushi Teri

30 Dec

Sushi Teri on Bath Street is our go-t0 for sushi if we don’t want to spend a fortune but want some good sushi. Tonight, we started with some edamame. I then got three rolls. The first was the SBCC roll.

In this roll is shrimp, broccoli, crab leg, cream cheese, avocado, cucumber and spicy sauce. I get this roll every time we are there. This time, I also tried two new rolls. They were all pretty similar though. The first was the Black Tiger. This had crab leg, avocado, cucumber, cream cheese and shrimp.

The last roll I got was the Red Shrimp. It wasn’t on the menu… I had seen it on the wall by the door when we were waiting to sit. It basically had a lot of the same ingredients as the first two rolls but with tuna on top. Happy New Years Eve Eve!

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Los Olivos Cafe and Mini Horses

27 Dec

I had the day off today so we drove into Los Olivos for lunch at the Los Olivos Cafe. I had a Caesar Salad without croutons and with grilled chicken. We also ordered the Roasted Local Vegetables which was supposed to include roasted garlic, fresh mozzarella and tapenade, but for some reason, ours didn’t have the mozzarella. This made us sad. After lunch, we went to Quicksilver Ranch in-between Solvang and Ballard. Miniature horses are quite funny looking. I highly recommend this place if you have kids or if you just want to laugh.

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Adama

23 Dec

Adama is one of those places that we have been meaning to try. My husband is a vegetarian and I have heard that they are GF Friendly. We always put it off for places that have cheesy items instead though. Tonight, we finally tried it and were pleasantly surprised. When I started asking GF questions, the waitress brought back a gluten-free labeled menu as shown above. We started with the Fritto Misto and the Sweet Potato Fries with Chipotle Aioli.

You must order the Fritto Misto. It is cauliflower in a lightly curried batter with a sweet chili sauce. Holy moly this was good. We devoured it…. who knew cauliflower could be so darn tasty? The fries were good too.

Our one complaint on them was that the chipotle aioli was quite subtle…. so subtle that we couldn’t really taste any chipotle. I ordered the Panang Curry as my main dish.
I had the choice of it being served with rice or quinoa. This dish was pretty flavorful. It was a generous portion and was quite hearty. We will definitely be returning to Adama to try some more dishes (and get some more Fritto Misto)!

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GF Chrismukkah Surprises

23 Dec

Last night my husband and I celebrated Chrismukkah. We celebrate by giving and getting eight gifts all in one night. Since one of the gifts he had ordered for me hadn’t arrived as of a couple days ago, he got back-up gifts which were quite delicious. He ordered gluten-free items from Mariposa Baking Co. It appears that they are based out of Northern California. Above, you are looking at the GF Focaccia. This was so good. We warmed it up a bit before eating it. There was a slight taste of rosemary that gave it a really nice aftertaste. He also got me the Sour Cream Coffeecake. I really liked this but I almost wish there was a bit more of the streusel on top. Finally, in my stocking I found gingerbread cookies!

Also from Mariposa, these were amazing. They come in a pack of 6 so I will be munching away on these for the next few days! To top off the festiveness, we went driving to see our favorite holiday lights at 1209 E. Quinientos Street.

A friend lives here and always manages to put more lights up than the last year. I know that he was on the cover of the News Press a few days ago. Here is an article online that they posted about him and his house from a few years ago.

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GF Pizza Night

21 Dec

Tonight we went to Olio Pizzeria because gluten-free pizza sounded fantastic for dinner. Last time we were there, they were able to make any of the pizzas gluten-free (but gluten-free crusts were not mentioned on the menu). This time, however, I found a change to the menu as shown above. It seemed interesting to me, so I asked our waitress about the change but she was under the impression that it had always been like this. Hmm. We ended up starting with the caponatina con burrata which was burrata cheese with sicilian ratatouille.

It was pretty good. The cheese was extra creamy towards the inside of the glob. We then ordered the two gluten-free pizzas, the Parma and the Margherita.

The Parma Pizza was good, but it was pretty hard to eat. I found that the crust was kind of soft towards the middle as well. The Margherita was better than the last time we were here because the cheese was melted thoroughly.

With the news of Ca Dario opening a Pizzeria in the future, I wonder if it will be similar to Olio Pizzeria. Perhaps they will have gluten-free crusts as well now that they carry GF pasta in their restaurant. I do have to say, I missed that truffle pizza that I had last time at Olio Pizzeria…

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Breakfast for Two Celiacs

20 Dec

This morning, one of my favorite celiacs joined me for breakfast at Savoy. She got the spinach and feta scramble without the feta and with egg whites. It was served with greens and some gluten-free toast. I got the GF French Toast.

It was delicious, as always. I finished all of my holiday shopping and everything has been shipped, so it was a relaxing morning. As an added bonus, I got to spend time with her 3-month old who gets cuter every time I see him.

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Santa Barbara Brewing Company

19 Dec

You would think that if I had tacos for lunch, I would try something else for dinner. You thought wrong. We decided to watch the 49ers/Steelers game at Santa Barbara Brew Co. I saw shrimp tacos on the menu and couldn’t resist. The waitress was great in finding out the ingredients in the sauces. When the table ordered the garlic fries, she was quick to tell me that they were fried in the same oil as the onion rings. With three large shrimp tacos, there was no need for anything else anyway!

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