It has been a trying month and a half here in Santa Barbara between the fires and the mudslides. Add the fact that I gave birth to a son a week before the Thomas Fire started, and you can imagine how crazy it has been. During the stretch of days with toxic air, we stayed inside as long as possible before I needed to get out of the house. We took a day trip north to Avila Valley Barn which was the perfect place to breathe fresh air for a few hours. There were pony rides and animal feedings for my daughter and yummy gluten-free snacks for purchase so that we were all happy. We also did a day trip south to Camarillo and Thousand Oaks. We spent a couple of hours at a local playground and then went to Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar for lunch. Our waitress was very well informed about cross contamination for both my celiac and my daughter’s allergies. I had the GF Sweet and Spicy Shrimp Wok which was unbelievably tasty. I think it was a combination of the fresh air, friendly service and being able to eat safe Asian-style cuisine, but I loved my meal and have been thinking of returning since we were there.
Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar
21 JanSeres Restaurant and Xiao Chi Bar
8 Aug
It is hard to find a Chinese Restaurant that is easy to eat at as a Celiac other than PF Changs. So imagine my excitement to find Seres in Portland. Here, GF items are clearly marked and I found our waitress to be very aware of cross contamination. We started with an order of the Tofu Salad Rolls. Then for our main dish, we split two of the vegetarian dishes. The first was the Dry-Sautéed String Beans.
Words can not describe how wonderful these were. All I know is that I will be thinking about these for a very long time. We also had the Kung Pao Tofu and Vegetables.
This dish was also great. Between the two of us, this was plenty of food as this dish was quite hardy.
P.F. Chang’s
27 Nov
Holy moly, where does time go? I just returned from the East coast where I spent the holiday with family in New Jersey and Baltimore. This means there will be some travel posts coming your way to make up for the inactivity over here! The night before Thanksgiving, we headed over to P.F. Chang’s for some Chinese food. This is one of my favorite chains because they offer a Gluten-Free menu, take several steps to ensure there is no cross-contamination and offer really tasty food! I have always found their staff very knowledgeable about the GF menu. You will also find that the GF menu items are served on a plate with their logo on it to ensure that it stays GF from the kitchen all the way to your table. I started with Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps.
These consisted of wok-seared minced chicken, mushrooms, green onions, and water chestnuts served over crispy rice sticks and served with crisp lettuce cups. Additionally, our waiter provided me with my own GF soy sauce to adjust to my own taste preferences (spicy!). For my main dish, I had the GF Beef á la Sichuan.
These flank steak strips were cooked until they were crispy and then were tossed with julienne celery and carrots. I loved this dish as it had a little kick to it. The table also shared a side of the gluten-free garlic snap peas.
At the end of the meal, I was stuffed. Perhaps it is a good thing that there is not a P.F. Chang’s closer to Santa Barbara than Thousand Oaks!
gluten-free in sb 