Tag Archives: travel

Nauthóll

27 Aug

Carrot SoupOne of my favorite lunches while in Iceland was at Nauthóll. Located five minutes from downtown Reykjavik, they were very accommodating once we showed them the GF travel card. I started with the carrot, coconut milk and ginger soup. In the soup, there was greek yogurt, roasted pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries. It was an interesting mix of ingredients, but it was delicious nonetheless. After the soup, I had the Sweet Potato and Red Beet Salad.

Sweet Potato and Red Beet SaladThis salad was so good. It had spiced red beets, melon, grilled sweet potatoes, goat cheese, caramelized nuts and chicken. I couldn’t manage to finish it since it was huge, but I was thinking about this meal days later. If you have any gluten eaters with you, make sure they order the grilled garlic bread as it got rave reviews.

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Sjávargrillið

27 Aug

Víðir´s saladA short walk from our hotel in Reykjavik was Sjávargrillið, a seafood grill. I started with Víðir´s Salad which came with arugula, tomato and cheese. The dressing was extremely light and lacked a lot of flavor, but it was nice to be able to order salad. For my main dish, I had the Grilled Leg of Lamb.

Grilled Leg of LambThis dish usually comes with fried lamb shoulder as well, but I just requested the grilled lamb to avoid any gluten issues. It was served with turnips, onions and cabbage and was quite good.

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101 Restaurant & Bar

27 Aug

EdamameOur first night in Reykjavik, we had dinner at our hotel. Prior to the meal at 101 Restaurant & Bar, we had let the restaurant know about my brother and I being gluten-free. We also presented gluten-free travel cards to our waitress when we sat down (We did this at every meal in Iceland). I started with the edamame which was pretty heavy on the salt. Our waitress then informed us that there was one dish that they could prepare GF as a main course. Since this was our one option, we both had the salmon with ratatouille.

Salmon with RatatouilleThis was good, although it would have been nice to have some other choices. In Icelandic schools, it is mandatory to learn Icelandic, English and a third language of their choice. For this reason, it was easier to communicate with restaurants than I had anticipated.

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A Mano Pizza

27 Aug

Fresca SaladWe have just gotten back from a family trip to Iceland and Italy. There will be plenty of posts coming your way soon. This first one was our meal prior to leaving from the East Coast. In Ridgewood, New Jersey, there is a pizzeria called A Mano Pizza where they fully understand cross contamination. They make their gluten-free pizzas in a separate oven and with separate utensils. I started with the Fresca salad which had baby arugula, shaved parmigiano, cherry tomatoes and balsamic. I then had a GF Margherita pizza with garlic.

Margherita Pizza with GarlicAll of the ingredients in the pizza were very fresh and flavorful. It was a great way to start our vacation!

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Old Wives’ Tales

13 Aug

GF PancakesFor breakfast one morning, we headed to the East side of Portland to a place called Old Wives’ Tales. At Old Wives’ Tales, they state that at least 90% of their menu is gluten-free. There, I ordered GF pancakes made from Bob’s Red Mill GF flours. I also had a side GF English Muffin.

GF English MuffinSometimes it is nice to go to a restaurant and to be able to order a bunch of carbs!

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Sizzle Pie

13 Aug

GF Cheese PizzaAfter a long afternoon of exploring Powell’s Bookstore, we crossed the street to grab some gluten-free pizza. At Sizzle Pie, we found that not only do they offer a GF crust, but they prepare it on separate surfaces and use different utensils. The crust was thicker than a lot of GF crusts and was very good.

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Portland Farmer’s Market

12 Aug

Lemon Poppy Seed CakeOne of the best ideas we had in Portland was to visit the Farmer’s Market on Saturday at Portland State. Almost immediately upon getting there, we spotted the deliciousness above at Gabriel’s Bakery stand. This was a gluten-free lemon poppy seed cake. Thinking that there wouldn’t be too many things for me, we bought it and ate it immediately. It was incredibly good. Once we started walking around some more, we found that almost every stand there had GF options. There were too many gluten-free things! There were numerous GF bakeries, savory hand pies, ice cream sandwiches and more. I couldn’t resist getting a baguette at the New Cascadia stand.

GF BaguetteThis bakery is entirely gluten-free. I ended up snacking on this over the next couple of days. We also saw a Petunia’s stand. Knowing how much we enjoyed our experience there the day before, we decided to try their Salted Caramel Cookie Bar.

Salted Caramel Cookie BarThis did not disappoint as it was the perfect balance of sweet and salty. If you are in Portland on a Saturday you MUST experience this Farmer’s Market… and go hungry!

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Verde Cocina

10 Aug

ChilaquilesWhile in Portland, we ate at an entirely gluten-free restaurant called Verde Cocina. Described as having “Northwest Farm-to-Fork Ingredients with a Mexican flair”, the dishes on the brunch menu were a bit healthier than your average Mexican brunch. Everything on their menu comes with seasonal veggies. I ordered the Chilaquiles. This had eggs scrambled with pieces of their handmade corn tortillas and was topped with veggies, white bean garbanzo mash and ranchero salsa. I enjoyed it, but I might have put a little hot sauce on  it for more oomph.

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Seres Restaurant and Xiao Chi Bar

8 Aug

Tofu Salad RollsIt 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.

Dry-Sautéed String BeansWords 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.

Kung Pao Tofu and VegetablesThis dish was also great. Between the two of us, this was plenty of food as this dish was quite hardy.

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Petunia’s Pies & Pastries

7 Aug

Rose Test GardenThere are so many beautiful outdoor spaces in Portland. One day we walked to the Rose Test Garden which was massive compared to our Santa Barbara rose garden. Here, there were over 7,000 rose plants. After stopping to smell the roses, we continued to the Japanese Garden.

Portland Japanese GardenKnown as the most authentic Japanese garden outside of Japan, this was also very beautiful. By now we had worked up an appetite so we walked back towards our hotel to think about our next meal. On the way, we just happened to walk by a completely gluten-free and vegan bakery called Petunia’s.

Petunia's BakeryThis place was amazing. After much deliberation, we decided on the Peanut Butter Crispy Bar.

Peanut Butter Crispy BarThis was like a peanut butter rice crispy treat…. how could that ever be bad? There were so many appealing looking things in the case. The bakery itself was really cute too, offering made-to-order coffee beverages and cocktails.

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