Gluten Free In the San Francisco Bay Area, California
Well, I was finally fortunate enough to have a business trip that took me to California, a place where I know how to be gluten free.
My first stop after my hotel was Mariposa Bakery in Oakland. If you ever travel to the San Francisco Bay Area, make sure to stop here because not only do they have amazing goodies but they're also the only all gluten free bakery in the area. (That I know of at least...and I would think I would have heard if another opened up since that's my home turf.) It's a super cute place to stop in for a coffee or tea as well. I ordered one of their pressed panini's without cheese and it was delish! A whole bunch of roasted veggies with a nut and dairy free pesto sauce. I also picked up a full bag of other goodies inludining, penguinos(!!!!!!!), cinnamon rolls (not as good unheated), almond biscotti, a lemon poppy seed muffin (which I never got to try), foccocia bread (which I never got to try), and a baguette which is currently in my refridgerator waiting to be turned into either french toast or croutons. Now I have to say.... The penguinos were AMAZING! I mean just insane tasting. They're essentially little gluten free and vegan hostess cupcakes with the marshmellowy cream in the center. Get one of these as soon as you can. I also got the opportunity to stop at Mariposa's Ferry Building location in San Francisco for lunch on Thursday and Friday and picked up their salami sandwich that they make in cooperation with the tasty salty pig parts people. Yum! It has a sundried tomato spread and lettuce on it as well.
When Zeke got into town we also made our traditional stop at Betelnut, the only non-chain restaurant in San Francisco (that I know of again) that has a dedicated gluten free menu. We ordered the Laksa (as we always seem to) and it was amazing as always. I think we also ordered some kind of crispy rice ceviche and a shrimp special (which sadly was not that impressive).
As we made our way down to the Santa Cruz area for a wedding, we ate at Aldo's Restaurant in Santa Cruz, which was not only an amazing spot for the rehersal dinner, but they were very easy going, understanding, and wonderful about cooking my fish seperatly from the others.
Now here is the best part of the whole weekend...I was able to safetly eat the food at the wedding and it was amazingly good! Jalisco Restaurant from Watsonville catered the wedding and handmade real corn tortillas and I was able to eat the roasted veggies, beans, and guacomole. It was so that it's really hard to describe. I'm sure a big part of it is how much I miss the mexican food that you can get in California, but is so far hard to find in the Seattle area. I think we may have to make a lunch stom at Jalisco's on the way down for our wedding next month!