Here you will find an archived weblog of my food, travel, and creative pursuits which I kept from 2010-2016. Please note both that the travel information contained here may outdated and that these logs were created on a prior version of this website and may not yet be optimized for the current version. If you’re looking for specific content, use the search field below! <3
An unplanned but much needed night in Revelstoke, British Columbia turned out to be quite the delicious stop over. While almost every little mountain town we drove through on this trip seemed to have a little natural foods store, Revelstoke was like hitting a jackpot in terms of allergen friendly food.
Read MoreMy long weekend in Portland was filled with both amazing lessons learned at World Domination Summit as well as delicious new gluten free (and mostly vegan) food finds around the city. In a matter of four days, I managed to make it to six new to me eateries. However, I had to back to a few of my old favorites which to my delight had lots of new amazing things to offer. New Cascadia Traditional Bakery is now selling the absolute best gluten free bread I've ever had and it's in baguette form. This baguette is based on the Portland Sourdough they've been baking for years - but now it's light, fluffy, and has a fantastic crunch to the crust. It reminds me of that bread crunch scene in Ratatouille. Tula Gluten Free Bakery Cafe is offering their amazing salted chocolate chip cookies in the form of an ice cream sandwich using vanilla Coconut Bliss ice cream (my favorite!). Of course I also returned to Prasad and Andina - where I always feel so well taken care of and eat the most amazing food.
Now that I've covered the old, let's move on to the new!
It's starting to seem like just about every trip I take to Boston is filled with some kind of food related mishap or at least a mildly chaotic episode. On my first trip after going gluten free back in 2011, I got glutened and spent 2 1/2 days feeling incredibly sick. This time around finding gluten free options seemed much easier, however each time I ordered my gluten free dish without any dairy - that last request always seemed to slip the staff's mind. That being said - both restaurants I'll mention in this short post recovered very well from the stumble and got me a new hot dish immediately.
Let me answer the first question that's on your mind. Am I in San Diego for Comic Con?
No. I'm home in Seattle - still dreaming big dreams after WDS. However, I certainly wouldn't mind a trip to San Diego for a combination of Comic Con and some surfing in Encinitas.
Even though I'm not in Sandy Eggo this week, thousands of other awesome people are descending upon a city which I used to call home and which happens to have a fantastic gluten free eating scene. After all the thanks and positive comments I received about the Gluten Free In Portland: For WDS post and a great twitter friend of mine asking if I had a similar guide for San Diego - it seemed just right that I get this post together.
One last thing before I get into my picks for the best places to eat around the city. When I attended WDS a few weeks ago in Portland, I found a custom twitter hashtag to be very useful for sharing great finds with my gluten free compatriots. So if you find a great gluten free establishment during your week in San Diego - share it on twitter with #SDCCGF!
Well, I'm super pumped because tomorrow I'm crossing off another item on my life list; attend World Domination Summit (WDS). This all got going several months ago when I applied to be an ambassador (volunteer) and was accepted - meaning in exchange for lending a helping hand during the event, I'd also get to attend. A pretty serious win considering the fantastic line up of speakers and the fact that the event is in one of the most gluten free friendly cities I've ever visited; Portland, Oregon. Seriously, I love the food in Portland - I may even love it more than New York City. Regardless of what your dietary needs might be, the eateries of greater Portland seem to be pros at catering to all sorts of dietary needs.
Since Portland has almost 3,000 people descending upon it to attend WDS and I'm positive I'm not the only gluten free one in the bunch, I thought I'd share some of the spots I keep returning to for great gluten free (and mostly vegan) eats throughout the city. I've also included a number of links to other resources for you to query for even more ideas.
Let's take this one step further as well, if you find a great gluten free friendly establishment during your weekend at WDS - share it on twitter with the hashtag; #WDS2013GF. Share the gluten free discovery goodness!
After the second worst transportation fiasco I've experienced during my travels (the first involved forgetting my passport), my husband and I managed to change our rental car reservations and navigate our way on to a train from Paris to Dijon.
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It's almost hard to believe that my trip to San Diego in February was the last time I traveled out of state. While I was down there all of my future work travel was canceled (at least for the time being) so all I've got left are three short personal trips coming up later this month and in May. The time at home as been much needed - I don't recall the last time I can say I slept in my own bed for a consecutive month.
Either way, I'm glad my last trip was to San Diego. Since I lived there for 3 1/2 years it's an easy place to get around and when I went last year I discovered oodles of gluten free friendly eateries. While I generally make an effort to get out and try new places, I found myself returning to Casa Guadalajara a few times this trip. However I was able to pull myself away from their delicious Mexican food to try two new-to-me places that I now get to share with you!
So far, Portland is my absolute favorite city to visit for amazing gluten free and vegan eats (no, I'm not vegan - but I have a preference for it, especially while on the road). There's just so many options and sometimes it feels like I'll never make it through my long list of places I still need to try there. Good thing I'm only 3 hours away, so a quick trip down to Portland is a realistic option.
First I want to tell you all about a bakery started by one of the blog friends I met in real life at my first blogging conference last year. Geanna is funny and delightful in person and I'm always inspired by people who start their own businesses. A month or so ago, Geanna asked me if I'd be interested in reviewing her tasty treats from her bakery, Cinnamon, and I said of course. Generally, I don't do reviews but in the case of small businesses started by awesome blogging friends - I feel like an exception is appropriate.
Geanna sent me 3 varieties of her donuts; a plain one topped with cinnamon and sugar, a chocolate one, and two of the new seasonal lemon ones (my personal favorite). They were by far the best I've had since going gluten free and the fact that they're also free of the common allergens and vegan - total win. I love products that just ditch all the common allergens since that makes them friendlier for a greater number of people. Both my husband and I were truly impressed by the fluffy texture (none of that graininess that comes with a lot of gluten free treats) and how moist they were, especially after being shipped. These donuts were heads and shoulders above the other gluten free frozen ones I've found in grocery stores.
Oh Barcelona. I must admit that you are not my favorite city in the world and to be honest I was rather under whelmed. Park Guell was very interesting, albeit swamped with people, and seeing the ancient Roman walls was cool too. Perhaps because neither of us are super into art or architecture, the crowded nature of the city, or maybe we were just ready to head home - either way it just didn't end up being a favorite stop on our trip.
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The day after I got back to Seattle from my month long stay in Brooklyn, New York - my husband and I hopped in the car with our pup and headed down to the San Francisco Bay Area to spend a few days with half of our family for the holidays. While it was a quick trip and packed with family gatherings (full of gluten free food) - we still managed to try out a few gluten free friendly spots up and down the Peninsula. We'll start down south in Sunnyvale and get all the way north to San Francisco itself!
If you've been reading my Gluten Free In posts for a while, you'll know that PF Changs is one of my favorites for a great (and safe) gluten free meal. One of the things I love about PF Changs is that it offers options for anyone. There are plenty of vegetarian dishes and if you're sensitive to soy like me - there are a few dishes you can get without it!
