Gluten Free in SoCal - Part 2

This post is a continuation of our first few days in SoCal.

Thuesday through Thursday, we spent in the Disneyland area. As far as allergens go, everyone we spoke to was incredibly accommodating, which was nice. It was the norm to have managers come over to talk to us as soon as they found we were gluten free, and even chefs come out to assure us they had personally overseen that no cross-contamination occurred!

On Tuesday night, we walked around Downtown Disney and decided to eat at the Rainforest Cafe. While they do not have a dedicated gluten free menu we were very comfortable with the menu and selections we made. We were a little disappointed to find out that the lava nachos appetizer contained gluten :( but we had wonderful dinners, both gluten free: my husband ordered the Tuscan Chicken (no Dijon mustard), and I ordered a special that was shrimp and veggies wrapped in parchment paper. Both were extremely yummy and we left very full. (By this point, my husband was starting to get annoyed at all the souvenir alcohol glasses I was collecting, though, lol).

Wednesday, we ate breakfast at our hotel (The Anaheim Sheraton) and then went to Disneyland. We had a blast! It was off-season so at least in the morning, there wasn't much of a wait at all for rides, though it got more packed as the day went on. Now, the thing with Disneyland and California Adventure - if you go to Guest Services and request a list, they'll give you a packet that lists all the safe options at all of their eateries. It's a pretty comprehensive list, and includes pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers (both with buns), fries fried in a dedicated fryer, and a lot of other things. We ate lunch in the park - my husband ordered a gluten free pizza (there were three other people there waiting for gluten free pizzas as well, as they're made to order!) and I had a salad.

For dinner, we went back to Downtown Disney and ate at Tortilla Jos. Their menu clearly marks all the gluten free items, and they had a wonderful outdoor, heated patio which we loved. How often can we eat outside in January?? We were extremely hungry after our day at Disneyland, and we ordered a bunch of stuff - first, they come with chips and salsa. We ordered a nachos appetizer, and my husband ordered their crispy tacos while I ordered the shrimp tortillas, all gluten free.

... The problem? Portion sizes. It was WAY too much food, and our eyes were significantly bigger than our stomachs. We left stuffed and didn't eat a lot of our food.

On Thursday, we went back to California Adventure and, since we had a park hopper pass, rode on a couple of our favorite rides at Disneyland too. For lunch we ate in California Adventure, at a place that did gluten free burgers/buns and fries. We weren't that thrilled with the overall quality of the food there, but they can get away with it in the park!

For dinner on Thursday we went back to Tortilla Jos. This time, we ordered only the nachos, to share, and dessert. They had a coconut-rum flan with pineapple that was gluten free and absolutely sinful. It's worth the trip to California just for this flan. (My husband also wanted photographic evidence that my always-cold self wore a T-shirt, outside, in January. Note the awesome "Nerds Rock" shirt). ;-)

On Friday, we left Anaheim and went to Ontario. We were flying out of Ontario very early in the morning, and we wanted to stay close to the airport. Plus, I'd read all about this huge outlet mall, Ontario Mills, and just had to check it out. The mall did not disappoint - 10 wings of stores, including Coach Factory outlet (and Coach Men's), BCBG, Calvin Klein, LOFT, Betsey Johnson, Saks off Fifth, bebe, Guess, etc. Unfortunately, we didn't want to eat at the Rainforest Cafe again, and no restaurants in the mall knew what gluten was! We left the mall for lunch and found a Claim Jumper in Ontario, and then went back and spent some time at Dave & Buster's playing games (my husband deserved it, he was a wonderful sport about spending the entire day shopping).

For dinner, we tried Mimi's Cafe. We actually hadn't done any research on them, but we popped in and decided to ask if they had a gluten free menu - they did! My husband had the best steak he's had on his trip so far. I stuck with soup and salad. Excellent food and the most reasonable prices we'd seen in California.

That night we knew we'd be leaving before anything opened for breakfast, so we bought cereal, fruit and snacks from Trader Joes and a local convenience store for breakfast and on the plane. The plane ride was tiring, though, with layovers in Houston and Cleveland. Again, we hunted down food in Houston - we finally found a Wendy's where my husband ordered a Baja salad, but by the time we landed in Albany we were starving and headed straight for Outback steakhouse.

Overall -- we had a wonderful time and saw a lot of great people and sights, and I'm so glad we went. We both needed a vacation. However - I'm grateful to be home and cooking in my own kitchen too!

Gluten Free in SoCal - Part 1

Happy New Year everyone!

One of the reasons I've been absent for a while, is that my husband and I went to Southern California for 10 days over the New Year. We had a wonderful time visiting family and exploring Disneyland and other tourist attractions, and of course eating our way through Orange County (who needs pesky New Years resolutions, anyway??) ;-)

Given the topic of this blog -- you know I'll talk about the food.

The first leg of our trip, Thursday 12/30 through Monday 1/3, involved a lot of family events. We stayed with my husband's relatives in Yorba Linda, where I must say eating gluten free has never been so easy.

Thursday we flew out to California. We had two layovers, at Dulles and in Denver. When we bought the tickets six months ago, we logically thought that the extra layovers were worth saving $500 on two plane tickets. Let me tell you - they weren't. Lesson learned. With relatively short layovers and little chance of finding gluten free airport food, I made sure to pack a ton of snacks, even if they weren't the most healthy: popcorn, beef jerky, candy (Skittles, Jelly Belly, etc.), dried fruit, KIND bars and Ian's breakfast bars were on the list. And they got us through the first eight hours of our twelve hour day, but by the second layover my husband just wanted some real food (I couldn't blame him - KIND bars get old after a while, plus we were paranoid about eating them on the plane since they contain nuts, and scarfed them down in between flights). We hunted down a shop that sold plain garden salads with nothing remotely offensive on it, and Ken's salad dressings for my hubby, and I got a fruit cup. Then -- on to the next flight.

We landed at Ontario airport and drove to our hotel, then met a large group of his family at a Chinese restaurant. My husband's godmother had made arrangements, and they cooked my husband's dinner as a clean stir-fry in a white sauce with no additives. It wasn't necessarily the most interesting meal on the planet, but at that point shrimp, veggies and rice tasted heavenly.

On Friday, we had some time on our own before meeting his relatives for a New Years party. We found a pretty awesome mini golf and gaming place called Camelot in Anaheim (this picture is the building, isn't it cool?) and at lunch at a Mexican chain called Rubios (their allergen information is conveniently posted online). It was fast food, OK for a quick meal and tasty, but not much to write home about. My husband had the Nachos Grande and I had tacos. That night his thoughtful godmother made sure that there were plenty of gluten free options at the New Years party!

Saturday, we had breakfast at the Corner Bakery Cafe. You wouldn't think that would be a great place for someone who is celiac to dine at, but their website clearly marks gluten free, non dairy and vegetarian items on their menu (Note: they aren't clearly marked in the bakery, but you can ask to see a menu). We both had egg scrambles, which were very good, and they let us substitute fresh fruit for toast.

After breakfast, we headed down to Long Beach to check out the sights, including the Aquarium of the Pacific. It's a really cool place and I'd highly recommend checking it out - kids especially would love it, because there are a lot of exhibits where you can pet sharks and stingrays and other such creatures! Right next to the Aquarium is Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co, which was on our list of places to check out (and they fortunately have a gluten free menu!) My husband ordered the Accidental Fish and Shrimp, and I ordered the Fresh Red Snapper with Lobster Butter Sauce. Both were divine. And, of course, you can't go to Bubba Gump's without their spiked lemonade. :-)

For dinner, we checked out ZPizza. They have personal-pan pizza size gluten free crusts, thin and crispy and tasty, with a ton of toppings. We both got gluten free crusts to share, my husband got a sausage and mushroom pizza and I got the California pizza. Yum!

On Sunday, we tried The Original Pancake House for breakfast - I had read about them online and found out they had gluten free pancakes, which we absolutely had to try! They were delicious, but the portions were humongous - the two of us could have easily shared one dish. We ate lunch at my husband's godmother's house, and went for a group dinner to see some of my husband's family members off - we went to a BBQ place that, quite frankly, sucked. At least in regards to their gluten free selection - their BBQ sauce had gluten in it! My husband ordered a steak.

On Monday, his family wanted to go to the Original Pancake House, so we went again! This time, neither of us wanted a huge breakfast. I wanted just eggs over easy and bacon, and my husband only wanted an omelette. Lo and behold, pancakes even come with those! We were so stuffed we didn't even want to think about lunch that day. That afternoon we drove down to Carlsbad, and checked out the outlet stores. I made some pretty decent scores, including a $200 BCBG sweater for, oh, $25. :)

However, Monday night for dinner we checked out the Claim Jumper, another restaurant with a gluten free menu. My husband was extremely excited to order the California Quesadilla, because he hadn't had a restaurant quesadilla since being diagnosed celiac. He loved it. (I ordered off the non-gluten free menu this time, so no sharing for this meal).

After this point, we said goodbye to the rest of my husband's family, and went to downtown Anaheim for the rest of our trip.