Bangkok Thai Bistro

Friday evening we went with some friends for a birthday dinner at Bangkok Thai Bistro in Schenectady. It's a Thai restaurant and martini bar (sushi is also available on the menu). They also have karaoke on Wednesday - Friday evenings and offer discounted movie tickets to Bow-Tie cinemas.

I'd heard good things about the place, and the moment we walked into the restaurant, we were hit by this amazing smell and knew the food was going to be good. When we sat down we ordered a round of drinks (Since they advertise their restaurant as a martini bar, I just had to try one of their specialty drinks, so I ordered a flirt-ini).

We were very impressed that the menu said (in bold) to see your server with any dietary restrictions. I asked our waitress about gluten free options, and she had a chef check off all of the safe dishes on the menu. There were a lot of options, including the following:

• Chicken Sate - Marinated, char grilled chicken on skewers, served with peanut sauce
• Tom Kai Chicken - Chicken soup made with coconut milk and gal angal
• Sweet and Sour - Choice of meat sauteed with fresh garlic, ground peppers, mushrooms and baby corn, in a light brown sauce
• Green Garden - Choice of meat steamed with green vegetables topped with house peanut sauce
• Fish Coconut (Steamed or crispy) broiled fillet of fish topped with panang curry sauce
• Thai Curries - Red, Green, Yellow, Panang, and Masaman curries
• Thai Inter - A combination of crispy duck, scallops and shrimp served with bell peppers, baby corn, and mixed vegetables in a panang curry sauce
• Bistro Duck - A half duck served crispy and topped with bell peppers, string beans, snow peas and bamboo shoots in a green curry sauce
• Bistro Curry - Combination of shrimp, scallops, squid and mussels sauteed in a panang curry sauce

Obviously, since menu items can change over time, I'd double check their list of safe items, but this is a pretty good list of choices! Several of the dishes are marked with a level of spiciness which can be adjusted either way for personal taste.

I'll admit that I didn't order anything gluten free - I couldn't resist the drunken noodles - but my husband tried the Thai Inter and really enjoyed it. We both cleaned our plates! We had both gone to the gym before meeting at the restaurant, and I thought my portion was perfect but my husband was still a little hungry - if you have a large appetite you might want to consider ordering an appetizer first.

The prices aren't that bad either - dinners usually range between 10 and 20, though the alcohol is pricey - 6-8 dollars for a mixed drink is a little steep, especially when it's small-ish and kind of weak.

Overall we were happy with our experience and have added Bangkok Thai Bistro to our list of restaurants to visit regularly. And a sweet end to the evening? Walking back to our car we saw that Villa Italia was open late, so we stopped in and bought some of their delicious almond paste - and gluten free - cookies!

A Gluten Free Wedding

Well, it’s been quite a long while since my last entry. I was caught up in all sorts of last-minute wedding details, and then had my wedding and honeymoon. The wedding was absolutely amazing. Everything was perfect, everyone was beautiful, and our guests had a great time. However, this being a food blog, I’m going to focus on what we ate.

First of all – we had our ceremony and reception at the Glen Sanders Mansion in Scotia, NY. Let me tell you, if you’re planning a wedding in the Capital Region, go there. Maria, the wedding coordinator, was extremely organized and capable, and she – along with the rest of her staff – made sure everything went off without a hitch.

That said – one of the major obstacles we faced during the entire wedding planning process was my husband’s diagnosis with celiac disease. I know I’ve said this before, but finding that out right after going to a wedding cake tasting is a cruel twist of fate. Still, after finding out about his new gluten-free lifestyle, we made an appointment with Maria at Glen Sanders. We had already selected the menu for our guests, which included a Peppercorn & Herb Crusted Chateaubriand and Chicken Française with Jumbo Tuscan Shrimp. However, she and the chefs were extremely accommodating and worked with us to create a second, gluten free menu for my husband.

Several of the appetizers served during cocktail hours, such as the shrimp cocktail and the cheese platter, were naturally gluten free. The chefs arranged some special hors d'oeuvres for my husband, including brie & spinach stuffed mushrooms and chicken satay, as well as gluten-free variations of the hors d'oeuvres passed to the rest of the guests during cocktail such as the scallops wrapped in pancetta. The waitress assigned to us (yes, I told you they pulled out all the stops) brought him plates of appetizers separated from the rest of the food to avoid any cross-contamination.

During our dinner, instead of the jumbo stuffed ravioli we served our guests, my husband had an antipasto sampler, and since he had his heart set on the chicken and fish dinner we’d originally selected, we came up with a grilled and marinated chicken and shrimp dish with white rice and green beans. He was extremely satisfied with his meal choice and afterwards reported that everything was delicious.

However – that’s not even the best part! Glen Sanders’ wedding packages include a cake from Villa Italia. We’d already selected a yellow cake with lemon cream filling and whipped cream frosting, in this beautiful three-tiered design with butter cream flowers. Considering the fact that my husband doesn’t eat chocolate, it was a perfect cake for us, and again he’d had his heart set on this combination – that took us an afternoon of sampling to decide upon.

Now it goes without saying that cake is not generally on a gluten-free diet. However, we worked with a wonderful woman named Tricia at Villa Italia, and they gave us a 6” round gluten free cake to add on to our wedding cake. My husband wanted the same flavor cake – or as close as possible – to what we already picked out, and they delivered! The yellow cake was slightly darker than a “normal” yellow cake because of the different flours, but it was light and delicious, and, speaking as someone who ate both the gluten free cake (when we fed each other cake) and a piece of “regular” cake, they tasted exactly the same. Not to mention absolutely gorgeous!

The rest of this round is safely tucked away in my in-laws' freezer (not only don't we have a lot of freezer space in our apartment, but we'd already have broken down and eaten the rest by now, not to mention our first anniversary, if it was within five miles of us).

All in all we had a wonderful experience. It was such a relief to know that my husband’s dietary needs were taken care of (that’s the last day in the world you want to get sick!) and everything was handled in such a professional and classy manner. I don’t want this blog entry to come off sounding too much like an advertisement, but wow – I can’t praise Glen Sanders or Villa Italia enough for their service on the most important day of our lives.

Stay tuned for my next blog entry – eating gluten free in Mexico!