This question recently came in via the Celiac Bay Area email group. I posted a response and figured it would be worth reposting that message here in case other restauranteurs were considering adding gluten free to their menus:

I think it’s great that you’re seeking out more feedback. I wish more restaurants would. Here’s some thoughts:

Of course the pizza process has to be careful of cross contamination. Flour can waft through the air, shared utensils, and doughy hands can carry gluten particles, and those are ways gluten can get in your product, so taking steps to minimize that risk will be very helpful. Separate area, separate equipment, separate toppings, etc., and be sure people are washing their hands before touching the gluten-free stuff.

Consider adding rice pasta as an option. Tinkyada is real good, and DeBoles isn’t bad either. Cook it in a separate pot with water that hasn’t been used for regular pasta. Identify which sauces are gluten free. Consider keeping uncontaminated sauces in a dedicated area too.

Some places keep perishable and pre-made items in the freezer so they don’t spoil, such as sauces and pizza crusts. You could even make a bunch of pre-made gluten-free garlic bread kept in the freezer, and throw them on a frying pan as needed. As we all know, pan frying toast is wayyyyyyy more yummy than broiling…

If you have other entrees such as bisteca, roasted chicken, or salads, see if those can be modified to be gluten free as well. Again the process needs to be dedicated. Salads are usually easy, but they need to be mixed in separate dedicated bowls, check the dressing ingredients, and be sure no-one goes through all that trouble only to place a bunch of croutons on the thing at the end…

If you put a little GF on the menu next to items that can be modified, the gluten-free customers will be very appreciative. Also put text on the menu stating that if customers are ordering gluten-free, to be sure to let the waiter know who in the party has issues so they don’t put the wrong thing in front of them.

Redbridge is a fine commercial gluten-free beer. Some places keep that in stock. Others such as Bard’s Tale and St. Peter’s Sorgham Beer are good too.

I also recommend finding a consultant to review and verify your gluten-free processes and help with training.

I can’t wait to try out your place sometime!

Hopefully this information will provide a bit of guidance in getting started with preparing a gluten-free restaurant menu. This information is by no means exhaustive; merely a place to begin research. For people with any food allergies or severe intolerances such as celiac, eating out can be risky and use the appropriate levels of caution.

At the very least this post might help build some awareness of what a pain in the ass I am to go out to dinner with. ¡Salud!

I have had a couple of awesome trips as a gluten-free gastronaut into San Diego County this past year. San Diego has some excellent restaurants, and here are some things I experienced that should be of some interest to the celiac community at large when planning things:

First of all, the Gluten Free in SD website is a fantastic resource and should be your first stop when organizing your trip. There’s a ton of good resources pointed out on the website, and things are indicated with latest dates that things were confirmed. This was the site I used to look up restaurants with gluten-free options, and to know what to expect when walking into theme parks and other tourist attractions.

Last winter break we headed down for four nights at the Coronado Bay Resort. This is a good place to stay, because the restaurant there is excellent for handling gluten free options. The breakfast buffet had gluten free muffins every morning, which were great by the way, and the chef was able to explain what was safe to eat from the menu and cook things special order. We had dinner here several times on this trip, just because the restaurant was handling the gluten-free requirements so well. If you’re headed to the theme parks, eat a big breakfast here because the theme parks mostly don’t have much to offer.

Sea World, The San Diego Zoo, and the San Diego Wild Animal Park didn’t have many things to eat that were gluten-free, but there were fruit items, nuts, and chips to be found—enough to tide one over for the day if not staying too long, at least until dinner. The great exception to the theme park scene in San Diego for gluten free options was Legoland, which had gluten-free hot dog and hamburger buns at most of the tray service food booths. When I had inquired about getting a hamburger with a gluten-free bun, the nice person taking my order clearly had been trained well in protocol for handling such requests, but she had also obviously never had such a request before. She was good about it and checked thoroughly, and she made sure I stayed at the window so I didn’t have to hang out on the side of the building for a long wait not knowing what was going on. The burger was terrible, just like everyone else’s. Mmmmm….

San Diego has a number of excellent restaurants with gluten-free menus or options. Our first stop in our December trip was to Del Mar Rendezvous, a chinese restaurant with a dedicated gluten-free menu and knowledgeable staff. We had the Beef Chow Fun and Kung Pao Chicken, both of which were excellent. The chow fun was done with flat fettuccine-like rice noodles that were quite wide and worked very well.

After our Legoland trip in December, we went to Claim Jumper in Carlsbad. Not bad, but they did bring my plate out with a big giant piece of bread on it when I had specified that I was ordering gluten-free from the menu and reminded them to ensure that no bread or whatnot was to come into contact with my food. Our waiter, who wasn’t the one returning with our food, was horrified and started making a scene when he left our table to go fix it, which was fun to watch. A freshly-prepared plate came back soon, sans gluten, and all was well.

This past weekend, we were down in San Diego again to help my aunt get some of her paintings appraised at the Antique Roadshow. The paintings weren’t worth a fortune or anything, but we found some more excellent restaurants to eat at:

Our first dinner stop was to Uno’s Chicago Grill. Uno’s was the scene of Yingwen’s and my first date together back when we were student’s at New England Conservatory, and we haven’t been to one since the last Uno’s locations left San Francisco several years ago. I knew they had a new gluten-free pizza on a dedicated menu, but by now I’m actually sick of gluten-free pizza. There’s plenty of it in the Bay Area now – and I still had half an unconsumed pizza left in my refrigerator back home! I tried the stuffed chicken instead, and ordered a Redbridge to go with it. Delicious, actually.

The following evening, after convincing my two aunts on this trip to watch our kids so Yingwen and I could have a date, we went to Ki’s Restaurant in Cardiff-by-the-Sea. This spot had a beautiful view overlooking the ocean and the setting sun, and we had prime seats. Ki’s sports a dedicated gluten-free menu that is quite extensive, and I ordered spring rolls as an appetizer and the Jidori chicken breast entree. The atmosphere here was clearly more laid back California style than your usual restaurant, which I appreciated, and the vegetables tasted as if they were picked within minutes—really fresh and delicious. Watching the sunset go down with a couple good glasses of Shiraz and Yingwen’s pint ‘o Mai Tai was a great way to spend the evening together.

We finished off our dining experience in San Diego at BJ’s Brewhouse, which has a good gluten-free menu. Of course they had a pizza option, and I gave in and ordered one since they have been getting rave reviews. They were out of Redbridge, but wine always works well in these situations and is actually the preferred choice these days. My pizza came ordered with pepperoni, bacon, sausage, artichoke hearts, green peppers, and mushrooms. Toppings-wise, local favorites such as Extreme Pizza and Pennini’s in Moraga win, but the crust was certainly pretty good.

Well that’s it for my San Diego roundup. I love this town!

This post is specifically for the gluten-free community in the San Francisco Bay Area in the short term, and I expect this will become a more global effort soon.

Our goal for today is: Access the Gluten Free Bay Area Google Map on iPhone. This can now be accomplished easily using the iPhone Google Earth app.

Why is this cool you ask? Because dining out on a gluten-free diet can be a complicated and depressing experience. Most restaurants don’t get it. The few that do are often hard to find. Many of us in the Bay Area celiac community have lessened this pain by contributing to this map, pinpointing which businesses cater to gluten-free needs (i.e. might have a gluten free menu or a savvy chef or wait staff.) This has turned into a very useful database over the months and years.

But on those times when you need it most, like when you’re on the road, you might not have access to a computer to be able to look up a place for lunch. Now with Google Earth on your iPhone and in your pocket, looking up gluten-free restaurants is more convenient than ever.

Here’s how to get started:

Step 1: Add the Gluten Free Bay Area Google Map to your saved maps by navigating to it (a shortened URL for those that need it: http://is.gd/4YuBP ) and clicking on the link indicated:

Step 2: Go to the App Store on your iPhone and install the Google Earth app.

Step 3: Launch Google Earth on your iPhone and tap the info icon in the lower right corner:

Tap the info icon on the lower right corner.

Step 4: Sign in and then tap on My Maps. Tap on Gluten Free Bay Area in the resulting screen. Now when you use Google Earth on iPhone, all the gluten free locations will show up on your map!

Gluten Free Bay Area map detail.

How cool is that?

If you need one more excuse to make the trip to visit Mariposa Baking Company in Oakland, here you go:

The Wine Mine, next door to Mariposa, now carries Green’s Beers. I have written about Green’s in an earlier post, and they are terrific (albeit expensive) choices for gluten-free beer lovers.

Mariposa remains the one spot in the Bay Area that I can sit and have coffee and a pastry and feel like a normal human. While there, I noticed three bottles of Green’s sitting on the counter with a note stating that they were available for sale next door. I asked about ‘em and they said the Wine Mine would open at 11. I’d definitely wait around for that.

I’m a fan of good, cheap wine finds, and it just so happens that The Wine Cave specializes in this realm. Awesome – I now have two reasons to come to this part of Oakland now. Met Dave, the proprietor, and he gave me a brief description of where things were at in the shop. Saw some of my favorite Shiraz varietals and picked up a Cab/Shiraz blend from Jip Jip Rocks of Australia on Dave’s recommendation plus a few bottles of Green’s of course, and had a nice look around. The shop is full of great finds, and a quick scan found many of the excellent and inexpensive wines that I have identified through prior trials.

Apparently Dave is hosting wine tastings from 2 to 5 on Saturdays. This sounds like a good opportunity to discover some new wines and maybe grab a slice of gluten-free pizza and a week’s supply of bagels next door beforehand. Time permitting (cough, cough), I’m going to try and make some of these events.

It occurs to me that when one business advertises the relevant products for a business next door, both benefit. A symbiosis is created – a hyperlink from business A to business B – and I now have all the more reason to visit both stores. I think more of these “real world hyperlink” techniques should be employed in neighborhood business networks, because I think there is a model here to help small businesses thrive through active cooperation. Brick-and-mortar shops are almost by definition stovepipe solutions for commerce. Active cross-pollination of each others’ relevant products could rekindle the local small business concept. Even direct competitors could benefit: Highlight what each other is lacking and fill in the respective voids to build and refine your niche markets. [How's that for a bunch of annoying, vapid marketing buzzwords?!? Get out your Bingo cards... ]

Beer tasting is back. Yesterday I found Green’s Beers in stock at the local BevMo. They had three of their varieties: Quest Tripel Blonde, Discovery Amber, and Endeavour Dubbel Dark. At around $5.50 per 500ml bottle, this is not cheap stuff. But as a deprived enthusiast of the craft ale, this is worth the experiment.

Why this is huge: I used to design my after-hours business travel around looking up whatever highly-rated microbreweries and brewpubs might be in the neighborhood, sample the local taps, and write little reviews of each of ‘em. I loved tasting ales across the country – it was a simple and fun hobby, and gave me something to do while having to spend time away from home.

Then I started getting sick with celiac, and when the doctor told me I had to avoid wheat, barley, and rye for life, the only thing that went through my mind was “barley… barley… holy crap!! That means no beer!!!!”

Thankfully I seem to live in a time where gluten-free ale is an emerging market.

Quest Tripel Blonde

Monday: I miss IPA the most. Tripel Blonde sounded most like the description I was looking for, so trying this one first was irresistible. The beer pours clear but then seems to cloud up a bit, with lots of carbonation, and definitley has a light blonde color to it. The aroma was slightly floral, but not too sweet. Taste is great, with plenty of mouthfeel and a nice crisp taste. Definitely a good beer. I could drink this any day. I could use a bit more hops, but I said this about just about every beer I ever tried. OK this pint of beer is listed as being 8.5% ABV, so I might have an interesting time finishing up that ActionScript project I was working on this evening.

Discovery Amber

Tuesday: This beer pours in a nice rich amber color as advertised. There is a distinct hoppy aroma and the character is very ale-like. The beer really tastes damn good actually – lots of mouthfeel similar to the Quest, but I’d venture to say this one tastes even closer to some of the pale ales and amber ales I was used to in the past. If you had to give me my choice between this and the Quest, I’d probably pick this one. In fact, this is the first beer I’ve had since going gluten-free where I felt like there were absolutely no compromises. ABV is 6%.

At this point my recommendation to Green’s is: Open up a North American plant and start distributing these like mad. The Discovery Amber would stand up against any barley-based craft ale.

Endeavor Dubbel Dark

Let me just preface this section by saying that all of the American gluten-free brews I have tried thus far do not come even close to the three beers I have just tried from Green’s. Redbridge is my favorite of the American set, and it is not bad, but these three Green’s varieties are really outstanding.

Now, the dubbel dark was everything I’d expect from a dark beer. Had a similar flavor and character to many of the dark brews I’ve tried when I toured Germany and Austria way back when. Had a dark, malty, almost nutty flavor. Delicious. I transitioned away from dark beer in favor of pale ale over the decade before my celiac diagnosis, but this beer could easily get me back into it. This reminds me of why I liked dark beer in the first place. Note: This is nowhere near a stout, nor should the name ‘dark’ imply stout. It is strictly in the double bock variety and a damn good specimen.

My advice to Green’s is: Having cheap access to Greens would be a reason for me to move to the UK. But I’m sure you guys don’t want that. I would tarniish the place and lower property values. Instead, open up manufacturing in North America, get the price down to something reasonable, and distribute these without reservation. This is the first beer label I’ve tried that really gets it right. Redbridge is great, and way cheaper, but Green’s has the quality part of the bargain hands down.

Zadin is a cute little Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco, and dining at here has been my favorite gluten-free dining experience to date. Almost everything on the menu is either gluten-free or can be modified, and they state so clearly on the menu. GF Redbridge beer is on the list too, so obviously these guys have gone way out of their way to accommodate celiacs.

We started with the greens salad and the salt/pepper calamari. The greens salad had these roasted walnuts which were sweet and crunchy – very tasty. The calamari was awesome, with a lemon-y dipping sauce.

Next we ordered some pho. The pho wasn’t bad – quite tasty in fact. Only complaint was the beef slices were not all that plentiful.

We finished off with the shaken beef – this was an outsanding dish with very tender beef slices paired with fried yams. Crazy good stuff.

When we got there around 7 PM on a Saturday evening, I was surprised to find it nearly empty. But the place filled up in no time and the clientelle seemed to be enjoying themselves muchly.

Martha Stewart is hosting a competition within her company to help staff members contribute to generating new strategic directions. She is down to seven finalists, one of which (Alexis) is proposing a publication dedicated to food allergies. Here’s her abstract:

To publish a special magazine that offers delicious allergy-friendly recipes, making life for people with food allergies and sensitivities easier and more delicious. Millions of people, including myself, can’t eat nuts, dairy, wheat or gluten, and I’d like to empower people to make great recipes even if they can’t use all the standard ingredients.

Vote for Alexis’ proposal and get Martha Stewart on the bandwagon! 1 in 133 Americans can’t be wrong…

Bao wan are these killer little dumplings that I love to have whenver we go to Taiwan. I haven’t had these since the celiac diagnosis, but Yingwen and one of our friends came up with this recipe and they are delicious. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice flour
• 7 cups cold water
• 12 oz. potato startch
• 1 lb. chopped, minced, or ground chicken or pork
• gluten-free soy sauce (black bean soy sauce or wheat-free tamari both work fine)
• 1 cup rice wine
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 4 to 6 cloves finely chopped garlic
• 1/2 cup chopped bamboo shoots
• 1/2 cup Shittake mushrooms
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• white pepper to taste
• chili sauce to taste
• cooking oil

Equipment:

• large pot (for boiling)
• wok
• large steamer
• mixing bowl
• 12 small bowls approximately 3″ to 4″ in diameter (small rice bowls work great)

Skin: Combine rice flour and water and bring to boil. Let cool until the mixture appears sticky. Mix in potato starch and set aside.

Filling: Combine meat, rice wine, sugar, garlic, bamboo, mushrooms, soy sauce, and rice wine in a mixing bowl and stir fry. Set aside.

Use cooking oil to grease the inside of the rice bowls. Using the rice bowls, wrap the filling inside the skins so that no filling is sticking out. Each bowl should be filled to the top.

Place the bowls in the steamer and steam them for 28 minutes. Let cool, cover with plastic wrap, and then refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours. Bao wan should then be fairly firm to touch.

Reheat them in a microwave or steamer, cover with chili sauce, white pepper, and cilantro to taste, and enjoy!

Mandarin version:

米粉1杯加7杯水,攪拌一起煮,煮到成糨糊狀,等冷卻( 我都拿到後院涼較快）
米粉冷卻後,加入片栗粉（potato starch, not sweet potato starch) 12 oz, 一起攪拌
現在肉圓皮有了.可以炒內餡
內餡材料有；
雞胸切丁塊,罐頭筍. 香菇, 加醬油,酒, 蒜頭,白胡椒。不用炒熟（因要蒸29-30 分）
準備12小碗,碗要油抹過, 先層皮,中間內餡加入,在層皮
蒸29-30 分
之後加甜辣醬,好吃.

這個食譜對我這種料理白癡來說,實在太easy 了