Every year Mike and I head up to Acadia National Park in Maine for four days of hiking and camping. This year we stayed in a screaming child infested campground called Hadley Point. It sucked so much we actually spent time driving around looking at campgrounds for next year.
While out in Southwest Harbor looking at Seawall Campground, which looks awesome by the way, we decided we wanted nachos. I busted out the google phone and typed "nachos" into the yelp application. It turned out there was a Mexican place called XYZ right around the corner. When we pulled up it was only about 4pm and there was only one car there and it was way back on a side street. We decided to go in and were very pleasantly surprised, not by nachos, but by an authentic Mexican restaurant. The food was incredible. I got some kind of grilled shrimp with a stuffed relleno pepper which was to die for and a margarita made with rum. The owner seated us and talked to us about gluten free options for me and they even gave me corn tortillas instead of bread to use with the various fresh salsas. By the time we left, I was pleasantly full, mildly buzzed and the place was packed. I would highly recommend this place to anyone who loves delicious authentic Mexican Food and staying gfree. I can't wait to go back next year.
** Update: Miguel's has been sold and is now a different restaurant. Sadness**
The first year we went to Maine I googled "Gluten Free Bar Harbor" and found an article someone wrote about Miguel's. This place is more of an americanized Mexican restaurant, but is still pretty sweet. They have a special gluten free menu that has their regular menu color coded red and green. Red = Not Gluten Free and Green = Gluten Free. I always get the tacos when I go and they are pretty tasty. If you're up in Bar Harbor give this place a try. Miguel's Mexican Restaurant Website
Other Restaurants in Bar Harbor: Bar Harbor is pretty good with gluten free. I've been told that most restaurants can put together gluten free options for you or have special menus if you just ask. We always go to Main Street Diner for breakfast and never have a problem. I just ask them to leave the toast out.
Also, try A & B Naturals. It's an awesome natural foods store and even carries St. Peter's Gluten Free Beer, which in my opinion, is some of the best gluten free beer around.
Places to be careful eating at: One place I did go to though, didn't leave me feeling so great about the food I was eating. We went to Tamarind one morning for breakfast and I ordered an egg sandwich on a food for life gluten free english muffin. They prepare the sandwiches out in the open so I asked the teenager that was making my sandwich if he could change his gloves and put down some foil so he wasn't making my gfree sandwich on bread crumbs from regular bread. The haughty attitude I got in return was not appreciated. I explained again that my food cannot touch anything other bread touched. He got all offended and told me that he cleans the surface all the time and that I didn't need to worry. I was pretty worried and stupidly ate the sandwich anyways... bad idea.
All in all. Bar Harbor is really safe place to travel to and stay gluten free. There's amazing hiking and puffins if you're willing to get up early and go on a boat. ;o)
My parents' next door neighbor Jen bought me a cook book at her church bazaar because it had gfree recipes in it, (and because she's awesome). I was thumbing through it tonight when I found a recipe for "In the Mood" 5 Minute chocolate Mug Cake (By Betty Miller). I told Mike and he couldn't have gotten up faster if I had put fire crackers in his pants. "Let's make this", he exclaimed. I of course, scrambled into the kitchen after him. We decided to use Bob's Red Mill Baking Mix for the first batch and I tried using Gluten Free Bisquick for the second, (the Bisquick was way better). Here's the recipe and pictures of the results. I'll warn you, this is by no means healthy, but it sure is tasty. I may even stick a candle in one for my birthday. ;o)
4 tbsp Flour (GFree Bisquick) 4 tbsp Sugar 2 tbsp Cocoa (Hershey's Special Dark) 1 Egg 3 tbsp Milk (fat free milk) 3 tbsp Cooking oil (Smart Balance) 3 tbsp Chocolate Chips (I've been using Ghiradelli without a reaction... so far). Splash of Vanilla (McCormick) 1 Large Coffee Mug (I mean large... seriously I mean large or it overflows in your microwave)
In a small bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, egg, milk and oil. Mix well and add chocolate chips and vanilla and mix again. Pour into coffee mug and microwave for 3 minutes. Cake will expand in the cup and like the picture... may overflow if you cup is too small.
Eat it in the cup, dump it in a bowl, put ice cream on it or whipped cream. Bottom line... enjoy it! It took me a whopping five minutes to make.
Like I mentioned in my last post, I have a huge back log for you. Upcoming articles include:
1) Bar Harbor, Maine - My Mexican Food Heaven 2) North Conway, New Hampshire - BBQ, Pizza and Mexican Oh My! 3) Northbridge House of Pizza - A Hidden Gluten Free Gem 4) Gluten Free Beer 5) My Thanksgiving is Even Better Gluten Free
Not necessarily in that order. ;o)
Also, I'll be attending Autodesk University in Las Vegas at the end of November and stopping up in Oakland, CA "On my way home". This adventure will take me on six different flights, a three day conference at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and a weekend with my friends and their "new" baby. We'll see how this goes. Let's just say I'm packing a tub of reduced fat Jif, which I'm 99% sure is gluten free and a bag of Udi's for good measure. I sure hope the TSA doesn't count peanut butter as a liquid. Ha.
So, this article was written a month ago while we were in Florida... I have quite a back log of articles for you, so brace yourself. Upcoming articles include Bar Harbor Maine, North Conway New Hampshire and Montreal/ Quebec City in Canada. I just took the licensing exam I was studying for so now I have no excuse but to write articles and embrace the Boston gluten free community full on. Now, for gluten free Florida!
Ok, so we're staying at a house in Satellite Beach so it's not so tough... We did visit Disney and that was interesting. The week before I left I e-mailed Disney special diets and asked them about Gluten Free at Animal Kingdom. I got back a very very long overly complicated e-mail. At the bottom was a list of places I could go "on the fly". Restorauntasaurus, (yeah you read that right), was on the list. On the day we visited Disney I had a sizable breakfast. Who knows what I'd be able to eat at the park and I had zero desire to tote around a lunch bag while riding roller coasters and going on cheesy fake safaris. We got there around 9:30am and B-Lined for the safari after that we walked around for awhile and Mike got hungry so we decided to go look for food. We checked the dinosaur restaurant listed above. It was a walk up place and then menu included deep fried chicken fingers, burgers, hot dogs and onion rings.... all of which I couldn't even dream of eating. I wasn't hungry so it was all good. Mike wound up finding a place that made cheese filled pretzels and was happy. I finally got hungry and wound up eating popcorn for lunch... lame!
Later that night before we picked up friends from the airport we tried this place in Orlando called Nona Sushi. It was pretty good. The manager? owner? was really nice and chatted with us about Celiac Disease and soy sauce snobbery. I did not know La Choy soy sauce doesn't contain wheat.
The rest of the week we just cooked at the house. I was shocked to see a plethora of gluten free products at our "local" grocery store in Satellite Beach. They even had gf Bisquick?! We picked up a pack and made the best quiche/ cake thing for breakfast. When we got back to Boston I tried finding it around here and couldn't! My mom had to pick some up the Hannaford near her house and bring it to me. I never liked real Bisquick so I didn't have high hopes for the gluten free version, but I wound up really liking it. Since vacation I've made french apple cake and the best clam fritters I've had in awhile. I used to make the fritters at a little surf and turf restaurant near my hometown, so I know good fritters. These were light, fluffy and chewy. They needed more clams and better seasoning, but the consistency was perfect... I digress.
