Gluten Free In Seattle, Washington: The Overlooked Ones
In the course of life in this lovely city, I often end up finding some gluten free eats that go unrecognized on the blog. Mostly for reasons of oversight and simply getting caught up in other parts of life. This often happens when we have visitors in town or with the spots we get take out from on busy weekday evenings. So now it's time to give those spots their due chance in the spotlight, as I've had good gluten free dining experiences with them all.
Ballard Farmers Market: Dolce Lou & Loki Fish
In the two years I've been living in Ballard, there have been a couple of gluten free friendly prepared foods vendors, sadly though, some have left. The new year has brought great new things though; specifically in the form of Dolce Lou! A wonderful gluten free bakery that sells a number of tasty treats - at my last visit I had the graham crackers. Which I'm happy to report are the best I've had since going gluten free. While Dolce Lou is a welcome newcomer to the market, Loki Fish has been around for as long as I've been here. Their smoked salmon is delicious and I absolutly love being able to by my beloved ikura at the market! Especially since I've noticed a trend in Seattle sushi restaurants where they will marinade their ikura in soy **cough, wheat** sauce.
The very popular Dukes Chowder House on Greenlake has a gluten free menu and some delicious fish tacos and other options for the gluten free guest! They have a wonderful large patio that always seems to be filled on warm sunny days with lots of folks either coming or going from a walk around Greenlake. The seem knowledgeable and willing to accomidate the needs of guests with food intolerances, so what more can you ask for?
I can't believe that I never went to Pica Pica down in San Francisco when we lived in California, so I'm always on the look out to find a place in Seattle that makes gluten free arepas! Upon a recent visit to the Fremont Market I was thrilled to discover Chicarepas! I got mine with black beans and avocados and couldn't have been happier! They even sell some in little to go bags! I can see many more visits to this market in the future just to grab an arepa!
While I always favor our own homemade pizza over anything I've even eaten out, Garlic Jims has some darn tasty pepperoni and a good gluten free crust. I order my pizza without cheese, but they do carry Daiya Cheese which I think is just about the only acceptable dairy free cheese for melted goodness.
Rays offers two of my favorite things rolled into one; an on the water restaurant with a great view from almost every seat and a menu that has all of the gluten free items marked with a little "GF". I just love it when restaurants take the time to simply go through their menu and mark the items that are naturally gluten free on the regular menu - it just makes things so much smoother. They also kindly note on their menu that many of their other dishes can be altered to be gluten free as well. So if you're coming to Seattle and looking for a classic on the water dining experience with lots of options, Rays will be pretty hard to beat.
In other news...
You'll notice that I'm posting on a Monday, something I havn't done in quite awhile. In preping for the "Grand Launch" of the blog, I'll be switching up my posting schedule to accomidate some new ideas I'd like to bring to the site. Stay tuned for more details soon, but expect to see at least three posts per week with an occasional fourth post!
In addition to Facebook you can also find me on Google+. I can't say I've mastered that particular piece of social media yet, so if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them!
Also, don't forget to help me out over at the Waffler - which Shabby Apple dress should I choose for our Europe trip later this summer?