Category Archives: Travel

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and more desperate.

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A few weeks ago I got an email from a fellow Celiac who came across my blog. She mentioned how sad for me she felt at my Udi’s cinnamon roll post. Because, no offense to Udi’s, but if I was ever in the Bay Area I HAD to try a cinnamon roll from Mariposa’s, which is a great little gluten free bakery.

Oh Megan, I could kiss you right now.

You see, cinnamon rolls are one of the two things I miss desperately. I weep when I think of what I am missing out on, and maybe they were never really that great to start with. But being told you can’t have them, and then being forced to smell the amazingness every time you walk by a Cinnabon in the mall, my mind has convinced me that they really are the best things ever.

So I made it my mission to get my gluten free rear end to Mariposa’s. I chose the San Francisco location, which is located in the Ferry Building. Which made a girl like me a little road ragey because I hate parking in busy cities. But… I found a spot that’s about a quick ten minute walk to the bakery.

I’ve never been in this building before, but I kinda want to move in. It’s full of lovely little shops that are adorable and quirky.

And then, then I saw Mariposa’s. I bought a few goodies, including a cinnamon roll for now, a muffin for tomorrow, a pizza for lunch, and another cinnamon roll because I love them.

The Angels sang. It was a beautiful moment biting in to that cinnamon roll. It made me forget about Cinnabon altogether. So, a gluten eater might try it and think “WTF? This is nothing like a normal cinnamon roll.” but I wouldn’t believe you. My taste buds were happy and that’s all that matters, right? Totally worth the parking and the walk, if you ask me.

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Celiac, the great leg workout.

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Oh. Hi squatty potty.
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I’d forgotten about you. You see, I have a bad experience in past with a squatty potty. When I was 15 I took a train from Hong Kong to Beijing. The toilet on the train was a squatty potty – with a direct exit route to the train tracks below. I wore flip flops in – you wouldn’t dare go in barefoot (imagine people on a bumpy train SQUATTING over a hole? If you thought men’s bathrooms were gross on stable land, try checking out a bumpy train hole. Gross.) Anyway – upon exiting the restroom, as I lifted my left foot over the hole in the floor, my flip flop fell off. 1 – how does that happen? 2 – OMG now I had to hop out of the bathroom on one foot because otherwise my other foot might have fallen off from disease had it touched the ground and 3 – well, I just really hope some child in China was looking for a left shoe. Maybe they were missing their left shoe, or perhaps there was a child with only one left foot. I don’t know. I can only hope my $1.99 Old Navy flip flop didn’t go to waste.

Anyway. As much as I love to travel, I’ll admit that these days it freaks me out a little. Not enough to NOT travel, of course. But not only is finding food is hard – dealing with the aftermath of getting sick downright sucks in a foreign country. Because I’m just freaking convinced that the founder of the squatty potty NEVER had diarrhea. Or maybe he never even pooped. Dude (I’m convinced it was a dude – no woman would create something so ridiculous and uncomfortable) must have had regular bowel movements every day of his life and never thought about the people that spend a little extra time on the toilet. I mean seriously.

One night we went to dinner and it was pretty good. Until I realized that they gave me the wrong dish – the dish that was meant for my gluten eating friend. Oops. All I have to say is all hail the pepto bismol. I walked my fastest walk back to the hotel and was thankful that at least the hotel had real toilets for us that prefer to sit while spending time in the restroom. (While playing Draw Something or Words With Friends on our iPhone. And now all of my friends are going to have the awesome vision of me on the toilet every time a notification pops up that they have a new drawing. Muahaha.)

The good news is about those squatty potties? They’re great for your thighs and butt. It’s like a mini workout every time you go to the bathroom. Because you can’t use a squatty potty without squatting… my personal trainer Linda would be so proud! ;)

So, China airlines reads my blog.

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Well, that’s what I am going to tell myself since on my flights home from Thailand I didn’t get *any* rice cakes. Not one on all three meals. On my gluNten free meals. Ah, Asia, I love you.

AND I got a piece of gluten free bread with my dinner. On one of my posts previously, someone asked how I knew the difference between regular & GF bread on a plane (from this post here)… let me tell you. If you have had gluten free bread EVER in your life – you’d know the difference with the piece they gave me. When 2 pieces weigh a lb combined, are not fluffy at all, and are packaged in plastic… you just know. When all else fails – have a gluten eating travel partner try it. If they spit it out – you’re golden. One day maybe Udi’s will be available on board but until that day… it’s not hard to tell GF bread from the gluten filled stuff.

Ok but seriously, I love Asia. I visited Hong Kong & Beijing when I was a teen and was itching to get back. Thailand… how can you even describe it? We stayed in central Thailand and I so want to go back to both the north & south – darn the vacation time required! I wasn’t entirely sure how traveling in Asia would be with my Celiac, though – both international trips I’d done since my diagnosis were in Europe where I never found someone that didn’t speak English. While the Thai diet is heavily rice centered, that darn pesky soy sauce finds it’s way in pretty often. So I printed out a travel card written in Thai from here:
http://www.celiactravel.com/cards/
More like I printed out a few dozen – 4 to a page – just in case. I smiled stupidly at every Thai waiter and handed them this card. Most of the time they took a minute to read it and then pointed at one or two items on the menu to suggest what was already gluten free – some took the cards back to the chef… and overall I had a great experience. Yes, I got sick a few times. That happens when eating out so often for me, anyway, due to the cross contamination factor. Boo – and only once did I have a mix up with my food (I’ll blog about that one in a separate post. Because you all want to hear about me getting sick in more detail, right?)

Here’s a little proof that I really did order and eat some pretty darn tasty stuff while I was there:

Chicken in a coconut curry sauce. Cost? Around $2.

Chicken in a coconut soup. Hey, I like coconut.

Thai iced coffee. Less than $1 to buy off the street vendors. Mmm I want to go back right now and buy some more Thai iced tea. So good!

Ice cream. A fully balanced meal.

And alcohol. Because that’s all that really matters on vacation. Give me some rice, ice cream, and mixed drinks and I’m a happy vacationer. In fact, for this featured meal, that’s all I had. Ha!

And ok, it might almost be embarrassing how many self portraits I take with my iphone. But, I tell myself it’s for my blog. So these photos are for you, dear readers. All 3 of you. ;)

Rice cakes, the things nightmares are made of.

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So right now I’m sitting in Bangkok. I should be sleeping, it’s only 730am and I got about three hours of sleep under my belt. But instead I woke up with low blood sugar and a need to EAT. Lame!

So I thought I’d blog. About plane food. When I was going on my first long plane ride post Celiac diagnosis I googled all over to see what kind of food I’d be eating. I was one of those people that loved plane food. In all of it’s gross and blandness, it signified I was getting the heck away from California and what could be better than that? Ok California is pretty awesome, but I do have a travel bug.

Having Celiac gets you special treatment on flights. You get your meals before anyone else! Yay. I usually am finished before people in my row even get their chicken or mystery meat meals.

I flew China Airlines and they did a decent job handling my gluten free mess.

And of course I took photos. Who do you think I am??

Lemon chicken. And a rice cake marked GFML.

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Eggs for breakfast. And a rice cake marked GFML.

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And the only gluten free meal on an international flight I have ever had that did NOT have a rice cake (marked GFML of course). It was also the most bland chicken I’ve ever had. Yum.

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After all of these flights, I kind of have this recurring nightmare where I’ll go to a restaurant and order dessert, and then they bring me this bland rice cake marked GFML instead of the tasty stuff everyone else is having. I wake up in a cold sweat. It’s scary stuff.

Anyway, airplane food? Boring as heck. But so glad to have a safe option… Maybe one day it won’t taste so bland but then, hey, it wouldn’t be airplane food if it tasted great, right?

If all else fails, I’m moving to Mexico.

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Ok, not really. Because living in Southern California gets me close enough for what I really want – Mexican food. Yummm. I’ve liked Mexican food as long as I can remember. I have wonderful memories of going to Mexico and stopping at the most wonderful taco shops and eating tacos on the most incredible freshly made tortillas. I also have the memory of going in to some random restaurant in Ensenada and requesting a “hamburguesa con queso” while my family & high school boyfriend (now husband) ordered fish tacos… and I ended up with a fish burger. With cheese. Now, I know that my Spanish isn’t that great, but I think that the people behind the counter were just giggling at the poor little gringa who got a fish burger and didn’t know what to do. Instead of asking for something else (for fear of appearing like a rude American) I just doused that sucker in ketchup and practically swallowed it whole. Yuck.

But I digress.

After being diagnosed with Celiac disease, I cried a little bit at not being able to eat fresh flour tortillas anymore. (Seriously, if you’ve never had any flour tortilla but a store bought one – and you’re the random person that is reading my blog that still is a gluten-consumer – close your browser and go find one. If you live somewhere that doesn’t have any easily accessible, book your next vacation to Central America.) And not being able to have amazing California burritos anymore? Heart-freaking-breaking. (California burritos are the very healthy phenomenon of carne asada, sour cream, cheese and french fries all rolled up in one very awesome package and wrapped in a flour tortilla.) But… I quickly realized that the Mexicans were a very kind people to my diet otherwise. Corn tortillas? Check. Rice? Check. Meat? If it’s carne asada, double check. ;) Beans? Ok! Cheese? Yum! And basically with those several ingredients you suddenly have a plethora of options open to you.

Tacos.
Enchiladas.
Nachos.
Tostadas.

I can walk into a Mexican food establishment and, aside from the burritos, eat quite a few things off the menu. Score a point for me and my intestines!

It’s truly a good thing I like Mexican food. My coworkers, however, are darn tired of it – when they ask if I want to go to lunch – what’s my usual response? “Sure – where do you want to go? The first taco place, the better taco place, the Americanized taco place, or In-n-Out?” Usually the tacos win. Much to their annoyance but whatever, they do it because they love me. Or because they’re hungry.

Yum, hello lunch from today!

Of course I should add that you should always check with your restaurant to confirm the ingredients of the things you’ll be eating. Sometimes the rice base has wheat in it – often times the corn tortillas are cooked on the same surface as the flour tortillas (ask if they can clean the surface or if they can microwave them. Sure, they’re not as tasty when microwaved, but better safe than sorry!) – and often times the chips are cooked in shared oil with other gross gluten-y things. So it’s all up to you – and your comfort and sensitivity level – if eating out is worth it to you. I have a few tried & true taco places at this point that I feel comfortable eating at, and it’s one of the few types of food I feel comfortable going to even without a designated gluten free menu. And now, I want chips & salsa. Viva la Mexico!

Chick Fil A, I love you.

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I travel a lot across the country in short trips for my photography, and while I love meeting new people and seeing new places, eating on the road sucks. Yes, I bring my own snacks but sometimes you just want to sit down like a normal person and eat. So I figured when I saw a Chick Fil A, it would be the perfect opportunity to try some of their new GF items that I’d heard about a few weeks ago.

I’ve not been to Chick Fil A in years, pre-diagnosis. At the time all I could have was essentially a side salad. I’d rather poke my eyes out than intentionally go somewhere where I know all I can eat is a side salad. But I missed their fries and their lemonade. Mmm lemonade.

I ordered the char grilled nuggets and some fries. And lemonade, of course. I also got the polynesian sauce. Yum. The manager told me that the grill that these use is not shared with non GF items. I dont know if that is true everywhere, but he had a Celiac niece so he understood. While the presentation left a lot to be desired, they were tasty. No not award winning but definitely something I’d get again, if for no other reason but the excuse to get some more fries and lemonade.

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Thanks for another great option, Chick Fil A!

I’m sorry, ma’am, but I fear this here butter might hurt you.

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The window of a little market in Enniskerry, Ireland. © Melissa Palomo

I love traveling. A lot. I love new cultures, meeting new people, buying tchotchke crap for my friends and family back home, and trying new food. Enter sad face here. I love food. And I love it even more when it’s labeled in another language and you have no idea what it really is that you’re eating. So when I was first diagnosed I kind of freaked out – thinking “OMG I can’t ever travel again! What the hell will I eat? I am going to cryyyyyyyy because this suckkkkks.” (Cue the mourning period all over again.)

I realized after a little research that I was being ridiculous. (Wouldn’t be the first time that has ever happened.) Sure, traveling with Celiac disease was going to take a little more planning, but it wasn’t going to be impossible. We ended up booking our first international trip to Ireland – a country that is known to have a higher instance of peeps with gluten sensitivity – and went in March 2010, nearly a year after my diagnosis. It was amazing. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton a bit outside of Dublin in a little town called Enniskerry (thank you TravelZoo for the killer deals! I couldn’t have done it without ya!)

I screwed up big time, though – in my excitement of the fact that I could find so many “gluten free” items – I didn’t stop to think about cross contamination. So, I ended up getting sick. The entire last day we were there I had to sleep. So my tip to you? 1 - plan your “must sees” for the first few days if you’re a GF traveler – just in case you are too worn out by the end. I had to miss our big castle trip to sleep. What a bummer. 2 - don’t get lazy and assume that even gluten friendly Ireland can handle ya. I was fooled by the amazing sight of gluten free brownies in Starbucks! Starbucks. Now Starbucks is like my holy land – so seeing GF brownies in the case literally made me cry tears of joy. I probably looked like just another stupid American but to me the sight was glorious and I didn’t care who knew it. (Please note – if you’re reading this Starbucks, I’d really like you to please address the issue of ingredients lists for your drinks. Thanks.) 3 - Have a backup plan. This may seem like common sense – but I learned I need to carry things from snacks to protein shakes to “just add water” meals with me when I travel. Ok, yes, I could sulk and whine that I don’t get to eat everything I *want* to – but eff it, I’ll gladly eat a snack pack of almonds or add some water to my cup o’ gluten free somethin’ or another to travel through Ireland or Amsterdam or Thailand. Because that’s just way cooler to me than staying at home eating in my own home.

On our way home, we flew Delta from Dublin and connected at Chicago O’Hare before coming home to LAX. I had requested a gluten free meal on the plane for both there and back, and had been pleasantly surprised going to Ireland. The way home, however, left me greatly peeved.

Yes, I went back in my twitter feed from nearly 2 years ago and found this. They had marked my meal as GF, but it was NOT GF. But hey, good thing I came prepared and had my own bread from Ireland still in tow, I could have some fruit and bread! So the flight attendant brought me some fruit. With crackers on the plate. UGH – ok, I can deal with that and eat around it. But then, when I asked her for some butter? She handed it to me. And then took it right back. In her most condescending southern accent, she proceeded to tell me “I’m sorry, m’aam, but I fear this here butter might hurt you. I could lose my job if you decide to sue the airlines.” Lady – if I had even thought about suing it would have been over the sandwich. And cookies. And crackers. NOT over the freaking gluten free butter that won’t hurt me. (Please note I wouldn’t sue – even over those things. I would, however, tweet and hold a grudge and blog about these things two years later.)

What that experience made me realize was not only what I mentioned above, about coming with a back up plan (yup, I bring my own salads and things for the plane rides now, just in case) but that the general population is stupid. Ok, I can’t entirely fault the flight attendant for being an overzealous butter hoarder, but I realized you just can’t expect anyone else to get it. You can try – as nicely as you want – you could throw a gluten free cookbook at them – but it doesn’t mean they will get it. Ultimately you have to take your diet and your health into your own hands and not expect anyone else to “get it”. Be proactive. Do your research. Pack your snacks. Even if you’re tired of protein shakes. Bring a bottle of pepto bismol or 4 if you need it. Because, for me, it’s better than not traveling at all. But don’t get mad at the idiots along the way – I’ve done that and it did me no good. Because let’s face it – before your own GF journey, you might have been a butter hoarder, too.