Auntie M's - Gluten Free Food Truck

 Recently my husband and I were talking about state fairs and it came up, that he'd never been to any state fair, ever. I remember growing up, going with one of the neighbors to see the Wisconsin State fair, and going again with friends after college. As I looked at events at the fair I saw Lindsey Stirling was performing one day so we decided we'd get tickets and get there early to check out the fair. The week leading up to the fair I saw a post on a Milwaukee Celiac group about a gluten free food truck being there. I was shocked to realize this was 'a thing'! I had pumped up my husband on how he'd have to get a cream puff, cause it's just what you do at the Wisconsin state fair. But now I had options for amazing food too, not just whatever we hunted down. 

Once we found parking and found our way into the fair we found an information booth and found where the Auntie M's food truck was parked. which was the exact opposite end of the park. The lady at the information booth was doing her best to talk us into other options, but finally gave up when I told her I only wanted gluten free options, she said this was it. She wasn't 100% correct, we saw other options, although limited as we walked around We also saw a Vegan food truck too. 

After joking I was going to order 1 of everything on the truck, I did get a corndog, cheese curds and went back and got a funnel cake. I mean, I had to! I can't remember the last time I had a funnel cake! 

We walked around, checked out the expo center and mile shops, and saw some of the cows being shown, and of course had to check out the pig races. We were waiting for our concert, and my husband found a brat and eventually I decided to get some roasted corn. We want to know how much corn you have to bring daily to meet the demand of the people getting corn. While waiting in line for our corn, I left my husband there to get water and saw a sign on another booth for Gluten Free Chicken, Hamburger, and "Boneless Wings" with sauce. I was in awe! After the concert we wanted a cold beverage and I decided I needed some wings for the walk back to the car. We had so much fun, enjoyed all the food and beverage options, my husband ask "Why don't they do this every weekend in summer, this is fun!" 

The one drawback was, I never eat fried food. It's so hard to find any safe fried food, other than Five Guys Fries or Chik Fila Fries, so all the fried food made my stomach unhappy, but honestly I didn't care! It was all so good and I was able to handle it to get home and some lower back heat helped a lot! 

 For a fair I give them 4 dragonflies, if you look hard enough there are options, and their website has info if a vendor has listed it in their food listing.  For the food truck I give the same rating. I will say they have a perfect model going on technically 3 items, that as soon as someone orders, you make another, knowing you're just going to have a steady stream of customers for those 3 items. So wait time is minimal, and it's food that is rare for someone who is gluten free. I was disappointed they didn't have cheese or honey for the corndogs, but I know I have some weird tastes for how I spice up my food. I am following Auntie M's to see when they may be back near Milwaukee, or if we're heading to Minnesota, where I might find them! 

Blackberry Market - Trendy Cafe

Blackberry Market has 2 locations, one in LaGrange, the other in Glen Ellyn. Both are in cute little shopping districts in the downtown of the town. Their menu is a mix of item with multiple allergy warnings marked, per item. We had stopped in the LaGrange location recently while at the craft fair. Their $1 Ice tea was a nice incentive, and we learned they had multiple gluten free baked goods, from a lemon poppy seed loaf to cookies and a brownie. The lemon poppy seed loaf was sweet, and very moist. 

While looking for some light brunch options we decided to check out the Glen Ellyn location, since it was along our route. We also noticed they had a mural from Matthew Hoffman, who does the "You are Beautiful" Displays. So it was a double win for us to get brunch and snap a photo of a new display. 

This one also had a nice display of gluten free baked goods, each packed in their own wrapper and in the case. I got a raspberry lemon muffin to go with my breakfast stack, which essentially was a breakfast salad! 2 eggs, I got scrambled with bacon over a bed of greens with dressing. All dishes seem to come with a side of potatoes, a mix of red and sweet potatoes. The non-gf options come with a biscuit and blackberry jam. 

While they didn't have a ton of options that were gluten free, they had so many markings on the menu, the glass case and the baked goods on display, it's obvious they know how to handle allergies. Though with limited options, they were interesting and seemed like there were a few options to come back and check out. I would give them 4 dragonflies. I would like to see some items served on bread or toast, having some interesting baked goods, do give a nice option to get some carbs in addition to the fancy sliced potatoes that come with the meals.

American WildBurger - Going Strong

 It's been a hot second or more since I've gone to American WildBurger, but almost 10 years later, they're going strong. We happened in the area a couple times recently and opted to stop in and grab a bite. They have expanded their menu for their gluten free offerings. Now besides burgers and fries, they have wings, fried shrimp, fried chicken, and moved 1 location to their left! 

We were doing a BYOF to go to a brewery, so I was excited to get the fried shrimp and fries. Something so simple was so satisfying. This time they were out of shrimp, (we got there later in the evening) so I got the wings. The options for sauces were pretty nice, it wasn't the same 1-2 options everyone has. So I got the Garlic Parmesan wings. With another side of fries. I wasn't sure if 6 wings would be enough, but they're big enough, they're like Big Birds wings! They were more than plentiful for the serving size. 

They have options for alcoholic beverages as well as regular. There is ample seating if you're there with several people. I haven't had a burger recently so I can't comment on the burger bun, because previously I wasn't a fan of the latest bun they were using for the burgers. Over all I give them 4 dragonflies because while they have some fun side dishes, and salads, but I'd like a good grilled veggie or something fun like that as a side. 

 

Prairie Street Brewing Company

Prairie St Brewing Company - We’ve now been here a few times, not a huge place, definitely has more seating in the summer when you can sit on the patio and watch the water flowing of the Rock River. The menu is a bit hip for a brewery, they are definitely trying to compete with the Chicago microbreweries for Nuevo style foods. We saw one of the appetizers was a cheese board, with tortilla chips. It was a unique style idea. The cheeses were dip/spreadable cheeses. Such a simple idea, and so good. My loving Non GF Hubby kept raving about the Pimento cheese that I actually had to find a recipe and make it at home. Other cheeses included Buffalo cheese and jalapeno cream cheese. All super tasty. I honestly could come here and just eat this. Their beers are not gluten free, (though a review on Findmeglutenfree says they are, they’re not) but they offer several canned ciders. One being Schilling’s Pineapple Mango Cider. Super tasty and unique. I actually hit up Binny’s Beverage Depot and got a case. When I told the server I need to be gluten free, she even told me she’d confirm the cider was gluten free before bringing it out. Really awesome!

Look at this cheese board? Isn't it gorgeous??? 

I got the Taquito salad the first time we came. It was tasty and unique, but I think it was a bit too much Kimchi for my stomach. I didn’t have a gluten reaction, but it definitely left me hitting the bathroom a few times after eating it.

Second visit the menu with the daily specials caught my attention. I’m not a big meatloaf person, but it sounded so good! The ribs sounded good, but a bit to eccentric for me, so I was glad the Non-GF hubby got them so I could try a little but not make such a commitment to the meal. We totally filled up on the cheese board and tortillas, so we had left overs. The food was really good, the portions are hearty, but service is a bit sparse. Our server kept wandering off and we kept having to flag someone down to get what we needed.

  The meatloaf really hit the spot, there wasn't too much sauce and the potatoes were very rich. I love that so much of their food is farm to table and unique. 

I give them 5 Dragonflies for their unique but plentiful menu options and even having GF markings for the daily specials. 

 

We're working on finding another day to take some more friends back to check out what is on the new seasonal menu and hopefully get to sit out on the outside patio and take in some summer sun and beautiful weather.

Elgin Food Hall Birdettes

I had seen on Find Me Gluten Free a listing for Birdette's in Elgin, it mentioned they had gluten free fried chicken! I got super excited, as that is the main thing I really crave. So I asked around to a few other people if they'd heard of it or knew anything, they said no, but was worth checking out. A little more digging I found out they're in a food hall. While thinking that was a bit odd for Elgin, still was intrigued to find a reason to be out that way to check it out. We've visited food halls other places we've traveled and they were super cute and worth visiting again. 

While at a loss for a late lunch we wandered over to the Dream Hall food hall to give it a go. It was rather confusing to figure out where all the food options were and what they were since it looked to have multiple floors, and only 3 spots to order food on the 1st floor. Eventually we figured out the left you got coffee, the middle was all the food options and the right was the bar. We walked around and checked out the space, and opted to order our food.

I had to go with the fried chicken. I did the drumettes, and a mozzarella & tomato salad with my chicken. My husband did a curry bowl. We were slightly confused at the menu but realized all the food options were listed in one spot. My wings were good, the creamy buffalo was not very spicy at all which was good, it didn't distract from the chicken which was pretty awesome. They asked if I wanted blue cheese on the side, and I said sure. Sadly the blue cheese was Ken's dressing, which is GF safe, but I find their dressings lack flavor of any level. I enjoyed my caprese salad, though the tomatoes were very tough like they were hot house raised. My husband was underwhelmed with his curry dish having little to no spice and not being very curry like. He wished he'd gone with the nutella pancakes instead. He also got a iced coffee drink from the coffee stand, that was really good.

I'll give them 4 dragonflies because they have multiple GF options and very clear labeling. When I mentioned gluten free they seemed very knowledgeable on it. But the lack of being able to figure out what was going on with the space and where to go was a bit odd. Plus most of the options could have had more flavor. I hope the succeed, since they don't seem in a high foot traffic area like most food halls. 

Firewater BBQ - Take 2

We were going to be in the Geneva area, and my husband asked what my thoughts were on going back to Firewater BBQ. We liked their food the previous time we'd been there, a couple years ago, but had not been back. We'd encountered a minor hiccup the previous time we were there, that despite asking the cashier repeated what was gluten free, what sauces were gluten free, and confirming what sides were gluten free, my meat was placed on top of a piece of bread on my tray. 

They were nice and made a new tray for me and apologized, and I apologized as well, that since it was our first time, I didn't realize a random piece of bread would be on the tray, since Nothing mentioned it on the menu, and I'd said 'gluten free' at least a dozen times while ordering, the gal never mentioned it to me.

Fast forward 2 years, and we were heading over to Penrose Brewing (again) and we thought we'd pick up some food to nosh from somewhere different this time. So we opted to order from Firewater and take it with. I double checked their website, which now mentions Gluten Free options and gives some guidance on what is safe or not. When we got there right away I ordered first, and told the gentleman taking my order, "No Bread, Gluten Free!" I confirmed which sauces were gluten free, and reconfirmed the sides listed on the site were gluten free. My husband ordered his food and we waited for our togo order. They were starting to get backed up with orders, while we grabbed napkins, silverware and pickles. They have prepaked pickles and jalapenos you can have with your food! 

When they finally called our order number I grabbed the bag and while my husband and I exchanged a look, I told him I felt like I needed to check my food. Sure enough I open my container and BAM! There is a hunk of Corn Bread on top of the paper holding my meat. I lifted the paper up and could see the crumbs on the meat as well. Once I got a hold of one of the people packing food I nicely told her I'd told the cashier who took our order I was gluten free and specifically said no bread. He'd told me to "hold on let me type this in." The person who seemed to be the manager walked over and asked what was going on, I re-explained to him, and he said "yeah it's contaminated let me take care of this, there was no note." I told him again "I specifically told your cashier No Bread!" He said he'd talk to him and remade my meal. 

When we got to Penrose with our food my husband looked at his and commented he should have said his was gluten free also, so we could share, cause his had a slice of plain old white bread in the bottom. I laughed cause he commented they could have at least buttered it or toasted it so it wasn't just cheap white bread with his ribs. 

The food was good, the sauces are very tasty. There was one sauce I couldn't have, and it was either the mustard or the vinegar one, which I didn't mind at all, I'm really more of a traditional Chicago sauce or Alabama White sauce person, and they had Alabama white sauce so I was super happy! For anyone who hasn't had Alabama White sauce before, it's great on Pork and Chicken, amazing on wings. You have to try it at least once! 

Over all I give them 3 dragonflies, while we love the food, and their website makes it seem like they understand, ultimately, they're a chain and understanding is only as good as the people making and serving the food. So if you order with them be prepared to talk your self silly requesting a safe meal, and still need it to be remade! 

Green Healthy Cafe - Lisle

My husband goes and gets his hair cut at a salon in Lisle, he loves his stylist and has been traveling to where she goes for years now. For a while she's been in Lisle, and he noticed this cute cafe opened up in the same strip mall and decided to stop in and see what they offered. The nice lady at the counter explained they have gluten free wraps! He started asking the questions, "Is it Celiac safe? What is in the wrap? How do you make them? What ingredients do you use? I want to bring them to my significant other, but don't want to kill her!" Well turns out it's all gluten free, and they do green wraps. Green Healthy Cafe. So I look forward to his hair cut mornings cause he always brings me a spinach, egg, tomato feta wrap, which "magically" shows up as I get out of the shower. They're super tasty. 

The past few trips he's gone to get his hair cut I've gone with so we can get a jump on our day and leave from Lisle. So I've gotten to meat the lovely lovely lady who owns Green Healthy Cafe, she is beyond the sweetest person I've ever met.  We've started to expand our menu choices and tried the peanut butter, strawberry and banana wrap, and even had the crepes! But it's hard to resist the spinach, egg, feta, tomato one. So we pick 2 options and each have half of the others order. That way we get to try new things. 

I give them 5 dragonflies, I can't not, not love this place. they're basically only breakfast, but not that breakfast that's greasy and leaves you bloated and tired, this is energy food that gets you going. We've driven out of our way to stop here, get breakfast for me and meet up with people at places that can't accommodate that I'm just going to order fruit. 

 

Nu Crepes

Nu Crepes in Elmhurst is a quaint little place, that if you blink you're going to miss it. We found them on Find Me Gluten Free, and although my last experience with crepes was not so hot, (Darn shared surfaces for prep), I wanted to try it. I'd wanted to go there for a few months, but my Non-GF Hubby wasn't sold, he was leery, and I can't blame him. So we with the notion that if anything seemed off, we'd abort and head over to Egg Harbor Cafe instead. 

Looking at reviews on Find Me it said that there was a dedicated space, so we went in and got ready to ask questions. That was once we found the place. We drove down York Rd twice and couldn't see it. So finally I turned on "directions" and it told us to turn left, but there was no left turn. Then we realized it's down a breezeway between buildings. Even better, it's in the basement! So you're not going to see it from your car, you must walk down the breezeway to get there. It's worth the hunt to find it though. So we went in and talked to the staff. They have a separate prep area, ingredients and surface for the gluten free crepes. Most crepes can be made GF or modified gluten free. Anything with cookies or crunchy items, those items will be omitted to prepare it gluten free. 

All meals are made fresh when ordered, and you pick it up once ready. We decided to order our whole order gluten free, so we could share. 1 crepe doesn't seem to be enough so we each got 1 savory one and decided to split a sweet one. Wow - We were full! We've eaten here twice now, and enjoyed everything we got, and haven't had any issues getting sick. 
I give them 4 dragonflies. It'd be nice if the menu was clearly marked for Gluten Free options. You have to use some intuition to figure out what is safe, and then confirm when you place your order. But they have a dedicated space and work on making sure options are prepared correctly. 

Canyon Bakehouse Bagels

Some days you need to just savor the little things in life. I keep hearing how great Canyon Bakehouse Bagels are, and finding them near me is IMPOSSIBLE. I could buy directly from Canyon Bakehouse, but our tiny refrigerator, in our rented townhouse doesn't hold much for frozen food, and honestly it takes us a long time to use bread. I pretty much cut bread out after going gluten free. So ordering 1 pack of bagels and paying $11.00 in shipping is not logical to me. So when I went Halloween shopping with my brother and while walking up and down, aimlessly in Walmart and found Canyon Bakehouse Bagels on a random endcap, in the back of the store, I freaked out. 

After obsessing for 15 minutes how I wanted a bagel with cream cheese, I was told to go get the darn bagels and buy them, NOW! I kept trying to decide if 4 bagels were worth it for the cost, since gluten free is not cheap. But I decided to give in and do it, you only live once, right?? The next two days I toasted a bagel and took it to work and added cream cheese. It was heavenly. You forget how easy it is to miss something this simple. 

Saturday I decided to make Bacon, Bagel, Egg & Cheese breakfast sandwiches. They were delicious. Even though I kinda burnt the bagels they were really good. I didn't believe my non-gf hubby how good they were until Sunday morning when he asked "Can we have more breakfast bagels this morning?" I told him No, we ate all the bagels! I'd have to go to Walmart and hope they have more! So what am I doing tonight? Going to Walmart to find Canyon Bakehouse Bagels so we can have more bagel, egg, bacon & cheese sandwiches this weekend! 

You don't realize how the littlest, simplest things are the easiest to take for granted. Fingers crossed I might find the Canyon Bakehouse English muffins too! Though I do enjoy the Glutino ones when I need a burger bun, or I have an English muffin craving. 

Honeymoon Travels Part 2

Monday – Day 4, we’re usually real good with finding hotels that include breakfast, this trip, Only one did! Granted we were booking hotels the same day, as we drove along, got tired and decided to stop, so we weren’t as picky on options. We got going on a nice foggy cloudy morning from Santa Maria we headed North with some Kind Bars for breakfast. We stopped in Pismo Beach after checking out some coastal areas south of there. We found Chip Wrecked for lunch. They had tasty handmade potato chips with so many options from Sweet to salty to savory. We were in heaven. The sandwich I got was huge, mostly because to make a “full” sandwich they used 4 pieces of GF bread! I got a lot of food and tasty chips to go with it. All their sauces are GF too so it was a treat. Though inside they had a whole 4 tables, they seem like a great place to grab food to take to the beach. We stopped and got some McConnell’s ice cream, because the night before in Santa Barbara the line for ice cream was 2 hours long! It was tasty, but a bit melty. We checked out the big rock in Morro Bay, we met some SUPER friendly squirrels who I think were on to us that we had Kind Bars in the car!

Checked out Hearst castle before taking the detour back to the 101 since the 1 was closed due to a mudslide in 2017 on the 1, south of Big Sur. We got into Monterey later at night, found a cute swanky place to rest our heads and find some food. The hotel restaurant was underwhelming so we headed to Carmel and went to the Carmel’s Bistro Giovanni. Not many places were still open at 9:00, but they were and the food was good. It was a bit pricey but well worth all 3 courses! Prosciutto wrapped melon, gluten free fettuccine and crème brulee as well as tasty wine. 

We got a great night’s sleep and headed on to Big Sur in the morning. It was still super foggy along our drive, luckily it cleared up some on our way back up the 1 by afternoon so we could view the Bixby bridge and see the coast. It was around 1:00 we decided we were hungry, so stopped at a little ‘grocery’ market shop, and got some meat and cheese. We had crackers in the car, and grabbed a dessert I’d never heard of, but said it was GF on the package. 

At this point I’d been fighting cell service for some time so grabbing food to eat in the car was easiest. We were running into small shops and B&B’s so not much in terms of places to eat. We kept going back North up the 1, back to Monterey and stopped to see the pier, there were GF options in the area, but nothing hitting our fancy, we’re not the biggest fish eaters, so we debated where to go and saw there was PF Changs, so we decided why not have Chinese food for dinner. Chinese food is the hardest thing to find GF so we hit up PF Changs while making a plan for the day. 

Changs Spicy Chicken Gluten Free

We checked out 17 mile drive, saw some seals and the lone cypress. We laughed at how bad (awful fish smell) Pebble Beach has and that we feel bad for anyone golfing there it’s so overwhelmingly strong!

To make up some time for time lost going around the mudslide area we brushed thru Santa Cruz and San Francisco. (We’ve been to San Fran, Sausalito and Napa before), though we did stop and enjoy a beautiful sunset of the beach before heading thru San Francisco, and since it was later at night, traffic was a breeze. Trying to stay on our coastal route we couldn’t find anything on the coast for a hotel last minute. We ended up in Santa Rosa, which is just West of wine country so hotels were expensive and the cheap ones were creepy! We ended up with a creepy one to stay on price point, it was an experience! Right by our hotel happened to be the Amy’s Drive Thru! 

Sad part, they were closing the same time we got there. They also opened After we’d left the next morning (booooo) But it was fast food haven there, so we took another visit to In-N-Out Burger before heading back to our interesting hotel. Not our best night’s sleep, we headed out early and on to Bodega Bay, back on the coast.

Day 5, Tuesday – Made a stop at the ‘pier’ in Bodega Bay. Nice quiet fishing town, Bodega Bay is the town the movie the Birds was filmed. (Who knew!) We checked out the menu at The Tide’s Restaurant, they mentioned gluten free and we wanted breakfast food, so we were in. Not the tastiest food, it was fine, very healthy! My eggs didn’t have any salt (or cheese) and my hash browns definitely needed salt! 

Omelet and Hasbrowns.

There was the cutest seal duo playing in the water outside the window that kept us amused while eating. At least it wasn’t foggy any more, but man it was COLD! We kept going on our twisty winding drive up the coast, saw more seals, lighthouses, coves, trees, Tide pools. Stopped at the Chandler Drive thru tree and got some ice cream from the ice cream freezer there. Another late dinner we stopped in Eureka for gas, and with signal finally again we found Stuf’t Potato. Nice little family run European restaurant with amazing huge stuffed potatoes. We both got a potato cause it sounded so good! It didn’t disappoint! 

We made it up to Crescent City to spend the night. Our goal was to be in Oregon by morning. Another cute place to stay. It reminded me of the House on The Rock Inn, in Wisconsin. Cute, they had the most simple breakfast buffet, cereal, gluten, hard boiled eggs, fruit and coffee. We got some food and headed to Oregon! We had a lunch date planned with some friends.

Bok Choy - Modified Gluten Free Menu

A while back we noticed one of our few staples for Chinese food Wok N Fire was no longer in Addison. It was a sad day for us since PF Changs is a bit of a cluster to eat at on the weekends, (It can be an hour + wait!) and no other places that offer gluten free Chinese food really. Wok N Fire was now Bok Choy Asian Kitchen, which my fiancé felt was an odd name, since he finds it to be a disgusting, dismissive vegetable. :D I emailed them 3-4 times asking if they had gluten free options, with no response. Then out of the blue 4 months later I got an email “Yes we have gluten free options.” I wasn’t sold on their poor customer service so we skipped it. We finally gave in and decided to give it a try. My fiancé pulled up their online menu. It now lists gluten free options. So we opted to give it a try. 

First off it was a Sunday night, not busy, no one at the hostess stand…. We got seated the host took us thru the whole place to find us a seat. The décor has not changed at all since the name change, a year ago. The server was a bit flaky but seemed to understand gluten free. We got a bowl of Edamame which is our favorite. Over all we were disappointed that the menu was Mostly Sushi, and some entrees off on 1 page. They had a whole page of mixed drinks and barely any non-alcoholic options. Wok N Fire had amazing ginger ales and lemonades, not at Bok Choy. We opted to try a couple things so we split the Teriyaki Chicken with Gluten free Fried Rice, and the Pad Thai. I Love Pad Thai, always have. Personally with steak is my favorite. So we ordered steak pad Thai. When our food showed up the server made sure to announce – “Both these dishes are made gluten free.” Great! Then as I stared at it I asked my fiancé, “What did he bring me?” My dish was most certainly not steak. It was chicken and tofu. He told us he rang it in correctly but the kitchen made whatever. (WHAT?!) Once I had him re-confirm that it was gluten free, I told him we’ll just eat it, no big deal. Next time I’ll have them re-make it. I Was NOT a fan of the tofu, the chicken was only OK. The Teriyaki Chicken w/fried rice was a LOT better. 

Not Steak... Not a Fan of Tofu!

We can say we’ve eaten here, if I’m out with my sushi loving friends I might make a stop here again, but most likely not with my fiancé, there was so little on the menu that was worth having for a meal unless you want sushi. Which was sad, the fried rice was good. But I don’t think I can justify going to a place just for fried rice, unless it’s a really bad stress craving, and then we’d probably do carryout and get food elsewhere. The fact the kitchen made “whatever they wanted” annoyed me. 

Personally not a fan of tofu, so I kept shoving it aside and just at the noodles, which lacked a lot of the usual Pad Thai flavor. It was hard to tell some of the chicken from the tofu, which was odd to me. I give them 3 dragonflies, while they have options, the kitchen isn’t attentive, and their menu is lacking from what it used to be. Plus our server seemed annoyed that I wasn't just happy with the fact he brought me "A" gluten free dish..