Safe Celiac

After just posting about Wendy’s and fast food, I should mention this: on my drive home, I saw a pizza delivery car in front of me that said “Gluten-free pizza delivery”.

Seriously? That would be incredible!

Unfortunately I missed the name or phone number.

There once was a small pizza chain in KW that delivered gluten-free pizzas, but they went under a few years ago. This was definitely a different car, so my question is: does anyone have any information about this? I’d love to have a gluten-free pizza delivered to me again.

I also heard a rumor from a friend (a non-Celiac), saying that he thought he saw a sign about gluten-free pizzas in the plaza on Ottawa Street across from Montana’s restaurant. I haven’t actually checked it out myself though.

If you know anything about restaurants serving gluten-free pizza in KW, please leave a comment – I’d love to know about them!

In the mean time, I’ll have to do a little research myself.

Today I discovered that Wendy’s has a new “Menu Items Without Gluten Guide”, released in December 2007. Was I ever surprised to see this on their website:

I’ve eaten at Wendy’s plenty of times in the past, and their nutrition guide was decent. (You could look at all the individual ingredients, and determine what was gluten-free – manually.)

But this just seems like a new “ray of light” for Celiacs. A guide specifically targeted towards eating gluten-free is something I wish all restaurants would have. So kudos to Wendys!

I actually somewhat wonder if a Celiac created the guide. Or they’ve just really done their research. They even have little symbols beside some of the menu items, indicating that a given item contains maltodextrin. That’s interesting because currently maltodextrin for Celiacs is allowed, though even only a few years ago it was questionable. (The production of maltodextrin in Canada is apparently corn or tapioca based in 99% of the cases. Personally I like to see “corn maltodextrin“, but this is not required by Canadian labels.)

So the special maltodextrin symbol is probably someone being very thorough and ensuring you (as a Celiac) are comfortable with it.

Check out the guide for yourself on Wendy’s website:
http://www.wendys.com/food/NutritionLanding.jsp

Finally, interestingly enough their burger patties are indeed gluten-free. Their old guide specified the burgers had gluten, but I was never sure if the reasoning was the bun. So, today I had my first Wendy’s burger in a long time, without the bun. I enjoyed it, but perhaps it’s not for everyone:

Yeah, this Big Bacon Classic looks nasty but was actually was tasty. Maybe it’s because I haven’t had a Wendy’s hamburger in ages. Next time…bring on the 3/4 pounder with three patties! (ok, my stomach can handle it, but probably not the rest of my body. Well, that’s probably not true…my stomach could barely handle the above, even if it was gluten-free.)

More fast food another day! (maybe)

The Village Creperie is a new restaurant in Kitchener’s Belmont Village. I learned about it through a review in The Record, and my wife called them asking about gluten-free options. She really wanted to try it, but didn’t expect much for a Celiac.

Was she (and I) ever shocked to hear how much they knew about Celiac disease…and that just about all of their dinner crepes are made with buckwheat flour. Although the name might be misleading, buckwheat flour is in fact gluten-free and is part of the rhubarb family. Even on the phone, the staff member knew exactly what Celiac disease was and could tell us what was available. They also suggested that if I’d like dessert, they could make up a rice-batter especially made for dessert crepes. You have to order this 24-hours in advance though – so call ahead.

So, we went for dinner last Saturday night and had a great time. Most of the appetizer crepes are not gluten-free, but I had a Greek salad and it was tasty. My dinner crepe was a chimichurri-chicken crepe, and was fresh and excellent. My wife ordered the Spanish pinto bean crepe, which also was good but I preferred the taste of the chimichurri-chicken. One of our friends had the salmon crepe which was also very good. (the wonderful thing was – I could sample them all because they were all gluten-free!)

Dessert was the best part though. Although we ordered the rice batter 24-hours in advance, they somehow lost the order. It didn’t matter though – they made me a crepe using buckwheat flour and it was amazing nonetheless. (I had the organic banana, peanut butter, chocolate and honey crepe).

For a while there I almost forgot I was a Celiac. I could eat nearly everything on the menu, and all of it tasted great. Not to mention I was eating crepes – something I haven’t done in years!

So, there you have it. Definitely a 5 out of 5.

Oh finally – this isn’t a fast food crepe restaurant, it’s more of a classic (‘upscale’) restaurant establishment. Our bill, including wine, two salads, two dinner crepes, and two dessert crepes was $75. Definitely not bad considering what you get.

Here’s their website:
http://www.villagecreperie.ca/

If you know of any other restaurants suitable for Celiacs in the KW area, feel free to leave a comment!

I’ve always found Yukikos in Waterloo a reliable spot for Celiacs. Not only do they have good food, but great desserts – many of which are gluten free.

A couple of weeks ago I visited Yukikos for lunch. I ordered beef tacos, and an outstanding squash soup. Although soups are often tricky at restaurants (mostly because of gluten in the chicken stock or thickeners they use), the server checked and the soup was indeed gluten-free. The tacos were made from corn and the ground beef was gluten-free as well.

I wish I had room for dessert. They had 3 desserts that were gluten free – two flourless cakes and a creme brulee (my favourite)! It’s sometimes difficult to find one dessert option at a restaurant, let alone three.

Overall, I would definitely recommend Yukikos to other Celiacs. The food is always wonderful and the knowledge of the staff regarding eating gluten-free is definitely above average.

Yukikos
22 WILLIAM ST W
WATERLOO, ON
N2L 1J4
519-576-9424

If you have another restaurant tip, feel free to leave a comment!