Thanks to reader Tami for alerting me about two Absecon, New Jersey restaurants that offer gluten-free options: China Sea of Absecon has a separate menu (the link is at the Gluten Free Philly restaurant page) and Calabria Pizza Italian Grill offers 10-inch personal gluten-free pizzas.


Olive Garden has updated its gluten-free menu: gone is the pork medallions entree but there's now a gluten-free penne dish with marinara sauce. The Mixed Grill entrees on the menu should be prepared without demi-glace, which is not gluten free. On a related note, the chain is planning to open a location in Collegeville, Pennsylvania in November 2009.
Diners can now make online reservations for all Delaware Valley P.F. Chang's China Bistro locations.
I updated the site's gluten-free-friendly markets list to include two future Whole Foods Market locations: one in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania (tentatively set to open in November 2009) and one on Concord Pike in Wilmington, Delaware (in development).


Kinnikinnick Foods just announced the newest version of their gluten-free KinniTOOS sandwich creme cookies: chocolate cookies with a fudge creme filling. The company says the cookies will be in stores come November, but they are available for home delivery by ordering through its website.
Wow Baking Company is offering visitors to their website a free gluten-free cookie of their choice. My older son recently tried their Snickerdoodle cookie and thought it tasted great. (Wow Baking's cookies and cake mixes are available at Amazon.com.) Thanks to Maureen at Hold The Gluten for the tip.
When my older son was younger, it was always a challenge at the start of the school year to educate faculty and administrators about his diet. Several years ago my wife prepared a two-page handout that we gave to his teachers, and we've used it every year since. The letter serves as a primer on the diet and gives them guidance about lunch time and snack time preparation, when a classmate's birthday will be celebrated and when certain arts and crafts materials are used. Just drop me a line at gfphilly[at]gmail[dot]com if you are interested in getting a copy of the note and I'll email it out to you.
Have a great weekend!
Have now personally heard of 3 people giving Olive Garden a try, with the GF menu. ALL have gotten ill. Hope they do a better job in Philly! Don't know if they're cooking the GF pasta in same water with wheat, or if sharing cooking surfaces ... or have not properly sourced their "GF" foods. Who can possibly know? I'm not even vaguely brave enough.
ReplyDeleteThe Taste of Thai toasted coconut fortune cookies are fabulous! Only wish they made them in a larger cookie...ate the whole box at one time! At least I enjoyed a dozen or so fortunes ;)
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