Gluten Free and Vegan Poutine Available at La Poutine

So I received an email from Lindsey at La Poutine in the University area of Edmonton.  Lindsey wanted to let the Celiac community know that they do have a gluten free poutine.

Their gluten free gravy also happens to be vegan.  Both their cheese curds and vegan cheese curds are also gluten free, along with their french fries.

Customers wanting to have the gluten free gravy for their poutine should specify so to the cashier.

Gluten free poutine from La Poutine in Edmonton

Amanda and I finally had a chance to check out La Poutine and their much talked about poutine choices.  La Poutine is a cute and cozy place, certainly not for big groups, but great to go in with a couple friends for a lunch/snack.  Just a few bar tables to sit at.  We went on a Sunday afternoon at 2pm, and it was like a revolving door of people coming in and out to have poutine.

We decided to order a traditional and a Quebecois which comes with Montreal Smoked meat.  I'll admit, we were bad because didn't ask if the smoked meat was gluten free or not, but it just seemed like a great choice.  We did hesitate to order any of the options that had pepperoni or sausages because I wanted to check with the owners via email first.  I'm still waiting to hear back, so I will update this when I do.

What we had was so good.  Our eyes were certainly bigger than our stomaches that afternoon.  We decided to order 2 larges, because we thought, "Well, this is our lunch".  Amanda just made it through half of hers before tapping out, and I way over ate, eating about 3/4 of mine.  But it was worth it, and so tasty.  What a great option for some comfort food with a twist.  They have a wide variety of crazy combinations for poutine that are worth trying out:

• Traditional poutine
• Cowboy’s Poutine: traditional, beef 
• Wurst Poutine: traditional, sausage
• Granny’s Poutine: traditional, peas, chicken
• The Canadian Poutine: traditional, bacon
• Garden Poutine: traditional, mushrooms, onions, peas
• Italian Poutine: hand-cut fries, cheese curds, beefy spaghetti sauce
• The Quebecois: traditional, smoked meat
• Party Poutine: traditional, beef, hot sauce, sour cream
• Meatlover’s Poutine: traditional, beef, bacon, sausage
• Poutine Supreme: traditional, bacon, sour cream, green onion
• BBQ Chicken Poutine: traditional, chicken, bbq sauce

Note the following are NOT gluten free

• Italian spaghetti sauce
• Chili
• mayo dipping sauces

Just note the chance of cross contamination for any of the specialty orders between any of the non gluten free toppings.

Gluten Free Edmonton - A Celiac guide and resource for gluten free information in Edmonton, Alberta

Kinnikinnick's Gluten Free Kosher Product Listing

We recently posted about Kinnikinnick's efforts to make a wide selection of their products kosher through the Othordox Union.  Our good friend RL wrote about the significance of this certification and how it opens up more variety of tasty foods to not only the gluten free market, but to the kosher market as well in Edmonton, Canada and across the world.  You can always give the article "Kinnikinnick's gluten free products are now certified Kosher!" a full read.

In the meantime, I felt it was important to provide a full list of products certified kosher and gluten free from Kinnikinnick.  For those in the Edmonton area, you can almost now consider Kinnikinnick a kosher bakery with cookies, breads, desserts and mixes. Listed below is the over 50 kosher products available at the Kinnikinnick Store in Edmonton, national and local retailers like SuperStore and Wal-Mart or online:

1. All Purpose Flour Blend
2. Angel Food Cake Mix
3. Blueberry Muffins
4. Brown Sandwich Bread
5. Candadi Yeast Free Multigrain Rice Bread
6. Carrot Muffins
7. Chocolate Cake Mix
8. Chocolate Chip Muffins
9. Chocolate Cookie Crumbs
10. Chocolate Dipped Donuts
11. Cinnamon Sugar Donuts
12. Crepe Mix
13. Crusty Bun
14. Dinner Roll
15. Ginger Snap Cookies
16. Gingerbread Cookie Mix
17. Graham Style Crumbs
18. Homestyle Waffles-Cinnamon Brown Sugar
19. Homestyle Waffles-Original
20. Italian White Tapioca Rice Bread
21. JB Brownie Squares
22. Kaiser Roll
23. KinniKritters Animal Cookies
24. KinniKritters Chocolate Animal Cookies
25. KinniKritters Graham Style Animal Cookies
26. Kinni-Kwik Bread & Bun Mix
27. KinniTOOS Chocolate Sandwich Cream Cookies
28. KinniTOOS Fudge Sandwich Cream Cookies
29. KinniTOOS Vanilla Sandwich Cream Cookies
30. Many Wonder Multigrain Rice Bread
31. Maple Glazed Donuts
32. Montana's Chocolate Chip Cookies
33. Pancake & Waffle Mix
34. Panko Style Bread Crumbs
35. Personal Size Pizza Crusts
36. Personal Size Thin Pizza Crusts
37. Pie Crusts
38. Raisin Tapioca Rice Bread
39. Robins Honey Brown Rice Bread
40. S'moreables Graham Style Crackers
41. Sugar Cookie Mix
42. Sunflower Flax Rice Bread
43. Tapioca Rice Bread
44. Tapioca Rice Cinnamon Buns
45. Tapioca Rice Cinnamon Raisin Bagels
46. Tapioca Rice English Muffins
47. Tapioca Rice Hamburger Buns
48. Tapioca Rice Hot Dog Buns
49. Tapioca Rice New York Style Plain Bagels
50. Tapioca Rice Sesame Bagels
51. Tapioca Rice Tray Buns
52. Vanilla Glazed Donuts
53. White Cake Mix
54. White Sandwich Bread
55. Yeast Free Tapioca Rice Bread

Gluten Free Edmonton - A Celiac guide and resource for gluten free information in Edmonton, Alberta

Tips for travelling gluten free with Princess Cruises

Me in front of the Princess Emerald, ported in Grenada

We've been cruising before on Celebrity where Amanda was very impressed with how they accommodated her gluten free diet.  You can click here to read more about that experience and I'll leave Amanda to blog more about her experience on Princess, because just like cruising on Celebrity, there were lots of successes, but still some frustrations.

So here are a few tips for Princess, and probably for any cruise line like Celebrity, Carnival, Royal Caribbean etc., when cruising on a gluten free diet.

Alfredo sauce with a gluten free quinoa pasta

First, be sure to let the cruise line know about your dietary restrictions before cruising.  Princess Cruises has something online called the Cruise Personalizer where you can enter any special requests weather it being a food allergy like peanut, dietary restrictions like gluten free, or even kosher.  This is to ensure the head waiter has a list of all people special dietary needs.  The first evening in the dining room, the header waiter came to our table to seek out Amanda.

lobster tail with massive prawns served with rice

Next, the most important person in any eating area is the head waiter.  They are the best person to help you seek out the meal that works best for you.  This is not only for the dining room, but the buffet area as well.  In the buffet area, you can ask some of the servers or chefs, but the head waiter will no best.

If you are having any issues with the food in any situation, speak with the head waiter, don't speak with the waiter serving your table.  The head waiter knows how to make things happen, even if that means bringing in the assistant maitre'd or maitre'd who is the next level up.  We do have a story with that, that if Amanda doesn't share, I'll certainly share.

Gluten free Moroccan crock pot.  This was threw room service

To make things easier on the kitchen on preparing a gluten free dinner properly for you, the head waiter likes to bring you the menu the day before.  Typically during dinner the day before so you can place your order.  This is so they can make up a batch of a special gluten free sauce for you if needed on any of the meals.  We noticed a few times, Amanda and I order the same meal, but her sauce was not as thick.  Hense it was gluten free because they made a special batch for her without thickener.  Be sure the head waiter brings you the next day's menu before you start eating your dinner.  This is because the last thing you want to do on a full stomach is to think about what you want to eat the next day.

This was at their cover charge restaurant Sabatini's.
quinoa seafood pasta.  Or is that seafood with some pasta?
Mmmmmm

This is a general tip for cruise dining;  don't be afraid to speak up about any of the meals.  Typically cruise meals are fantastic, but you can come across some duds.  Let the waiter know, they'll be happy to prepare something else for you.  Also, if nothing on the menu is really speaking to you, ask for something else.  This will obviously delay your meal because they will have to prepare it special, but they can do it.

There is breakfast, lunch and dinner in the dining rooms.  Those are obviously the best ways to avoid any cross contamination at the buffets.  But there are still some great gluten free buffet meals on the ship.  You can also order room service for any meals, they are able to prepare gluten free meals as well.

We booked this cruise and our previous Celebrity cruise with Meredith Travel:

Meredith Burbidge
4 Robert Speck Pkwy - 15th Floor
Mississauga, Ontario
L4Z 1S1 Canada
Direct Line: (416) 907-3299
Email: mburbidge@tpi.ca
TICO Registration 1576226

Some other gluten free cruise links you may also enjoy:

• Gluten Free Travel on Celebrity Cruises: Part 1 - Caribbean 2010
• Gluten Free Travel on Celebrity Cruises: Part 2 - The Gluten Free Meals

Gluten Free Edmonton - A Celiac guide and resource for gluten free information in Edmonton, Alberta

For those that need: Gluten free, soy free, kosher, vegan margarine

This posted is from our good gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian friend RL:

I can't believe the rumors are true. There really is a gluten free, soy free, kosher, vegan margarine available in Canada and in Edmonton no less.

Earth Balance makes what they call 'a buttery flavour spread'. It tastes like margarine to me which is awesome because I have not had margarine in a really long time! I just ate some on toasted gluten free bread. I felt like a real person. I can't wait to try baking with my new spread. I'll let you know how it goes.

I picked up this tub at planet organic Edmonton south.

Check out some other gluten free products we wrote about.

Gluten Free Edmonton - A Celiac guide and resource for gluten free information in Edmonton, Alberta

Gluten Free Rice Krispies hits Canadian Shelves

www.safeway.ca

This is some great news, Gluten Free Rice Krispies has finally hit the shelves in Canada.  The gluten free version is made with brown rice and takes out the malt found in the original version of Rice Krispies.

In Edmonton, I am only able to confirm it right now at Safeway locations.  Please let us know if you find it elsewhere.

Click here to check out the details from the Safeway Canada website

Now that there gluten free Rice Krispies, what's the first treat you are going to make with them?

Gluten Free Edmonton - A Celiac guide and resource for gluten free information in Edmonton, Alberta