Some Substitutions for Allergens

Cypress

Last night I had the pleasure of dining at Cypress which is located on East Bay Street in downtown Charleston. The restaurant is housed in a historic two story building and the chef, Craig Deihl has been nominated twice for a James Beard award. We were seated promptly upon arrival and greeted almost simultaneously by our server. We were presented with a wine list for the table by way of a user friendly tablet to scroll through for our selections. Nice touch! The ambiance was very nice with ever changing ceiling lighting.
This was a gathering of old friends, one I had not seen in about 15 years so that was a nice treat. Marco, as our host, ordered a nice bottle of Chianti and a plate of house cured meats. This had a good variety of Italian meats along with some olives.
One of the more frustrating aspects of dining out with allergies is it can often make me feel like I am making a spectacle of myself. I was happy to see the words at the bottom of the menu to "alert your server of any food allergies". When I see this, my questions are usually handled with grace. I asked our server about three entrees (I usually try to have several in mind so that if 1 or 2 are eliminated I am ready with an alternative.) She was great in being knowledgeable of the menu ingredients. This makes the situation much more subtle for me. I selected a North Carolina Braised Chicken Breast. It was prepared with a light curry coconut milk sauce with peas, carrots and fingerling potatoes. My friend Marco ordered a Wasabi Crusted Tuna that looked delicious. David had a pan seared trout dish and Bob had a tenderloin with soft shell crab. I believe everyone enjoyed their food. It was really nice for me to have my special requests to seem like no problem. Our server was great. I would highly recommend Cypress for anyone with food allergies.
Normally, I post photos of the food but we were in the restaurant with Brooke Shields and she was gracious enough to talk to us and allow me to take some photos so I am posting a photo of her!

The Alley

I recently met several of my lady friends at The Alley in downtown Charleston. It was a Friday night so it was quite busy and at the first of the night there were lots of children.  We had a large table to accommodate all of us.  We trickled in over about 20 minutes and our server was very prompt to check with the newcomers. As I looked over the menu, I thought I was going to have some difficulty in selecting something to eat without any dairy products and felt my choices would be very limited at best. I asked our server if she would check with the kitchen and ask them to make suggestions. She returned a few moments later and sat down next to me. The chef had gone over most of the menu with her and she went over them item by item with me. That was so nice and gave me confidence in ordering. The chef had even said he would alter the way he prepared several of the entrees to make them dairy-free. Relief! They even said I could have the shrimp or oyster po boy! She said they normally soak them in buttermilk before putting the breading on but he would not soak mine that way. I was excited because I have hardly had any fried seafood in 8 years. (Now I hardly ever ate fried seafood before but now that I usually cannot have it, I seem to crave it all the more!)
The restaurant/bar is a bowling alley/ adult style arcade with other games.  It did prove quite difficult to chat with friends because the noise level is very high. I would recommend to visit this establishment if you want to play rather than dine. I think it would be great to take a group bowling or skee balling. With the alley, it is on a first come, first served basis. We arrived around 7 and all the alleys were booked until 10:30 that evening. But when you get an alley, you get it for one hour for up to 6 people.
Back to the food....our food arrived. I must say my shrimp po boy was like a little piece of heaven. It was wonderful. I couldn't eat it slow enough to savor every morsel! I had butter beans with it and they were equally delicious. All the ladies that ordered food said they enjoyed their food and they had a variety of items. So for good food and a fun, lively evening I will definitely go back to The Alley!

Pot Kettle Black Food Truck

This past Sunday I was a participating artist at the Homegrown Music Festival at Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant. It was a great event with a plethora of local artists performing all day, a hand full of visual arts, and a nice array of food trucks. With my photography, I sometimes set up a booth at fine craft and art shows and often find myself in a precarious situation with regards to finding foods that I can eat with my allergy. In an ideal situation I would bring food from home  but sometimes it just doesn't work out that way. With 5 trucks though I felt confident I could find something. Long before I was planning to eat I perused the menus of the trucks and began with my questions. One truck (actually a trailer/truck in this case) was only pizza so that one was easy to eliminate. Another had things like all types of hot dogs/sausage dogs and I never eat those out anymore as most of them are processed with milk products.(Not a very well known fact!) Also, I figured that if I looked early and found nothing I could send my husband on a run to a nearby restaurant for something if I felt "stuck." But I found something. A truck called Pot Kettle Black had Chicken Chili that sounded good. When the time came to eat I got a bowl of this. It was a decent sized bowl for $4.00. It was a brothy version with big chunks of nice chicken breast meat, navy beans, chilis, and onions. Mmmm...it was delicious! It had a nice heat to it without being overwhelming and was  flavored perfectly. I really meant to take a picture of it but it was so good that I was halfway done when I realized this! And a photo of a half-eaten bowl of soup just isn't that appealing. After lunch I did go back to take pictures of the truck and was given complete access and a great tour by Chef Jon Caton.

Every space within the truck seems precisely planned and has to all be able to be stabilized for travel. I have spent enough time in kitchens to really appreciate the great food that came out of that tight but well-planned space. It was really nice of them to give me the great little tour, be friendly and helpful about my requests and deliver one of the best versions of chicken chili that I have had!

http://www.pkbfoodtruck.com/

Sol Y Luna Cali-Mex Grill & Bar Hendersonville NC

On a recent visit to see my mom in beautiful Hendersonville NC we met friends of hers at Sol Y Luna, a nice little Mexican restaurant she had enjoyed before. It was a special treat for my mom as she has had a challenging year health-wise and this was a rare night out to dinner for her.
Sometimes Mexican restaurants can be a bit more challenging for me to communicate my allergy to milk, depending upon their grasp of English. My husband did teach me "no quesos" and "no leche" but I still do not feel that is always enough to convey all aspects of what I need to avoid. But I do love Mexican food, even without all the cheese and sour cream, so I do not avoid going to these restaurants.
This restaurant is in a strip mall and has been other eateries in the past with mediocre surroundings. But Sol Y Luna's owners have warmed up the place nicely starting with the water feature that greets you when you enter to the colors and nice Mexican styled wall decor.
My mom's friends were there when we arrived (fashionably late as per usual for my family!). There were already chips with bean dip, salsa and a spicy avocado dip at the table. The staff brings the chips and bean dip but the others were from the salsa bar- which is a nice touch. Our waiter came promptly and took our drink order and returned shortly. I inquired about a few menu items. (http://www.solylunanc.com/menu.html)I was pleased that he spoke perfect English. This just gave me confidence in relaying to him fully about what I needed to avoid. He was very helpful and knowledgeable of the menu items without having to ask. My mom wanted to have Shrimp Fajitas. She only eats a small amount so she wanted to possibly split this with me. We asked about the fajitas and he said they are made with jalapeno butter and that's what gives them the big sizzle. I suppose that's the way most Mexican restaurants fix those-so now I know. So I decided on the Pollo Al Carbon: grilled chicken breasts with grilled Anaheim chiles with pico de gallo, guacamole, rice, refried beans and flour tortillas. I asked to omit the rice as it was cooked with butter and no cheese on the beans. Otherwise, it sounded pretty tasty. In just a bit our food arrived. My mom's fajita sounded and smelled so good. As a matter of fact, everyone's looked delicious... except mine!

Two plain chicken breasts, one lonely chili, and a plate full of beans! I didn't want to complain since I hardly knew her friends. Heck, I'm already a spectacle by the time I ask so many questions to start!

I had eaten a few bites when another waiter brought my tortillas they had realized they had forgotten. I asked him about my pico de gallo and guacamole. He said, "I asked them about that and they said you didn't want it!" I said, "Oh, yes I do want it." So he happily brought it out to me. Then my food was pretty good.

That is a problem I do face from time to time. People will over-compensate for my milk allergy by being afraid to put anything on my food. As food allergies seem to be more prevalent I just hope restaurants continue to educate themselves on taking care of this smaller population of customers so that we are able to continue to dine out and enjoy great flavors too.

Triangle Char & Bar Mount Pleasant SC

Triangle Char & Bar is a newer restaurant in Mount Pleasant. This is the second location with the original being in West Ashley. I had been to the first location a couple of times for dinner and had really enjoyed it so I had been wanting to try the closer one. My friend, Laura, and I arrived for a late lunch. The restaurant is in a strip mall but has a good bit of charm. Many of the windows were replaced with garage doors which were all wide open. It was a picture perfect weather day so it gave you the feeling of being outdoors even though you we still inside. Even though it was quite nice inside we elected to eat outside. The only complaint about that is these tables are right beside the highway out to Sullivans Island so there was a lot of traffic noise.In spite of that, we enjoyed sitting outside on such a gorgeous day.

Our waiter greeted us immediately and took our drink order. Ironically, Laura has recently discovered an allergy to milk also. So we were both asking questions about the menu items. I was deciding between the chicken salad salad and the   “i’m on a diet but still want a burger” burger. Laura asked about the portabello taco. http://www.trianglecharandbar.com/menus Our waiter seemed more than happy to ask about our choices in their kitchen. He returned quickly and told us any of those selections would be fine. Laura got her taco and I got the turkey burger with sweet sticks. And if you love a good burger they are known for their grass-fed local beef burgers and have a lot of burger options. Our food arrived in a few minutes.

My turkey burger was really tasty and Laura said her portabello tacos were delicious! And the "sweet sticks" were certainly a good version. I wish I could tell all of you about the desserts at all these places but I have only had one place that accommodated my milk allergy to have something sweet after dinner...and that was in New York City! So no desserts out in restaurants for me...

Definitely recommend this place. I will be back.  Looks like it could be a good watering hole too!

Long Point Grill Mount Pleasant SC

On Friday I met my friend Julissa for lunch at Long Point Grill right off of I-526 on Long Point Road. (Hence the name!) I have not been here in quite sometime but the gentleman, Sal, who owns this one has many restaurants in the area. All of his restaurants are quite different from each other and are local favorite spots. For a listing of each location and menus visit www.dinewithsal.com.

Julissa and I ordered our drinks from our server and eventually read over the menu. This is a restaurant I recalled having no trouble requesting food with no milk products as they cook all their food to order and use fresh ingredients. The menu also mentions to ask about non-gluten foods.

Normally I select 2-3 items on a menu for the server to inquire about so that I am not running them back and forth. So I asked about the seafood po boys (knowing that was a long shot) and the

Tangerine Stir-Fried Pork. She returned quickly and informed me that the po boys were out as the breading is buttermilk based. So I ordered the pork stir-fry. Julissa ordered a Grilled Chicken Club. It wasn't long before our food arrived....I think! Julissa and I had not seen each other in quite a while so we were "overloaded" with conversation so time was irrelevant. My food presentation was beautiful.

Our server even reassured me without my asking that the shrimp that topped my dish were done differently than the other seafood so they would be fine. I appreciated that she told me that. And the shrimp were delicious. Very light, sweet and crispy! As I continued to eat Julissa noticed that I seemed to be searching around my bowl. She asked me if something was wrong and I said that I could not seem to find any pork! She called our server over and I asked should I be able to SEE the pork in my dish. She said, "Oh, yes you should. Do you want me to get them to heat up some pork to put in there?" Well, not to sound particular, but I do not think think that was a valid question! Of course I would like some pork for my PORK stir fry! It took about five minutes to get a side dish of pork to add to my dish. Now I do really find it slack for the kitchen not to put the main ingredient in an entree. But I must say the dish was very good after I stirred in my pork. Maybe I just had them confused after being concerned over milk products! And my friend Julissa said her sandwich was good but she eventually took it apart and left a lot on her plate, leading me to believe she wasn't all that crazy about it.

Now that Mount Pleasant has gotten so many good restaurants to choose from I will probably put this one on my back burner for awhile.