Celtic Celiac Turns 26!

Posted onAuthorCeltic Celiac

That’s a whole Lotta Candles! 

This past Saturday was my 26th Birthday, one which I was not looking forward to due to recent stress. However, I was not at all disappointed and ultimately had a gluten free blast! Here’s a recap:

Friday night I made a journey into the city to meet up with some friends for a pre-birthday celebration. My birthday somehow always ends up to be an multi-ethnic affair. Last year’s dinner was a surprise party at this Indian Restaurant. This year’s first ‘birthday’ meal was at a Vietnamese restaurant:

Locally Gluten Free: Part 9
L’Annam Vietnamese Cuisine
393 3RD AVENUE (28th & 3rd) 
http://files.meetup.com/30873/L’annam%20Final%20Menu%20PDF%2006.09.pdf

Bad lighting… 
Vietnamese is not something I have a lot of experience with but I was looking for something different for my birthday. I had chosen this place based on a review from Gluten Free Travel Site and I was glad to find out that several members of my party had been there before and had enjoyed it. I was impressed with the quick service. Despite how busy the place was we, a party of 8, were seated relatively quickly. The gluten free menu is very detailed with options available from many different areas; including appetizers, curries, soups, noodle dishes, stir fries etc. The prices are great for the amount of food that you get, something you can never go wrong with. In regards to the quality of the food I was absolutely pleased. For an appetizer we got the vegetable spring rolls which were good despite their unusual texture. Mike got the Vietnamese Curry Rice for dinner while I got the Ga Xao Xa Ot (chicken and vegetables in a lemongrass sauce with rice). Simply Delicious! The Thai Tea was spectacular. Staff were all knowledgeable about the gluten free diet, as was indicated on the menu, and it seemed in general that the place aimed to make gluten free dining a great experience at their location. For example, they provide gluten free soy sauce and all of their sauces are gluten free in general. 
The only downside of this experience was also one of it’s good attributes, the service was way to quick. I felt rushed to order and rushed to finish after we were seated. The check came before we were asked if we wanted dessert, which was disappointing since they had gluten free green tea and red bean ice cream! In addition, I felt that the seating arrangement wasn’t very effective given the amount of people they had dining there, but they were I am sure making the best of their tiny space. 
Gluten Free Options: 1 
Atmosphere: .5
Price: 1
Hospitality: .5
Food Quality: 1

               

After dinner went went over to Fat Cat, a great bar in the city that was essentially game paradise. They had go, ping pong, billard, foozeball, chess, checkers, scrabble, many other games and best of all

ORIGINAL SIN HARD CIDER (YUM!) 

To top it off it’s also a Jazz music club. They had this amazing blues singer in a Sari singing her heart out. I jokingly asked a friend to ask her to sing happy birthday to me, unexpectedly this turned into her making me go on stage so the entire bar could sing happy birthday to me right along with her! What a sight…

Saturday, my real birthday started out smoothly with:

BIRTHDAY SMOOTHIES!

I used 2 bananas and strawberries that wouldn’t have lasted the weekend  as well as almond milk, non-fat vanilla yogurt and frozen blueberries to make these delicious babies, my first attempt at smoothies.I think they came out good, although they could have used a bit flavor to make things pop. I also didn’t mix things completely enough, there were some chunks of strawberries and Banana that were larger than I would have liked. Oh well, there is always next time and I think I might be addicted to making smoothies now! 


I spent the afternoon hanging with friends (including one of my best who visited from binghamton) and  family as well as relaxing. It was nice to not have an incredibly stressful birthday for once.

Later in the evening I was taken out to one of my favorite restaurants for dinner with Mike, and was surprised to have 15 of my friends join me! Everything was so delicious, as usual, and you can never go wrong with being surrounded by friends!

I don’t think I could have asked for a better birthday weekend! I look forward to the experience that another year of life have to give! Happy Monday Everyone!

Celtic Celiac @ http://celtic-celiac.blogspot.com/