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Here's a brief summary of my experiences in San Francisco, Yosemite and San
Jose:

San Francisco:
Nature Stop on Grant St. in North Beach – this turned out to be around the
corner from my hotel. They had a fairly decent selection, except for breads,
of which they had NONE. I bought Amy’s rice mac & cheese, Nature’s Path corn
flakes, Garden of Eatin’ blue corn sesame chips, Health Valley rice bran
crackers (mock graham crackers) and Let’s Do Organic licorice bears there.

Just down the block from my hotel was a terrific Thai restaurant, Little
Thai, that had no trouble pointing out gf items on the menu (I had a
wonderful lamb dish), perhaps the Thai restaurant card helped, but they
seemed fairly proficient in English.

We also ate somewhere in Chinatown (can’t recall the name of the
restaurant), and the Chinese restaurant card DEFINITELY helped. I had
Singapore noodles.

Berkeley:
Rick and Ann's on Domingo street near the Claremont Hotel for rice flour
blueberry pancakes right on the menu. It's a wonderful breakfast/brunch
place and the pancakes are heavenly and worth the trip. It's crowded on
weekends.  – I took the BART to Berkeley and found this place (although the
bus driver had never heard of the street address, it is right across from
the HUGE hotel, so it’s easy to find). The pancakes were terrific, but I
should have ordered the short stack (too much too eat). They’re made with
rice flour, orange juice and fresh blueberries.

San Jose:
Thepthai, 23 N. Market St., (at Henry)
Great inexpensive Thai restaurant in downtown. Great service and nice
variety. Understand the concept of NO gluten. – Again, the Thai restaurant
card helped, but I don’t think it was really necessary. I had a clay pot
mussel dish and pad thai.

I also ate at BoTown Chinese Restaurant (which is actually Vietnamese, too),
and the lack of a Vietnamese restaurant card was a problem (they weren’t
really able to read the Chinese one, and their command of English wasn’t
great). I ended up with a soup that was similar to pho, but not as tasty
(rather lacking in spices).

House of Siam, which has two locations, was okay. I forgot the Thai
restaurant card, but they seemed to understand what I was saying.
Unfortunately, the pad thai sauce contains MSG, but I had a nice bowl of
Thai chicken soup (which was the only menu item they recommended). They
might have a greater selection at their main store.

The main hotel restaurant at the Fairmont had an okay breakfast, but ended
up serving me a boiled potato instead of home fries. The ham was gf, but
they weren't sure about the bacon.

Yosemite
Despite the lack of recommendations from listserve and Delphi members and
the Yosemite Concession Services e-mail, I did okay. I brought a lot of my
own food, and was able to find Carl Budding and Louis Rich cold cuts,
cheese, fruit, chips, etc. in the groceries at Curry and Yosemite Villages.
The Mountain View Restaurant at the Yosemite Lodge was great – we ate there
twice and they were very accommodating. I didn’t eat at the Ahwahnee, but I
suspect that they would be able to accommodate a celiac quite easily. The
ice cream places have Dryer’s ice cream, which is gf unless it contains bits
of cookies, etc. The (extra fee) family campfires serve Campfire
marshmallows, which are gf (I brought the rice bran crackers and a few
Hershey bars that I bought at the Ahwahnee gift shop and we made our own s’
mores).

On the downside, the motel at Curry Village didn’t provide any
refrigerators, but we made do with an ice chest (ice is free for motel
guests). They have microwaves in all the grocery stores, which can be used
to heat up any gf meals you’ve brought along. The restaurant at Curry is all
buffet-style, so I didn’t try to eat there (although my non-gf friends did
and liked it) since there wasn’t much I could have eaten (and the risk of
cross contamination is great). The other restaurants (fast food, sandwiches,
etc.) didn’t seem to have much for me to eat.

If you’re camping, you will have to rent a bear-proof container for your
food, but you can bring whatever you want and cook it yourself.


I bought a microwave and toaster oven on the way from SF to Yosemite and
used them until I left San Jose, where I donated them to a local women’s
shelter. I had a selection of  My Own Meals, which I nuked when necessary,
and some gf bread (from home) that I toasted for sandwiches.


Perrianne Lurie
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"Alas! The onion you are eating is someone else's water lily."

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