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Gidday,

I would like to thank all those wonderful people on the list
who responded with some great suggestions to my request
relating to food in San Fransico.

The summary of responses I received is as follows -

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1. Look up Health food stores in the yellow
pages.

Personally I found this suggestion although very practical, a tad
unhelpful. The first places I would have looked would have been
health food stores. What I was actually after was personal opinions
as to the best places to go.
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The rest of the suggestion received were great
and they are -
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2.I'm in the UK right now but I lived in the SF Bay Area for 7 years (the last
two years I was GF).  I never had any luck buying bread, I ended up making my
own.  Part of the reason for this is the American Celiac Association is much
stricter than other countries in its guidelines; for example in the UK they
allow wheat starch and distilled products the US doesn't.  I found pasta at
healthfood stores.  As far as restaurants are concerned, one of my favorites
was an Indian restaurant on Ellis Street near Union Square.  New Delhi is
the name of the  restaurant.  At the time I visited the owner showed a lot of
concern in providing me with food I could eat.  To the best of my recollection
I could eat most things on the menu except the breads.

There are also two chains of all-you-can-eat salad type restaurants where I
ate all the time.  The names are "Sweet Tomato" and "Fresh Choice"; I avoided
all the salads with dressings and the breads and pastas.  But I found that
there was more than enough to eat in the way of fruit and veg and baked
potatoes.
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3.Here are a few ideas for where to buy breads and such, and also a few cafe
and restaurant suggestions. San Francisco is not so bad for a celiac!

Stores:
*Whole Foods
Here you can get:
- Food for Life Almond/Pecan Rice bread
- Food for Life Rice bread
- Pasta Riso gluten-free pastas
- several kinds of gluten-free crackers
- Amazake rice drinks (excellent!)
- gluten-free waffles
- flourless chocolate cake to die for
1765 California Street (Corner of California & Franklin). (415)674.0500.
Convenient location one block from Van Ness Avenue.

*Trader Joe's
Here you can get:
- Food for Life Almond Rice bread
- Gluten-free waffles (in the freezer section) Excellent!
- meringues
Locations:
555 Ninth Street Retail Center between Toys "R" Us and Bed and Bath
Superstore. Entrance and parking off Bryant or Brannan. (415) 863-1292. The
store is open 9AM to 9PM daily. This is a bit of an industrial area, south
of Market Street.
AND
3 Masonic Avenue, just north of Geary. (415) 346-9964.  The store is open
9AM to 9PM.

Cafe:
Dolores Park Cafe
501 Dolores Street @ 18th Street
Here you can get one or two different kinds of baked goods from GFoods!, a
San Francisco gluten-free bakery.  Last time I went there, they had
lemon/raspberry biscotti.  Then you can sit down and enjoy your coffee, just
like everyone else.

Restaurants:
- If you like Japanese food, I recommend Kabuto's at 5116 Geary Boulevard @
15th Avenue. (415) 752-5652
- In Chinatown, an excellent Vietnamese place for rice noodle soup and rolls
wrapped in rice paper is Golden Flower at 667 Jackson Street, between Grant
and Kearny.

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4. In Sanfrancisco Real Foods Market and/or any other health food store.   In
S.F as in any city all top restaurants take customers dietary limitations very
seriously.  As always, have the waiter check with the kitchen BEFORE you
finalize your menu choice.  Have the waiter report back to you on the items
you have in mind before you order.
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5.I'm glad you asked, when I was last in SF a friend introduced us
to a vegan restaurant named 'Now & Zen'.  It sounded a little far out
but was really a very laid-back, friendly place and they were most
helpful when it came to checking out ingredients.  Not all of the items
on the menu are gluten free but they did have quite a number of them and
all of those which I tried were most impressive.  The owner/chef goes to
great lengths to turn out really tasty and nutritious food and has even
written a couple of cookbooks with her more popular recipes.  I
purchased one of these when I was there and now I get to relive the
experience all over again when the mood strikes.  This restaurant was so
good in fact, that we went back twice in one week.  I don't have the
address with me but I could find it with little trouble, if you're
interested.
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6.  My first travel after being diagnosed was to SFO, and I was there for 3
weeks.  I bought a restaurant guide from someone from this list named Jeff
Golden.  You will probably get a note from him offering you the same
information.  I paid $20.00 for it, and it is about 28 pages.

I bought many items at a wonderful store called Trader Joe's.  They have a
bread made with rice and pecan or almond flour.  They publish a GF list, but
it might be hard to find a copy.  It was never in the store, but my daughter
had gotten it from me.  They are probably on the web.

The other wonderful store is Whole Food Markets.  If you can tell me which
part of San Francisco you will be staying I could help you better.  It is a
rambling, conjested area, and many of the suburbs are a long way from the
area I know.  I am familiar with the downtown and center of SFO.  My
daughter lives near Golden Gate Park, so that is my stomping grounds.  You
will find most nice restaurants are eager to please, and are used to folks
who have dietary requirements and restrictions.


many thanks once again for all your wonderful help.

Regards Wendy