New Hampshire Vacation, Part 2 — Gluten-Free! #weekendcooking @BethFishReads @spruestory

Weekend Cooking is a weekly feature hosted by Beth Fish Reads, linking up food-related posts. Click here for links to other bloggers’ Weekend Cooking posts at Beth Fish Reads.

My last Weekend Cooking post was about the Riverside Inn Bed & Breakfast in Intervale, New Hampshire (near North Conway), where all the food is prepared in a 100% gluten-free kitchen and served in a 100% gluten-safe dining room. Here’s the other Weekend Cooking post I promised on the North Conway area in the White Mountains of New Hampshire because it seemed so hospitable to people on a strict gluten -free diet. (Click on any photos to see larger view.)

Driving from place to place during our three-day visit, we noticed many signs advertising gluten-free menu items, etc. and with an advance call, many restaurants in the area seemed familiar with the question and were able to give a clear answer on whether they could provide a safe gluten-free meal for someone with celiac disease.

It wouldn’t be vacation without fried food, but after the first night, we had all had enough fried food for the whole trip! We ate at Rafferty’s Restaurant & Pub. The food was delicious. Rafferty’s offers regular celiac disease information sessions for the public, and had a very well-versed staff.

The second night we ate at the Shalimar of India, which Ken, the innkeeper at the Riverside Inn B&B suggested as a good gluten-free dining option, especially with many of the restaurants in the area closed on Tuesdays to give staff a day off. We ate on the outdoor patio because the air conditioning was turned down low in the dining room. The food pictures didn’t come out well enough to post, but visit the Shalimar Web site to see the food. (You might want to turn the sound off.) We tried two vegetarian dishes and one meat dish. (No bread, but if you can order the bread, I’m sure that would be delicious too.) The food was excellent – as good as at our favorite Indian restaurant.

We went Italian the third night and tried Vito Marcello’s Italian Bistro, another restaurant that was known to be gluten-free-friendly. There were several menu selections that could be prepared gluten-free, including vegetarian choices, and we all ordered from them. The pasta turned out to be the same in all our meals, regardless of the menu description of the original dish, but it was the best gluten-free pasta I’ve tasted so far, and we all were served a g/f roll, which we wolfed down. (Hiking in the mountains takes a lot out of you!) I think the waiter said that the g/f rolls were baked on the premises in a separate g/f oven.

For lunches, we purchased food from local stores and had picnics. The Local Grocer (pictured in one of the North Conway shots at the beginning) had an amazing selection of gluten-free sandwiches and salads, prepared to order in a separate gluten-free area in the back.

The Lucy Brook Farm had a wonderful little farm store that we stopped at one day, where we bought handcrafted items for gifts to take home, and lots of fresh fruit and veggies to eat by the river back at the Riverside Inn.

Happy Weekend Cooking!

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