Driving and Eating on the Central Calif. Coast

This little guy was born just minutes before I took this photo at the elephant seal reserve near San Simeon, California.

Decades and decades ago, my late father lived in Cambria, a sleepy central California coastal town. Until the mid-80s, R and I visited Cambria several times. Then life changed, we moved out-of-state, and my father moved from Cambria. During the 29 years years when we lived in Chicago and before that Kansas City and Tulsa, our visits to California centered on attending family events and holidays and seeing friends, mostly in Southern California.

When we booked our January 2018 return flight from Costa Rica to Los Angeles, we decided it was time to rent a car and drive some of the coast and revisit Cambria on our way to Monterey and its famed aquarium.

As a celiac, there are a few things I know to do when I travel such pack some food like Think Thin GF protein bars or something similar and visit a local grocery store. While on this trip, we traveled with Think Thin bars, I went completely lazy on visiting grocery stores and buying backup gluten free food and plenty of times, I regretted my lazy ways.

The little village of Cambria presented a number of good food options. We met up with friends who were also visiting Cambria and enjoyed dinner at Robin’s Restaurant (http://www.robinsrestaurant.com)  The kitchen at Robin’s readily accommodates eating preferences, offering vegetarian and gluten free options and willingly modifies items to meet individual needs. At the restaurant, I ordered Robin’s Chow, a vegetable and prawn stir fry made with tamari and rice noodles rather than regular soy and pasta.

The next night R and I lined up for a table at The Sea Chest http://www.seachestrestaurant.com a cash only, Cambria treasure. The first 12 people or so in line earn the chance to sit at the oyster bar, chat with the chefs while watching them cook. Next time we visit, we’ll be first in line.
I ordered cioppino, a lush, tomato rich seafood stew overflowing with crab legs. I immediately regretted not finding a store that sold gluten free bread since the restaurant did not offer a gluten free bread option and crusty bread would have paired wonderfully with this dish. Grrrrr.

Cioppino at the Sea Chest, Cambria

This wasn’t the only time I regretted not toting bread and other gluten free items.

From Cambria, we headed inland to the 101 for a detoured drive to Monterey. Once in that beautiful town on the bay, our first task was finding a restaurant since we were both starving. A quick google search located an El Torito (part of a chain) situated on the bay in Cannery Row. Since Mexican food is typically a safe option for me, we headed to the restaurant. What we discovered was surly service, limited food options, and a kitchen disinterested in accommodating food restrictions. After a fair amount of negotiating, I ordered prawn fajitas with vegetables and beans. What arrived were unseasoned, rubbery prawns set a top of unseasoned, bland vegetables. It was clear that special orders were not welcomed by the kitchen. As I stared at the tasteless food in front of me, I wished, once again, that we’d stopped at a grocery store and that I had researched restaurants.

The cook at this El Torito did not even bother to salt and pepper these rubbery prawns. Ugh.

Happily, the hotel staff saved us from our poor planning by suggesting some excellent restaurants and pointing us in the direction of a grocery store (which unfortunately had a slim selection of gluten free bread).
One day after hiking at Point Lobos, spotting migrating whales and watching harbor seals, we headed to Monterey Fish House www.montereyfishhouse.com, an unassuming, homestyle seafood restaurant. It was late afternoon and the place was busy. The server recommended cioppino; I was not disappointed. Mussels, clams, huge chunks of salmon, white fish, calamari, and shrimp filled the rich tomato based sauce. R loved the huge crab cake he ordered which unfortunately was not gluten free but looked delicious.

Another bowl of wonderful cioppino. Heavenly.

On our last day in Monterey, we wanted pizza and found Pizza My Heart www.pizzamyheart.com on Del Monte, not far from our hotel. Many restaurants offer gluten free pizza but don’t necessarily follow the steps to avoid cross contamination (prepping GF pizza in a clean area away from wheat, using fresh utensils, gloves, and in the absence of a dedicated GF oven, placing the GF pizza on foil in the oven). Eagle-eyed Richard watched as a the folks at Pizza My Heart prepared a safe, delicious gluten free pizza.

Lessons relearned on this trip —research restaurants before the trip and visit a grocery store while traveling, if packing food ahead isn’t an option.  Duh. I’m already researching restaurants for our next trip.