Saturday, January 24, 2015

New Webstie

Ohmygfree has lost the Blogspot and has moved to www.ohmygfree.com. It has all the old reviews, plus some new ones, so please check it out. 


Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Mejico

For the past couple of times I've been to Sydney, I've walked past this restaurant called Mejico and always wanted to check it out, but every time I was enticed by somewhere else (namely Jamie's Italian which is pretty much next door). Anyway, when my friend suggested it and told me about this place that has guacamole served with plantain chips, I was sold. Those who know me know I love my plantains, this love happened when I was over in Trinidad and Tobago and that was the only thing I could eat when I was over there, whilst everyone was eating Doubles! Anyway.... 

Mejico is fantastic, and cause ... you picked it, its Mexican, very Glutard friendly. The menu is awesome and all GF plates are label. 

To start we had the guacamole (duhhh) ($14). We had a nice little banter to the waitress about how hard it is to choose a good avocado (in which we had), whilst she literally smashed up all the ingredients, being an avo, chilli, pistachio, coriander, red onion and lime.  Served with my all time favorite plantain chips. For those who don't know what plantains are, they are like big green bananas. Because its made in front of you, you know this is fresh, and damn tasty!
After
Before
We shared all the dishes, although I now wish we didn't have to shares the Corn lollipops, of char grilled corn, chipotle mayo, queso fresco (some kind of latina cheese is my guess), paprika, cumin, shredded coconut and popcorn ($12). Seriously could have just eaten these. 


Twice cooked pork belly ($18), Honey and Guiajillio reduction (don't ask me what that is), pickled cabbage and crispy pigs skin. Now 'crispy pigs skin' does not sound appetising but really its the most accurate way of describing crackling, right?  We also ordered the grilled octopus and chorizo ($28) which was grilled octopus tentacles, with chorizo, potatoes covered in chipotle sauce (nice and spicy). Epazote mushrooms with cheese fundido ($14) of roasted portobello mushrooms with goats cheese, gouda, queso frisco, pepitas (i.e. a shit load of cheese) and balsamic glaze.

Crispy Pig Skin
You know when you go to a restaurant and their mains are so good, you usually expect their desserts to be lacking... well not here! The desserts were amazing... well at least their Flourless Chocolate Cake ($12) was. It was a super dense/rich cake drizzled with Mezcal (a kind of tequila) chocolate sauce , salted caramel ice cream & crushed spiced almonds. When I was eating this, I swore I could taste chilli, though I couldn't pick where it was coming from.... found out it was the nuts which were a bit spicy.
Before 
After

Oh My G-free rating – 8/10

Monday, December 8, 2014

The Boathouse

On my little getaway, I visited a friend in Palm Beach.... for those who don't know that's where Home & Away is filmed. As a tourist, I had to go see the 'set', as it turns out the Boathouse is where they film some shots. Its a cute little cafe (another insti worthy place), filled with fresh flowers and fruit. We came here just to have a coffee and something light (as we had a lovely homemade buckwheat crepes for breaky) but ended going little over board at the Boathouse (haha I know I am hilarious). 

An Instagrammer's heaven
Although not labelled GF, I asked the waiter  for some options and he was pretty knowledgeable with the menu. We said that pretty much everything on their lunch menu is GF (or can be made), except the chips. For all you non-glutards order the chips...they looked amazing! 


We ordered the Boathouse Salad with smoked salmon ($29) which was a quinoa with pomegranate, tamari  pepitas, sprouts, peas, half a very amazingly ripe avocado and labne. Perfect for a summer's day (in Summer Bay).. although it was rainy the day we went.


Keeping with the seafood theme, we also shared the Market Fish ($27), which was trout, served on a bed of peas, asparagus and buckwheat. The fish was super fresh and tasty and came with a beautifully tangy basil pesto.

Not GF
It was my friend's birthday so we ordered pretty much all the cakes they had on offer. Word of warning, NOT GF. They didn't have any GF cakes (surprising seeing that they have a heap of savoury options), Anyway, they were really nice and served the cakes with a massive sparkler (thought that it was going to burn our cakes). Although I couldn't eat the cakes, I could have the lemon curd in the lemon tart and the meringue from the lemon meringue tart. Tasty, but nothing to write home about. 

You know we belong together......

Oh My G-free rating – 7/10


Tuesday, December 2, 2014

The Grounds of Alexandria

OHMYGFree has been on holidays, thus why I haven't posted in a while (not because I've been lazy or studying!!).

I found cheap  flights ($70 return ticket) to Sydney a while ago, and thought I would treat myself to a weekend away after exams. Treat myself to a few delicious places Sydney had to offer. One of them being the oh so trendy The Grounds of Alexandria... an instragrammer's heaven (I feel like the whole of Sydney was made for insti). This place is a cafe/ garden (with a pig, called Kevin Bacon)/ bakery/ market/ restaurant and bar all rolled into one.  

The baked goods (NOT GF) but very insti worthy
We went to the Cafe there for brunch on a Friday, thinking there wouldn't be any of the weekend brunchers. How wrong were we.. there was a 30 minute wait (and like all cool places at the moment, they don't take bookings). But let me tell you guys, its worth it. 

Firstly, I have on numerous occasions complained about how shit soy based coffees can be (in taste and in appearance). Soy just never seems to look good... but take a look at this guys. A perfect creama on a  perfectly made soy flat white. So perfect in fact I had to order two. Now of course their coffee would be amazing, cause they are actually coffee roasters!

The perfect soy flat white
Because we were so late, we were on the cusp of the breakfast menu (finishes at 12) and the lunch menu (both looked amazing), we made up our minds quickly and opted for breakky! I ordered the Grounds Breakfast Board ($21), which was massive (lucky I was starving). Hidden under 2 slices of actually pretty good GF bread, was 2 chicken, sage and pistachio sausages, avocado topped with Danish feta and home made pesto, two runny poached eggs, roast tomato, baby beetroot and Spanish style prosciutto which went perfectly with the honey dew melon (seriously they were made for each other).

The Breakfast Board
The menu doesn't actually say if anything is GF, and I had to ask, but as I always say breakfast is the best meal for us Glutards, cause you just replace the bread with GF bread, so there are plenty of GF options. 

Oh My G-free rating – 8/10




Thursday, November 13, 2014

Chop Chop Chang's

I've found a fellow Glutard to eat out with, which is very exciting for me. It's hard going out with 'normal' people cause I feel bad when sharing that I have to order GF and I feel like I can't go to some places cause of its limited options, and lets be honest, I normally get jealous of them eating dumplings/cake/pies etc etc.

Anyway, spontaneously an old friend contacted me wanting to go out for dinner (sorry gym... food comes first). We wanted to go to Spaghetti House (I will go there at some point) but its closed on a Monday, so we decided to go to Chop Chop Chang's, where I've wanted to go for a while.

We ordered 3 dishes to shares... I felt like we ordered really well a good balance of everything (everything GF of course).


Banana Blossom Salad ($12) (served in a banana leaf, felt like I was in Thailand, but really just on a dirty sidewalk in West End), bamboo shoots, kombu, beans sprouts and green shallots. It was so fresh and crunchy... perfect to cool you down in summer.


Gai Yang Chicken Wings ($15) char grilled in tumeric (my new fave super food) served with a smokey sweet chilli sauce. They even give you a finger bowl cause they know your going to get dirty!


Wok Tossed Mooloolaba Prawns ($20) with rice noodles in a tamarind sauce, eggs and peanuts. This was just like a pad thai on steroids, the prawns were huge (albeit only 4 prawns), the sauce was not too sweet (perfect), and it also had some green beans and choi sum!


I had been checking out the menu all day deciding what I would get, in particular eyeing off the dessert. Although we were stuffed, we thought we'd treat ourselves for dessert. OMGF.... Coconut Ice Cream Sago ($14) with Jaggery Popcorn Crunch... you ask what is Jaggery Popcorn Crunch, I don't know but it was bloody delicious (I think it was just caramel popcorn). The sago was warm and had a brown sugary/caramel flavour..... yummm!

Can't wait to go on more adventures with my fellow glutard.

Oh My G-free rating – 7.5/10



Tuesday, November 11, 2014

LONgTIME

I heard a place called LONgTIME just opened up (literally a week ago) and I thought I would take my friend who was visiting from the country (and by country I mean Ingham) there.  It was a complete surprise for her, I didn't tell her where we were going or what we were eating (I'll be honest I didn't really know either). So turns out its Thai but nothing like your local Thai place, think PIMPED up Thai.

The waitress was absolutely lovely. I asked her what was gluten free and she went into the kitchen and checked with the chef what was GF, which was pretty much everything on the menu (but 3-4 things). She was so cute, she even hand wrote what had gluten on the menu (of which I took home as a souvenir).

We were busy chatting away and so we ordered drinks first (see below cocktail), I forgot what it was called (I know I am hopeless), but it had spiced rum and pineapple, two of my favourite things. My friend ordered a sangria type cocktail (which was delish). 


To start we ordered the Smoked Rice Noodle Nachos with Coconut Cheese ($8)... now I was expecting nacho style chips made from rice, no no no, was I wrong.  It's hard to describe, they are these fat rice noodles covered in a smoky bbq sauce, with cheese and coconut milk (I think).  They were nice and kind of remind me of Japanese Okonomiyaki (for those who know what that is).

Na-cho Normal Nachos
As a main we shared the Ground Beef Yellow Curry with Lemon Grass, Garlic and Green Scuds ($23).  I was thinking we would get a typical yellow curry with coconut milk, again we were fooled. It was a dry curry and was exteremly hot (we were told after it was the hottest item on the menu). Luckily we had lots of rice, and it was served with a cucumber salsa. 

For some vege, we got the Wok Tossed Asian Greens of the Day in Spicy Thai Sauce ($10). This was delish... your typical Thai dish of water spinach, bokchoy, chilli and garlic. 

Curry on Fire 
All in all an amazing experience and great selection of GF. Next time I am going with a big group so we can try a whole lot more on the menu! 


Ps - how pretty was Brisbane on Saturday night?

Oh My G-free rating – 8/10

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

La Rotisserie

Had a sneaky mid-week lunch at La Rotisserie in New Stead on Monday. I've seen this in Toowong and heard that they have quite an extensive GF menu of meats.

I asked the lady What is gluten free?". she looked at me blankly like I was an idiot and  said "Gluten free is food that doesn't contain any wheat based product".... yeah I know, I want to know what is gluten free on your menu! Anyway... there are lots of GF options, including the roast chicken, chips and salads. They had about 5-6 salads which change daily all were GF, ranging from garden salads to quinoa salads.

I opted for the La Piggie (on a plate, not in a roll for obvious reasons) slow cooked BBQ Pork with Coleslaw ($12) with 2 side salads ($10) - one was a red cabbage, walnut, parmesan and the other was a potato, bacon and pea salad.

There was a whole lot of meat, flavoured nicely in a tomato-y, smoked BBQ sauce. It came with a Coleslaw... which was quite average, but the side salads that I chose were gorgeous. The red cabbage one reminded me of one my Nana makes, but pimped up cause of the walnuts and parmesan. The potato salad was fresh, with lots of dill.

I was stuffed by the end of it, and it was hard to get back to work whilst in a food coma.


Oh My G-free rating – 7/10

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