The Gluten Free menu

A great place for blind coeliacs!

When I first heard that a restaurant called Carlos O’Kelly’s had a gluten free menu, my American friends all laughed. They told me it was a Tex Mex restaurant and they would never have expected them to cater for Coeliacs. Luckily for me, they do and their gluten free menu has lots of tasty things to choose from!

My first (and so far only) experience of Carlos O’Kelly’s was during Ragbrai when myself and a few friends ate dinner at the one in Waterloo, Iowa. A sign on their door said ‘Braille and Gluten Free Menu’s available’. A blind, coeliac’s dream and pretty good news for me too!

I called the restaurant prior to going to reserve a table and to ask whether they prepare gluten free dishes separately from non gluten free meals. I was told that they did.

Their gluten free menu is pretty varied and includes starters, taco salads, fajitas and enchiladas. The gluten free sides which come with most of the dishes are black beans, corn or a dinner salad. All of their chips and salsa are gluten free and lots of this comes free with your meal.

Chips and salsa

Shredded Beef Enchiladas

I ordered the shredded beef enchiladas, which are made with corn tortillas topped with chili con queso, cheese, sour cream and chives and a side of black beans. When our server brought my friend’s meals she informed me that the kitchen had accidentally put rice on my plate and were starting over again. I’m guessing the rice is not gluten free as it wasn’t one of the options for me so I was happy to hear that they were preparing me a fresh and safe meal. My enchiladas were quite the cheese fest but a very tasty treat and completely gluten free.

Morgan's delicious Gluten Free tamales

Our friend Morgan prepared some special gluten free tamales and guacamole for the evening’s dinner. Morgan is an organic farmer in Mount Pleasant. As well as growing a great variety of delicious tasting organic veggies in her gardens (which make great additions to many of the gluten free dishes I make), she also makes various baked goods such as breads and muffins, which I’ve heard are great despite being highly glutenous! She wanted to try her hand at something gluten free for our symphonic, fireworks picnic and decided to make tamales. Tamales are traditionally made with corn flour anyway so nothing had to be substituted here in order to make them specially gluten free. She prepared her own stock as she didn’t want to risk possible glutenation from store bought varieties and checked any other ingredients she used to ensure everything was 100% gluten free.  Some of the tamales were filled with black beans and some with pork…they were amazing, as was the home made guacamole, and they went perfectly with the beautiful, multi coloured and extremely loud fireworks.

I’ll have to get Morgan’s tamale recipe to make these again myself…..mmmmm!

Mount Pleasant's water tower

After a long flight and car ride to Iowa from the nearest international airport, I was starving. I’d already consumed everything I’d brought with me as a result of boredom and not much of a meal on the plane. We arrived at John’s parents house to find that his mum had already been shopping to buy me a few gluten free treats. She knows that I can’t live without my cereal and had generously bought me a couple of boxes of gluten free cereal. This was to be my first experience of Envirokids…. I poured myself a huge bowl of frosted flakes and gorilla munch as soon as I arrived….delicious and hard to tell that they are not ‘normal’ cereals unlike some others I had already got my hands on in the UK.

That night we had been invited to a family BBQ with lots of different foods I wasn’t sure whether or not I could have. Lucky for me it turned out that one of John’s cousins also had coeliacs so I decided my best bet was to eat whatever she was eating, figuring that she must at least have more of a clue than me. When the time came to leave the party, my jet lag was severely catching up with me and I was glad I’d eaten the bowl of cereal before coming out. Either John’s cousin hadn’t been very hungry, was pretty fussy or there was less that I could eat than I first thought!

The next morning the first thing I did (after eating more delicious Envirokids) was travel down to the local supermarket in search of gluten free delights. There are two large supermarkets in Mount Pleasant, one being Hy-Vee and the other a huge Wallmart. I wrongly assumed that being a huge corporation Wallmart would cater for the gluten free but it turned out that they didn’t even have a gluten free section and hardly any of their products say whether or not they are gluten free.

Hy-Vee on the other hand, a supermarket commonly found in the mid-west, was far more gluten free friendly. They had a whole section full of gluten free products such as cereals, breads, cakes, pasta and cookies as well as gluten free labelling on quite a few of their ‘regular’ products. Later on I was so glad I’d found Hy-Vee because the groceries I bought there would be the makings of my meals before, after and during visits to some gluten un-friendly restaurants…..

An Iowa number plate

Pizza Ranch is an all you can eat pizza buffet that John’s gran took us to. The only things I ate that I was sure wouldn’t make me sick were baby plum tomatoes and cucumber from the salad buffet and a diet mountain dew from the soda fountain….exciting!

Mount Hamill Tap is a chicken bar and restaurant not far from Mount Pleasant. With everything fried and breaded this definately wasn’t the best place for someone trying to avoid gluten. I ate some tasty home made gluten free pasta and veggies en route to the restaurant and drank 3 Amaretto and cokes when I was there while everyone ate…at least some of their drinks are gluten free!

Breadeaux Pizza is a takeout pizza place with a few tables to sit in. I think they do a few baked potatoes which should be gluten free but other than that it’s a big gluten fest. Here I brought and ate something I’d made at home.

Little Mexico is a fantastic little Mexican restaurant situated in the town square. I probably could have eaten a few things here as they serve some of their dishes like tacos and fajitas with traditional corn tortillas as well as wheat ones. I didn’t eat anything on this occasion but I have eaten here before and will again.

Mount Pleasant is a lovely little town of around 8,000 people. They have one good supermarket with gluten free options so I could survive for a while but I hope that no one in this town has Coeliac disease or they will have to go pretty far from town for a sit down meal!