Finally after nearly 5 years of gluten free living I am eating restaurant Indian food. I'll admit, gluten free Indian food has probably already been available in many of the Indian restaurants in Silicon Valley but I never had the energy to attempt the conversations with various chefs, managers and servers to make sure we were on the same page with what gluten was and cross-contamination concerns. When Arka Indian restaurant opened in Sunnyvale nearly a year ago, I saw most of the menu was actually labeled gluten free! Then I saw some positive yelp reviews and thought this may be the place! But life continued with a toddler and given our limited opportunities to dine out as a family I wasn't up for seeing if my daughter would fill up on Indian so we always opted for pizza or Thai instead. But then Arka offered a Groupon and I bit - my first order was take out and everything was delicious. I ordered saag w/ potatoes (spinach curry), butter chicken and rice. The butter chicken

Last night we decided to try Pizza Antica's Santana Row location. I first heard about Pizza Antica from my local bay area celiac board with comments like "best gluten free pizza I've ever had". But armed with no expectations we made our way to Santana Row just before 5 on a weekday. The restaurant was almost empty and service was excellent. We were seated just across from the kitchen so we could look into the wood fired ovens. We ordered 2 gluten free pizzas - one just a standard cheese for the Giggler and one with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes. The verdict? Just ok - we probably won't be back. Positives: - the wood fired oven made for a great cracker kind of crust - the sauce was tasty - no gluten reaction now 12 hours later Areas for improvement: - the crust was very "corny" - a bit too chewy for us. DH thought there could be bean flour in there but I did not notice any sort of bean aftertaste - definitely not enough sauce or cheese. This i

We just returned from a few nights in Las Vegas. We decided to skip the rental car which made me a bit nervous - would we be able to eat? The answer is a resounding YES although as usual it required some extra effort. Lodging- We stayed at Hotel Aria which is on the strip, sort of between Bellagio and Monte Carlo. We came armed with our standard travel food - apples, bananas, Nugo bars, gluten free oatmeal packets, trail mix and some applesauce for the Giggler. Since we knew we'd spend a lot of time in the room for naps and bedtime we decided to splurge on a Corner Suite - and we were not disappointed. In addition to having the separated bedroom/living area so we could hang out during naps and in the evening, all suites have a separate empty refrigerator for our use - something no gluten free traveler should be without. In fact, every time we travel if the room does not include an empty refrigerator we order one. We then made a short walk to the nearby CVS on the strip to pick