Square Lotus Review

Jason here. A little while ago now we had some family up for the week. This was a great opportunity to go out and eat at some fun restaurants. The fourth and last place we went to was Square Lotus.

As soon as you walk in to Square Lotus there is a sign that says they are gluten intolerant and vegetarian friendly. A good first sign. Unfortunately if you are also vegetarian, there vegetarian menu says right at the top they use a combination of tofu and gluten.

I ordered the Seafood Crunchy Noodle off the regular menu. It was delicious. All of the carrots, broccoli, bok choy, snow peas, mushrooms, bell peppers, shrimp, scallops, and squids were all served on top of the pan-fried rice noodles. The rice noodles were both crunch, and soft depending on if they were soaking in the delicious juice or not. As you can tell, this dish is filled with many different food items. Usually I tend not to like meals where the food is all mixed together, but this was absolutely delicious. Every item lent itself to the overall flavor, which soaked into the noodles, and seafood. I was happy to find that I had plenty of left overs which I took into work the next day. This made a great lunch that I could quickly heat up in the microwave.

Kayleigh here. I ordered the vegetarian Vermicelli Noodle Bowl, which I do believe has gluten in it, but you may be able to request they remove the fake meat to make it safe. The portion was enormous- I had easily enough for a couple lunches over the next couple days. But man, did it hold up well, and even taste great refridgerator-cold! My only regret on that was not taking home a little container of sauce to go with it, because it really brought the flavors together and brightened the dish up wonderfully.

Overall, Square lotus is a definite two thumbs up for the both of us! With an extensive menu of flavorful Vietnamese dishes, they range from the Pho and stir fry options you would expect to more unusual and tantalizing options (Asparagus soup? Papaya salad? Yes please!). And the best part? Nearly all the dishes on the menu are gluten free without having to make any substitutions! You should definitely mention your sensitivity to the server, just in case- our waitress was really on the ball, and knew how to answer all of our questions, even double checking with the chefs to verify. We will DEFINITELY be visiting Square Lotus again- see you there!

Buffalo Soup Recipe

Jason here. A week or so ago, I did a random experiment with our slow cooker, and buffalo wings. One of the cooking techniques I learned from my mother, was how to cook wings. In essence, first batter them and fry them up, and then let them sit in a slow cooker filled with hot sauce.

Well, I decided to cook up some boneless wings myself. However, what I ended up with was more of a buffalo soup. Delicious delicious buffalo soup.

Buffalo Soup

Ingredients:

1 Cup of Garbanzo Flour

4 Eggs

6 Chicken Breasts

2 23oz Bottles of Franks Hot Sauce

1.       Mix the egg and garbanzo flour into a batter.

2.       Slice the chicken into bite size pieces.

3.       Dip the chicken into the batter until all are coated. You may find yourself with extra, or not enough batter depending on the size of your chicken breasts. Make more as necessary.

4.       Pour half of the hot sauce into a slow cooker.

5.       Add the chicken into the slow cooker.

6.       Pour the rest of the hot sauce on top of the chicken until fully covered.

7.       Cook in the slower cooker for 4-6 hours, until chicken is fully cooked, and can easily be pulled apart with a fork

This creates a wonderfully thick buffalo soup. The batter doesn’t stick well to the chicken so it mixes with the surrounding hot sauce creating the final thicker texture. I suggest eating it with some celery, carrots, and blue cheese dip. Be warned, while not overly spicy, it can take its toll on a stomach. As such, I would also recommend having a glass of milk to drink.

The recipe itself makes enough for about 6 meals. It reheats perfectly, so I took some in to work to have for lunch.

I really did stumble on this recipe by accident. My original plan was to make some good old fashioned boneless wings. However without thinking, I mixed the flour and eggs into a batter. Then I decided I did not want to deal with the mess frying can make, so I thought what the heck let’s just cook them in the slow cooker.

In the end this surprise of a recipe, just turned out to be a new staple lunch for me. Hope someone out there that loves buffalo wings as much as me gets to try this delicious treat to curb that craving at lunch on a long work day.

Kayleigh here. The super-saucy dish really reminded me of the main ingredient in Jason’s favorite sub- the buffalo chicken cheesesteak. I have never seen it outside of the Philadelphia area, so for those not in the know, it is simply pulled chicken, drown in buffalo sauce, and placed on a sub roll with provolone cheese and a layer of blue cheese dressing. It was a great way to change it up if you have been eating the soup straight for the last couple of days.

Sorry, no pictures for this post right now. But we’ll definitely take some glamour shots next time we are craving  something simple, saucy, and spicy!

Romio's Pizza and Pasta Review

Jason here. A little while ago now we had some family up for the week. This was a great opportunity to go out and eat at some fun restaurants. The third place we went to was, Romio’s Pizza and Pasta. 

This is another restaurant that, caters to the gluten intolerant.  You can see their gluten free menu here. We have been looking for another restaurant to get some variety in our lunches. 

I was super happy when I took a look at their menu. Usually a gluten free menu means menu’s that avoid bread, noodles, and the other standard gluten containing ingredients. Romio’s has pizza, and most importantly, hoagie bread. Having grown up in Philly, I certainly enjoy and appreciate a good Philly cheese steak. 

When my cheese steak finally came out, I happy to find it was larger than I expected. I easily got two full meals out of it. It tasted great, and definitely reminded me of the cheese steaks I was used to back home. The bread was really good. It was slightly crunchy on the outside, but fluffy on the inside. My only complaint would be that it needed more steak. 

Kayleigh here. I would like to note that their website does not reflect the extent of gluten free options they had at their Factoria (Bellevue) location. Nearly every entrée they offer has a GF alternative- quite lovely to see such an unrestricted menu!

The gluten free bread that they use for their subs is actually an excellent sub roll in itself- hard on the outside, soft and pillowy on the inside. In fact, just a few weeks after we ate there, I found myself shifting around dinner plans last minute (REALLY last minute), and came to realize that I had sub ingredients sitting in front of me, with no form of bread in the house to couch them in! Frantically, I drove to Romio’s and asked if they could just sell the roll by itself. The hostess had a good laugh about my dilemma, and hooked me up with a fresh loaf- problem solved!

Overall, if you are missing the homey feeling of a quick in-and-out sub shop, take a trip to Romio’s! They’ve got quite a few booths if you are looking to dine in somewhere, and quick service if you prefer your meal to be more on-the-go.

Gluten Free Baking Classics Review

Kayleigh here, rounding off our series of cookbook reviews with some talk about Gluten Free Baking Classics, by Annalise G. Roberts. Focusing largely on quickbreads and desserts, this book is a fantastic addition to any gluten-free household due to its easy-to-follow instructions and helpful tips following many of the recipes. Roberts was even thoughtful enough to provide alternate toppings, fillings, and techniques for her more versatile dishes, to allow for even more personal creations in your kitchen!

From my first readthrough, I quickly ran out of post-its to bookmark interesting recipes. Should I try the Hazelnut cake or Chocolate Ricotta muffin recipe first? Or give the basic pie crust a shot? Really, the best part about her recipes is that almost all of them contain the same basic flour blend, which she details at the beginning of the cookbook. Since I did not need to special order anything exotic to start trying the recipes, I was able to jump right in- how exciting!

In the end, we tried her basic Buttermilk Biscuit recipe first. Crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside, with a rich buttery taste- a perfect clone of the standard box biscuit mix. In fact, they turned out so well, we baked them to go along with Christmas dinner! Not stopping there, we used the Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Doughnut recipe to try out some new Puff Pancake pans. As someone who grew up in the Northeast, I have been hankering for a good Dunkin Donuts run for a long time, and found these to be a near dead-ringer for the old-fashioned cake donuts. Boy, did they go perfectly with a hot cup of coffee!

Jason here. We were super happy to try out our new Puff Pancake pans. They worked out great, although it took us a little too long to add the fillings and flip the donut holes. Admittedly this caused them to have a slieght burnt taste on one side. Next time we will cook them a bit longer, but on less heat.

My favorite part was figuring out what all of the toppings, and filling we wanted. Kayleigh of course went with the peanut butter. I tried making a powdered sugar topping, and a cinnamon brown sugar topping. For my fillings we ran out of peanut butter, so I added some Nutella, and chocolate to another hole. When we took the donuts out, I fairly quickly rolled them in my toppings, but alas nothing stuck. We eventually opted to quickly spray some cooking spray and then reroll them. Even then the toppings barely took. We will have to figure out a better method for next time. Speaking of next time, I will definitely be trying chocolate donuts, with chocolate filling.

If you are still are not sold on this book, check out Robert's blog here. She updates fairly regularly with new recipes, mostly baking-centric, but with a fair share of delicious savory entrees mixed throughout. If you find yourself making two, three, or more recipes from there, then I would definitely recommend picking up one of her books!