A couple of girlfriends and I meet up for dinner roughly once a month to catch up, drink wine, and usually (although not lately since one of them is pregnant and I have to work on my thesis every night these days) drink more wine. It's definitely a night that I look forward to! Last night we went to PF Chang's - somewhere that I don't go to nearly enough considering how seriously they take their gluten-free menu.
It's quite impressive - the gluten-free items are served on a different style of plate than items from the "regular" menu to differentiate it for the servers, and they bring you gluten-free soy sauce. What's also nice is that they have the gluten-free menu printed right on the back of their usual menu, so you don't have to go through all the annoying explanations and get the puzzled looks from the server - it's all right there, and the waitstaff and cooks have all been extensively trained. It's wonderful. About as friendly as you can get as far as eating out on a gluten-free diet.
Anytime I order from PF Chang's, I usually go for something that comes with their brown rice. I LOVE the way they cook their brown rice - it's really fluffy with the best bite to it. I've tried to duplicate it at home, but I just can't do it. Even with my fancy-schmancy rice cooker. Last night I was starving when I got there, so I went for their Singapore Street Noodles - a giant dish of rice noodles with shrimp, chicken, and vegetables, all in gluten free sauce. I have to say - I wasn't terribly impressed with the dish. I thought it was really dry and kind of bland - which is rare for them, so I'm hoping it was just an off evening. The noodles were good - they reminded me of the angel hair pasta that I miss so much - very thin and tender. However, there wasn't enough sauce (at least for me), and the chicken was dried out. The shrimp was good, though! I doused the noodles with a healthy dose of (gluten-free!) soy sauce and it was much better. Don't worry - I ate the entire thing. I felt like a cow when I walked out of there, but I didn't care. Regardless of it being a little dry, noodles are such a comfort food, and with the soy sauce addition, it was pretty good.
The presentation was pretty - but I didn't take a picture because for some reason I was embarrassed to. Oh yeah, and I was so hungry that I kinda forgot when the food got to the table. Oops.
I definitely think I'll give this dish another try - it has such potential, and everything I've ever had from PF Chang's I've absolutely loved, so it has to be a fluke, right?
Anyway, it's Friday afternoon and pretty much time for me to call it a day. At least a work day - I plan to do some work on the ol' thesis tonight. A rockin' Friday night if I do say so myself. ;)
Happy weekend!
Kelly
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