Visiting Lafayette, La

[stitchy woman]

In about a week, I will be visiting my dad in the Lafayette, LA area, and it is only my second trip since being diagnosed. I did fairly well the first time by bringing lots of my own food, but is there good places to buy the gluten-free items, or restaurants other than Outback that might be recommended?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

[kayavara]

I wish I knew.....I live about 2 hours from Lafayette.We ride motorcycles there alot and I would like to know where to pick up products or where to eat.The bike trips we take with all our friends ALWAYS involve food and it's going to be a challange....especially here in Cajun Country.It's all about food...most of it now taboo!

Kay

[stitchy woman]

I wish I knew.....I live about 2 hours from Lafayette.We ride motorcycles there alot and I would like to know where to pick up products or where to eat.The bike trips we take with all our friends ALWAYS involve food and it's going to be a challange....especially here in Cajun Country.It's all about food...most of it now taboo!

Kay

I do know a new "health foodie" kind of store was about to open near River Ranch, and it may have some stuff......I will check it out while there, but that area is not known for health foods. And you are right---so many foods are taboo. I have yet to figure out how to make gumbo roux with gluten-free flour--any thoughts?

[kayavara]

Gumbo is really going to be a challange! My sisters were talking today about that very subject.I'll be looking for ideas.It's definately hard to be wheat/gluten free in this part of the country.

Kay

[stitchy woman]

An update on my recent trip. First of all, I got glutened at the Outback. The waitress didn't bother to tell the cook, so the salad was gluten-free, but the chicken on the Barbie was not.

I found two "health food" stores---the one in the oil center has a very small shelf area for gluten-free, and the products looked like they had been there since the creation of Man.

The other one, Organically Yours, was a happy find. Still a smallish house off of K. Saloom near the Youngsville road---it was smaller than I was expecting but had a nice selection of gluten-free stuff throughout the store, as well as a fair amount of stuff in the freezer. Chicken fingers, gluten-free Pad Thai, and pizza were just some of it. Not a huge, huge selection but adequate, and fresher looking merchandise.

I think the next trip will entail calling Organically Yours a few weeks ahead to make sure they have things in stock, and maybe still ordering items to be delivered to my dad's. I did a fair amount of cooking and baking, and we ate well! Too well!

[beadedbiker]

To add an update on the local availability of gluten-free foods, there is a new Rouse's on Hwy 92 in Youngsville. They have a great selection of gluten-free foods. A section in the middle of the store with natural and organic products, which also has a section of just gluten-free foods, cookies, breads, cereals, flours, baking mixes etc. They also have a section in the Frozen foods area with several gluten-free breads, pancakes, waffles, and opposite that an organic foods frozen section with various frozen gluten-free meals.

Since its the only Rouses I've ever been in, I don't know if its like this in all their stores, which are mainly around the Houma area and I'm very new to having to exclude gluten from my diet, but this supermarket is a Godsend. It also has much better prices than organically yours, especially on the breads and flours.

Incidentally organically yours has moved to a different location on Kaliste Saloom Road, so make sure you look that up before you travel to the area.