Gluten-Free Occasions: Road Trip Traveling Pt. 3

Part 1 here.
Part 2 here.
Part three of my tips for traveling while gluten-free have to do with eating out safely.  You can see this as a modified version of my Tips For Eating Out post because it is basically the same.

When you are visiting a strange new city it can be hard to gauge which restaurants are gluten-free friendly.
One tip that I mentioned in this post is to stick to restaurants you know and love.  Many nationwide chains have a good reputation of gluten-free menus; to see a few read my gluten-free restaurant reviews.
In my last post I also mentioned some dietary supplements that aid in the accidental digestion of gluten, and it is always a good idea to consider taking something like that before any occasion you eat out.
And I've also mentioned helpful websites and apps, like Gluten-Free Registry to help your search.

Another thing that I've mentioned before is to stick to authentically made or even authentic "ethnic" food.  "American" food is usually breaded, fried, served with bread or served with wheat flour based additions or sauces, all of which pose a threat for gluten contamination or cross contamination.  "Americanized" versions of foods, such as "Tex-Mex" versions of Mexican food, are also altered from their original corn-based formulas to accommodate the American preference of wheat-y chewiness in their tortillas or tortilla chips or tamales.

On our recent weekend to the Kemah Boardwalk the Mister and I spent some time strolling the boardwalk, deciding where we would risk eating dinner.
We came across Red Sushi and Hibachi Grill right on the boardwalk because I had a craving for sushi and we both figured a plain sushi would be our best bet for gluten-free grub.
Inside the place looked kinda swanky, like a place the Housewives with their jangly bracelets would have dinner.  I felt underdressed.  But it was a Friday evening and I later learned that Saturday nights is when Kemah really comes to life and all the people come out dressed to the nines.  So note that if you go on a weekday you're okay going casual but if you go on a Saturday night you might want to dress up a bit.

As soon as we walked in I requested a gluten-free menu.  To my surprise the hostess immediately contacted the manager, who came over to talk to us and personally helped us navigate the menu!  He was with us for a good amount of time, answering all of our questions about menu picks.  He even assured us he would revise the final order with the kitchen staff, just to be sure that absolutely nothing with gluten was in our meal.
I really love it when managers take that extra step to take care of their clientele.
With his help we started off with an asparagus and kobe beef appetizer that came with a cabbage and beet salad, which was good but not my favorite since I'm not a beef or asparagus lover.  The Mister, who is a beef and asparagus lover, really liked them though.

For my main meal I ordered a Philadelphia cut roll and two salmon skin hand rolls.
A Philadelphia roll is filled with cream cheese, avocado and smoked salmon.  A salmon skin roll is salmon skin that is fried until crispy and rolled with avocado, matchstick carrots, these little red beads that are slightly spicy and a creamy dressing.  (In other words, no raw fish for me!)
Cut rolls are the cut and rolled roundish pieces of sushi that you eat with chopsticks while hand rolls is a sheet of Nori rolled into a cone and the stuffed and you pick it up and eat it with your hands.  Hand rolls are smaller than cut rolls so that's why I thought I'd be okay with one cut roll and two hand rolls.
However they ended up bringing me two salmon skin cut rolls, which I didn't want to send back because they had been so nice and accommodating.  It ended up being much more food that I could finish and it was so good that I tried with all my might to finish it.
But of course I couldn't because it was just too much food.  And even though it was so good, I did end up a little sick of it because it was just so much.
And unfortunately we were so hungry that we dug in before I remembered to snap a picture!
Here are my Philadelphia and salmon skin rolls.

My Mister got the Willy G roll which had shrimp and cucumber with crab and avocado and he was in heaven.  In fact he loved it so much that we had the exact same thing for dinner the next night: a Willy G and a Philadelphia roll.  Of course like a bad little photographer I didn't get a picture of it before we ate it.

However if you are gluten-free, love sushi and are staying in the Kemah Boardwalk area I highly recommend Red Sushi and Hibachi Grill!