Event Review: February Gluten Free & Allergen Friendly Expo, San Diego, California

Disclaimer: In exchange for a review of the February San Diego (Del Mar) Gluten Free & Allergen Friendly Expo, I received one entry ticket.

I’ll go ahead and preface my review of the GFAF event by admitting that I’m actually gluten unfriendly and allergen friendly. In other words, as long as the bread is nontoxic, and incapable of using public transit – and even if it is – I’ll eat it. Stuff it with peanuts, shellfish and/or soy, but please, no mayonnaise.

Having said that, as a fan of food in general, I’m open to trying nearly everything…

Nice bench, though it might scare away some potential event-goers.

I expected the GFAF event to be at a grander scale, though organizers mentioned that the largest ones occur in the Chicago and New York City metro areas. In fact, part of why I attended was expecting to check out a larger variety of classes. At the same time, I appreciated the low-key nature of the San Diego expo, as the crowds were quite manageable vis-à-vis the space between booths.

Booths decorated with blue cloth were gluten-free only, but those with red cloth were also allergen-free (which is to say, free of the more common allergens such as dairy, soy, shellfish, and peanuts.)

One of my few memories of Florida trips was chopping off part of an aloe vera plant and rubbing in the sap on my skin. That was refreshing.

Aloe vera juice, straight up, is anything but refreshing. That sounds harsh…but it could also mean the drink the was delicious. That’s a stretch, but if you like astringent things, this will be right up your alley. It reminded me of sea buckthorn juice, though less sweet.

Although I’m not usually into the matcha sweet combo, Matcha Marketplace had something good going on here.

Add this one to the “never expected to eat as pizza” list. Ancient grains, what does that mean? Hops? In fact, the crust was made of teff – more commonly found in the sour Ethiopian bread known as injera, amaranth and sorghum. Not bad.