gluten free finds: banana leaf malaysian cafe {vancouver, bc}

While I was in Vancouver with my brother and his family, we ate at a little Malaysian cafe before biking along the coast. Banana Leaf Malaysian Cafe is a beautiful restaurant located about 5 minutes from Stanley Park. 

I ordered the Pineapple Fried Rice with Seafood and Chicken. It was the most affordable option on the gluten free menu. That, and I love pineapple so it was kind of a no brainer for me. It's fried rice mixed with seafood, chicken, egg, raisins, corn, and sunflower seeds, served in a half pineapple boat. It was surprisingly a little bland, but adding salt brightened the flavors a bit.

Ryan and Bethany's meals were sadly not gluten free. Ryan ordered the Malaysian Spicy Papaya Seafood Soup (Malaysian soup made with tamarind juice, chili, ginger, and lemon grass with tomato, cilantro, and fresh seafood). He said his soup was also a little bland but after adding some Sriracha, he loved it. Bethany's was deemed the favorite. She had the Singapore Laksa (rice noodle in coconut soup base made of dried shrimps, chili, garlic, lemon grass and turmeric with bean sprout, cilantro, tofu, egg, chicken, fish-cake, squid and shrimps) along with an appetizer plate. It was a special they had going on that afternoon, so unfortunately I don't know if it is still available.

Overall, we really enjoyed the cafe! I wouldn't say it's somewhere you've got to go when in Vancouver, but if you're gluten free and want somewhere tried and proven, head there.

In other news, Bethany got me obsessed with this easy, gluten free snack. Vanilla yogurt with frozen blueberries. You might be thinking, that's a parfait Bri, but no. It's so much better than a parfait. Why? The frozen blueberries are why. When you combine your yogurt and blueberries, the yogurt begins to freeze, making it, well, frozen yogurt. There's just something about it friends. It's so, so good.