What our users are telling us!

Message: We are in Vernon, BC now. Your site recommended KTs restaurant in downtown Vernon. Wow! My son had his first apple pie in two years and the pizza was great! There was a lot of choice and the staff was very helpful!

Message: Just got back from a trip to Victoria and The Celiac Scene was a Godsend!! When I went to Victoria I went on the Chapter's website and used the link to get to www.theceliacscene.com. Ate at several of the places listed on your website which were easy to find with the maps – very handy!

Message: I ate at The Joint Pizza place (twice!!) and The Noodle Box once - although should have eaten there more it was fantastic! Also bought GF baking from Origin GF Bakery set up in Bastion Square on Saturday. Fabulous! Keep up the good work!

Message: It was great to hear you talking about The Celiac Scene on the radio this morning. I think your idea is fabulous. Eating out was a great pleasure in life before being diagnosed. Road trips were fun for checking out restaurants along the way. Alas, my first road trip after diagnosis found me eventually going to a clinic for help in stopping the vomiting and diarrhea. In retrospect, I perhaps had caught a bug, but at the time it just scared me about eating "away". Since then I have experienced being told there wasn't anything for me which pushed my rejected and survival buttons both and basically I had dreaded having to travel to care for or visit family. Thanks for your doggedness in getting celiac disease in the news and giving hope to those of us who love to eat out and survive it!

And best of all

Message: LOVE your site! My 15 year old son was diagnosed 1 year ago and we are traveling for the first time on a family holiday since his diagnosis. To say I am nervous is an understatement. Then I found your site. THANK YOU!!! We are coming to Victoria and he can't wait to try out all the great tasty places! We are from a small town near Edmonton and our choices are slim pickins! I'll shout loud and long to our celiac friends about your fabulous web site! Great job. BC here we come!

Celiactivist© of the Week!

Tiffany keeps celiacs up to date on topics that affect us, sharing her joy and her outrage. She promotes the products and services that are helpful to us all on her webpage at Examiner.com .

But it was this email she sent me that made me realize that Tiffany is an advocate not only for celiacs but for restaurants who sometimes have to be dragged kicking and screaming into gluten-free awareness:"I finally found a new place for gf pasta down the street. It's my pizza place but I've bugged them for six months to make us pasta. My dish was do good I almost cried right at the table - with the owner standing there for my reaction to his food."

To Tiffany, I present the The Celiac Scene's Celiactivist© Award for her efforts in the big picture through her work at the Examiner and in the personal picture, working to make change, one pizza place at a time!

Bravo, TIffany!

The Scene™ Featured in The Examiner!

Great news! The Celiac Scene™ has been featured in an article written by the inimitable Tiffany Janes , a writer for www.Examiner.com . She is doing a series of articles on how to enjoy real freedom on your holidays, even if they have to be the gluten-free kind. The two are not mutually exclusive!

Please take a hike on over to Tiffany's site and check out the wonderful things she has to say about us!

And while you are there, have a look at the broad range of topics she covers about living the good gluten-free life. Together, we'll help you navigate your world.

Miss Tiffany - I like!

I've been following Tiffany Janes' posts and I like her sensibilities. She tells it with enthusiasm and a pinch of cynicism that catches me by surprise! I like! Today, she pitched a great list of gluten-free snacks to throw into a treat bag Here's a nibble but head over to the source if you want the full course! "Almost everyone who plans a trip the first time after they start living gluten-free has the same question - "how am I going to eat safely away from home?" The answer is simply - by doing some gluten-free home work. They need to do research about gluten-free dining options where they're headed, and they need to pack some food for the trip. Here is a list of things that are easy to find and are not likely to be confiscated by airport security. Most of these item can be used for a plane ride and upon arrival to your destination ..." More Now!

The Celiac Scene™ Has Arrived!

Hello World!

Taking my first baby steps in the blog world so bear with me. I have been following blogs and making my comments here and there but I have so much more to say!

I have celiac disease (5 years) now and follow the gluten-free diet. Not too big of a deal in my mind. I have made the adjustment. My family gets it. I volunteer with the Victoria Chapter of the Canadian Celiac Association. Everything should cool, right? Nope. I was an imposter.

I never ate out. Somehow, anticipating that moment when my waiter was ready to take my order, looking him in the eye to say, "I have a couple of questions" undid any desire I had to get out there and live like everyone else seemed to. Even amongst celiacs, I had a reputation for being on the paranoid side of the menu!

So what does one do when faced with a challenge like this. Overcompensate, of course!

I created The Celiac Scene™, a data base of celiac-friendly restaurants in Canada but put together in the form of maps to cities across the country. Wherever you are in Canada, other celiacs have gone before you.

Best of all, the maps are offered FREE to anyone who needs them! Just download the map to the city you are interested in and you will have all the GF restaurants for that area plotted out for you.

Now there is no reason not to get out there an enjoy life like everyone else! Check it out and let me know what you think!