Kamiya86 

Boo was sitting on my lap the other morning, trying to wheedle a few more nibbles of omelette from Brian. ‘She needs to get her teeth cleaned again,’ he said, falling prey to her big brown eyes and feeding her a bit of egg.

I’m not sure which one of us growled at him… honesty it could have been either one. Boo is a Pomeranian, and they’re prone to bad teeth. I try to brush her teeth, but she hates it and… well, I’m a terrible mommy.

Boo actually handles it all better than I do… I’m the one that needs to be sedated during her appointments. (I’m a Helicopter Pom Mom.) Once I dropped her off for her cleaning I had to keep myself distracted until it was time to pick her up, so Mom and I went shopping and out to lunch. Food and Retail Therapy are my solutions to most everything.

I’ve driven past Kamiya86 a dozen times and wanted to try it out, but when I’ve actually had the time Mom wasn’t feeling up to trying sushi (I’m still working to convince her that raw fish is yummy) or Brian was in the car (he’s going to take even more convincing). This time Brian was at home and Mom was feeling brave, so relying on the one review on the Find Me Gluten Free app we decided to give it a shot. (And we were only 20 minutes or so from home, so if we needed to, we could go home and die.)

I asked the hostess if they had a Gluten Free Menu.  She said they didn’t have a specific GF menu, but most everything could be made gluten free.

Our waitress was very sweet, but didn’t have the best English.  She nodded confidently when I said that we had a gluten allergy and said ‘no problem.’  She returned with our drinks and a bottle of gluten free soy sauce then peered at the menu with me.  We started off simple and ordered Summer Rolls as an appetizer.  The hostess was hovering nearby and made sure that I was getting the Summer Rolls and not the Spring Rolls, which are deep fried.  She stayed close while we made our order and reminded the waitress to bring us the sweet and sour sauce instead of the peanut sauce.

Pad Thai is usually safe so I figured I’d go with an easy choice.  The waitress nodded and agreed that it was gluten free.  Mom wanted to be more difficult.  She pointed at several different dishes that I was pretty sure weren’t safe for us.

“Please just order the Panang Curry, Mom,” I tried again.

“What about the Pad Thai? Do I like Pad Thai?” This is an old conversation.

“You hate the Pad Thai…. its noodles.”

She made a face, “I don’t like all those noodles.”

“I know!  Order the Panang Curry.”  Fortunately there weren’t many other diners in the restaurant to think that I am a horrible daughter for yelling at my sweet mother.  (She just looks sweet, btw.)  We have this conversation every time we order Thai.  I think she’s just messing with me.

Mom finally settled on the Panang Curry….. shocker!  She and I have very similar taste except where it comes to noodles/pasta.  I guess throw her off when I order things with noodles.

I was actually a little jealous, the curry smelled delicious. Mom let me sneak a taste and it was very good. Surprise, surprise, she didn’t want to try any of my noodles.  I did make her try the chicken from the Pad Thai though. So often the chicken in Pad Thai is dry and chewy, but it was nicely seasoned and juicy.  The sauce was fabulous with just a hint of lime. The addition of bean sprouts added a nice fresh crunch.  I wished for some crushed peanuts on top, but all in all, this is my favorite Pad Thai in Florida so far.

I got a text from Brian after lunch that Boo had finished her dental cleaning… no cavities! and would be ready to go home in a few hours.  Such a relief!  Mom and I shopped until it was time to pick her up.  Apparently I was still really wound, I shop a little wildly when I’m anxious…. because I bought a giant cat-cube-tower-thing at the pet store and then went a tiny bit bizerk in Home Goods (that store is SO dangerous!).

Boo was not the least bit amused with me when I picked her up.  She did give the vet a couple friendly licks before we left, so I’m taking that as a sign that she was okay with them.  Boo isn’t the most…. well, she’s a bit anti-social.  She’s not mean, it just takes her a long while to warm up to people and other dogs.  Until she decides if she likes you she not going to let you touch her… she prefers to just watch people from under the couch.   She’s a distrusting little introvert…. like her momma.  (Too bad I can’t fit under the couch.)

She whined a little on the car ride home until I turned the air conditioning on full blast and pointed all the vents at her.  She’s not impressed with the Florida heat. (She didn’t like Missouri winters either though!) At home, she ran straight to Brian even though I reminded her that it was his idea to send her to the vet in the first place.  Snot.

—-

A week or so later Mom and I drug Brain to Kamiya86 for lunch.  He was hesitant, but I promised that we’d just try a small sushi sampler and he could have Fried Rice for his meal.

We had a different waitress this time who seemed much more confident about the gluten free items on the menu.  She said the Miso Soup was gluten free, and since it came with our meal anyway I figured I’d try it.  (I did a quick google when she left and confirmed that while some Miso soups have barley they can be made gluten free.) The soup was interesting.  It was a nicely flavored broth with bits of tofu and wide leaves of seaweed.

We picked a small sushi appetizer that our waitress assured us would be safe and give us a nice variety to try.  I tried to use the chop sticks, but mostly ended up flinging raw fish around the table.  Brian had better luck with the chop sticks and the waitress gave Mom a set of kid’s chopsticks to take home and practice.

The sushi was delicious.  Mom and Brian even enjoyed it and agreed that we’d need to come back soon and try a few more of the different options.

Full disclosure: I did have a bit of an upset tummy later.  I didn’t feel like I’d been glutened, that’s a faster reaction and hurts more and usually comes with a headache. This was just more like something didn’t entirely agree with me.  The Miso soup could have been to blame, maybe it wasn’t GF(?), but Brian did some googling and read that some people have trouble digesting the raw fish.  I’m going to lean toward the raw fish theory…. or maybe just too much rice for me.  Sometimes I have trouble when I eat a lot of rice.  I will definitely go back, but I’ll go a little easier on the sushi and skip the Miso all together (it was good, but not something I’d crave).

1286 3RD STREET SOUTH
JACKSONVILLE, FL 32250