Update: Sadly Lembas is permanently closed.

With my recent switch to gluten free eating, I’ve become much more aware of how pervasive the g-word is.  Well just two days after making the jump, a new trailer hit the pavement with a menu free of grains and gluten!  Fear not, it’s not just serving celery with a side of beef.  No, the menu makes eating gluten free feel more like just eating. I submit to you my trilogy of visits to the one trailer to rule them all, Lembas.

For my first visit, I took a pretty good tour of the menu. It varies daily based on what Amy and Jo have in mind. Check ’em out daily on Facebook to get a snapshot of the day’s offerings. On this particular day, the menu looked like this:

After some typical indecision I went with the rise & shine egg bake, coffee, and cinnamon bun muffin.  The egg bake (basically a frittata) offers a choice of meat or veggie.  Unable to decide, they were kind enough to give me half of each.  Meat-y sausage on the left, spinach-y veggie on the right.  It was a tough call, but I think I preferred the veggie slightly more than the meat.  You can’t go wrong with either, but be warned they are now reserved exclusively for the weekend brunch menu.  I realize most egg dishes are gluten free, so this isn’t so impressive.

So you want to be impressed?  For breakfast-dessert I got a cinnamon bun muffin.  Actually, I ordered one of the scones, but I was persuaded to get the muffin instead.  And I’m glad I was.  The muffin looks like a pretty marble cake from the outside, but the real magic happens when you bite into it.  It’s a cinnamon overload hidden within the confines of the marble cake.

The yellow cake is moist and deceivingly flavorful.  But the cinnamon bun filling is straight out of a real cinnamon bun and disguised in its yellow cloak.  At no point would you think this is any different from a gluten-y muffin.  You can’t go wrong with my precious the cinnamon bun muffin.  Especially with coffee…

I had a hot cup of light roast from Anderson’s Coffee Company for free!   Just flash your Go Local card (you all have one, right?  right?) and you get a free coffee with your order!  Overall my breakfast was hearty, healthy, and validating of this gluten free switch.  Eggs, meat, veggies, muffins, and coffee?  Sounds just like breakfast, without giving gluten a second thought.

The story continues with my second visit when I went a totally different direction and ordered the porridge.  It should really be called “porridge” because porridge is oats and water.  The Lembas porridge is comprised of flax meal, chia seeds, cinnamon, coconut, and pecans.  The dry goods are mixed together and near-boiling water is poured into it when ordered.  As the water soaks in, the consistency becomes a little strange, even for Middle Earth.  It doesn’t stick to the spoon, but it does stick to itself, making it more interesting (at least to me) than it probably should be.  Regardless, really delicious!

Also in chapter two I learned noticed biscotti sitting behind the window next to other baked goods.  I inquired and was immediately treated to one on the house trailer.  Side note: food trailer owners are good people.  Alongside my free coffee (a dark roast this time) this biscotti is a champ.  Chocolate with chocolate chips and made from coconut flour.  By the Horses of Rohan it’s good!

In the final visit of this review, The Return of Mike, Ev joined me to try some of the highly-touted goodness.  My task was to order the green eggs and ham.  To go with it we each had a cup of coffee, shared some porridge, and a sampling of baked items.  The green eggs and ham are made to order.  The pork belly is fried up in a pan, and while it’s cooking, eggs and kale are tossed into the blender to get good and green.

After hyping it in my head for so long, saving it for my third visit, I’ll say I was a bit disappointed by the green eggs and ham.  The eggs were either overcooked, overbeaten, or just changed too much by incorporating the kale.  It tasted healthy, but not in a good way.  Unfortunately the pork belly didn’t work either.  It may have been sliced wrong before cooking, or just a bad piece, but we didn’t enjoy it.  Certainly an anomaly from the rest of my experiences.  I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, but may not order the green eggs and ham again.

But onto better tales!  From the baked goods we had a pumpkin bread, chocolate chip-orange scone, and another nut bread that I can’t quite remember.  The pumpkin bread was Ev’s favorite and really amazing.  So soft and pumpkin-y.  Another “who needs gluten?” moment.  For me the scone barely eeked out first place.  The chocolate chips and subtle orange flavor made magic together.  I’d highly recommend both.

So your big decision is if you will go for breakfast.  What about elevenses?  Luncheon?  Afternoon tea?  Dinner?  Supper?  No matter when you go, you’ll be surprised how good a grain free, gluten free bakery-trailer can be.  And like I said, the people behind the scenes window are genuinely good.  Leave yourself some extra time to stick around and chat.

By the way, for those who didn’t understand some of the non sequiturs, go watch the Lord of the Rings.