PicaPica.

While in the Mission last Thursday, I stopped in to Pica Pica Maize Kitchen on 15th and Valencia for lunch. I've been meaning to try it out for over a year now and I was jazzed that I finally had the time. The main thing that attracted me to PicaPica is the fact that their entire menu is gluten free. For those of you who don't know, I have a gluten allergy. I'm supposed to eat entirely gluten free, but this is beyond hard and I fall off the wagon more often than I care to admit. One of the hardest aspects of gluten free living is the restrictions it puts on eating out. I love exploring new restaurants, with friends and by myself, and being confined to the Salad section of every menu gets tiring. While awareness for the gluten allergy is growing and more and more restaurants are jumping on board with gluten free options, it can still be difficult to find these restaurants as most don't advertise their gluten free menu. PicaPica, however, is entirely gluten free and is letting the world know.

First let me say that I fully intend to go back and love what they're all about. They've been open for awhile now and I take that to mean that I'm not the only fan of their work. They're considered Mexican fast food, but think Chipotle style, not Taco Bell. In fact, let me start with the decor and say that PicaPica's decor is what Chipotle's wishes it was. I'll probably lose some friends saying this, but I'm not a fan of Chipotle and never have been. The food is pretty bland and unexciting, and while I understand what they're going for decor wise, it jars. It's just off, I don't know how else to say it. But PicaPica manages to get the combination of warm wood and matte metal just right. In my opinion, anyway.

 

 

 

 

On to the food. The number one thing to be said about most gluten free bread products is that's it's dense. The light, fluffy quality of bread can be attributed to gluten. Therefore gluten free bread has a tendency to be dense and small. Bread products made with corn and without gluten are doubly dense, since corn is dense as it is (wow how many times can I use the word 'dense' in one paragraph?). This also explains why you'll be hard pressed to find gluten free pastry. And by pastry I mean the layers of tissue-thin dough, like a croissant. I ordered the Morena Empanadas --black beans and queso fresco filling. 

In my experience, empanadas are made from pastry dough, which means you're not overwhelmed with the richness of the filling (usually meat, which PicaPica offers). But PicaPica's empanadas are made from a gluten free corn meal, making them --you guessed it-- dense and small. And oily. Moral of today's story: dense, small, and oily. But tasty! I almost forgot to mention that I really enjoyed it, and that now I know how filling their meals are, I'll know how much to order. Next time I visit I'm going to go with one of their maizewiches. They have a ton of filling options that sounded delicious, and you can choose from three different kinds of bread that range in sweetness. 

I'm going to be completely honest here and let you all now that I am in a realm beyond exhausted and I'm having a hard time wittily waxing poetic about PicaPica. I liked it. I'm going back. You should check it out if you're ever in the area. And now I'll provide you with some links if you're interested in doing some further research.

Yelp. 

PicaPica website.

PicaPica blog.

Happy Monday being over, folks. And as they say at PicaPica, be corny!

-LG