Carluccios Gluten-Free Menu

 

Carluccios now has a gluten-free menu. I was in the Trafford Centre yesterday and had an enormous bowl of pasta with Italian sausage. It was very good.

Tattersalls

 

It was cold and miserable in Newmarket today, but because everybody was hiding and having lunch, we bought a broodmare for less than we should have.

As an aside,the caffe at Tattersalls had some GF bread, which they reckoned was wonderful and came from Bury St. Edmunds. I didn’t try it, as it sounded too good to be true. They didn’t have any today, so perhaps it was. But at least they knew their allergies.

Holne Chase Hotel

 

I spent a nice two nights at this hotel.

Food was excellent and they understood gluten-free. In one case, where I forgot to say I didn’t want toast with scrambled egg and smoked salmon, they actually cooked me another, despite it being my fault.

Eating Gluten-Free in Minsk

 

I did not want to be adventurous with my eating in Belarus.

As a coeliac, there is nothing worse than having to travel on a plane or drive down the motorway, with your guts telling you in no uncertain way that they are unhappy with the gluten. Your best course of action when this happens, is to sit near a toilet. Or sometimes permanently on it!

I had prepared by bringing a good box of supplies with me.


The box contained Trufree crackers, Fruit Break bars and Oskri Sesame Bars. If the worst had came to the worst then I could have existed on them, plus a few bananas, other fruit and a salad or two.

The Belarus Hotel has a Panorama restaurant on the twenty-second floor with expansive views of the city.


I'm afraid that the picture doesn't do the view justice!

I thought I'd be careful and only have a main course with a glass of wine. At least the menu had an English translation and there seemed to be a lot of choice.

I'd also brought one of CeliacTravel's excellent menu cards in Russian, so I gave it to the waiter and asked if a pork something was OK. He took the card and checked with the kitchen.

I was getting a bit apprehensive, but when the meal arrived, I had no worries. The pork had obviously been cooked without any source and it came with some onions, peppers and tomatoes. They did bring a cup of tomato sauce to go with it, but I decided that as I was ahead I'd stay there.

I had no reaction to the meal at all. The card had done its trick.

The two breakfasts that I ate in the hotel were fine too. But then with a buffet, you can usually be fairly careful about what you eat. I stuck to fruit, cold meats and vegetables.

So would I be more adventurous if I went to Belarus again? Probably, especially if I went with someone, who understood their cooking better than I do!

As a postscript here, much of the cooking in Belarus is based on potatoes. They even make pancakes that way. So if you're careful, it isn't one of the most difficult places to eat gluten-free.

But you'll have to take your own biscuits or bread!

Tate Liverpool

 

Last Thursday I was in Liverpool and had lunch at the Tate in the city.

It was a good lunch of rare breed roast pork, with potatoes and aubergines, washed down with some excellent ginger beer from Belvoir Fruit Farms.

Definitely a reason to go to the Tate again!

A Silly Thought

 

I was driving into Cambridge and I passed a van advertising Cambridge’s first lap dancing club.

I just had a thought. I wonder if they serve gluten-free food?

El Piano

 

I had this e-mail from a restaurant called El Piano in York and Grandada.

Sounds interesting.

We have enjoyed your web-site in the context of Gluten-free-ness. Thanks for making it interesting and accessible.

Thought you would be pleased to hear that El Piano is 10 years old this year and we have celebrated by going from a more than 80% gluten-free menu to 100%, as well as nut-free (have always been) and totally free of animal products too!

Come and see us sometime, either in York or in Granada...the food is delicious...(well we would say that wouldn't we?)

Best,

EL PIANO
www.el-piano.com

York UK - Co. Reg. No. 03210744
15/17 Grape Lane
YO1 7HU
Tel: +44 1904 610676

Granada ES - NIE X2048335R
c/ Gran Capitan
18002 GRANADA
Tel: +34 646 018 110

I Thought it was Getting Better

 

I thought that hotels and restaurants were getting better in their treatment of those with allergies like me.

That is until I read this e-mail :-

We went to a wedding last weekend, and stayed at the Stirling Highland Hotel (where the wedding was held).

We told the chef that Lala was coeliac and asked if there was a gluten free menu option. No.
We asked the wedding organiser for a copy of the menu options and were sent a copy of the menu, and asked if we could have the beef and vegetables and we would bring our own gravy to be microwaved. No.
Chef said that he would provide the beef option as a coeliac option, including gravy. This didn't arrive - just a bit of beef and some veggies that had some sort of coating on them. Being 5 years old and faced with something she had never seen before, she wouldn't eat it, so we gave her some chips that we were assured were safe.

The starter was carrot and potato soup, but I think that the Chef used a wheat thickener, (either that or the chips weren't safe) because she was sick as anything over the following few days. When she got up on the Sunday, she was itching, and her face was an absolute mess.

We won't be eating there again.

I certainly won't be going to the Highland Hotel in Stirling.

Cart and Horses - Kings Worthy

 

This is just a typical country pub, just outside Winchester. I had a very good meal there last night, where they cooked me new potatoes instead of chips etc.

But two of the staff have relatives or close friends who are coeliac or gluten intolerant. So it does show that knowledge and training gets good gluten-free meals. And probably good meals full stop.

Loch Fyne - Ipswich

 

I ate there last night and they knew what I needed. Not bad too, but anything would have been good, as Ipswich won 3-1. They are also doing a survey on what customers want, so I told them.

Afterwards, I went to a party at a friend’s. She knows I’m a coeliac, but there was nothing I could eat except raw vegetables. Lucky I’d had the good meal at Loch Fyne.

Elveden Estate

 

We bought a new puppy at the weekend and on the way back from deepest Norfolk, we stopped for a snack at the cafe on the Elveden Estate. The whole place has expanded rapidly over the last year or so and has lots of what they call Lifestyle Shops.

However, on the menu they now feature a gluten-free meal and highlight it boldly as such. It was a proper chilli con carne and rather nice too. I should say that other items on the menu are gluten-free, but it was nice to see such a statement being made.

How to be a Gluten-Free Restaurant

 

On Friday night we went to the White Pheasant at Fordham, which is just off the A11 Newmarket-by-pass.

All dishes are marked accordingly VNG for vegetarian, nuts and gluten-free. The food is at the top-level of gastropub. It couldn't be faulted.

Yesterday, we went to The Bluebell Restaurant at Chigwell. Parking was a nightmare last night, but the food was excellent.

I hadn’t told them I wanted gluten-free and the owner/manager heard me say something about gluten to Celia. He then told me that everything would be OK except the obvious ones, like the quiche.

Both restaurants are not cheap, but being successful in any business is about pleasing your customers and attention to detail. If these two can do it so well, then why can’t everybody else?

J D Wetherspoon

 

I complained to Wetherspoons about the menu in their airport cafe at Stansted.

This was the reply.

I am sorry to hear of your disappointment. I have enclosed the following link to our website that will enable you to search our current menu for food that may be suitable for you.

http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/food/

Please select the option for 'Food Facts' and follow the instructions on screen. We have also recently added a logo onto our menu to show which meals are gluten free.

In reply to your comments about the available food at the airport pubs, I will be passing these to the Catering Department for consideration in the future.

I trust that this will be of assistance to you and thank you for contacting us.

I shall be looking for the logo on the menus.

The Fox at Willian

 

We went here tonight on the way back from Windsor races.

The pub/restaurant is just off the A1M at Baldock and is worth trying, as they seem pretty allergy friendly.

We certainly had a very good meal.

Two Brothers

 

I had an excellent lunch today at this restaurant in Finchley, North London.

It's fish and groundnut-oil fried chips with good wine. I had a very good grilled halibut with boiled potatoes and a tomato and onion salad. I did say I was a coeliac but it didn’t matter with what I had.

As they say in the reviews it's a fish brasserie.

The Talbooth

 

I meant to post this earlier, but a couple of weeks ago, Celia and I went to a formal dinner at the Talbooth at Stratford St. Mary just north of Colchester in Essex.

They didn’t make one mistake in making sure I got my gluten-free meal and it made for a very enjoyable evening.

The restaurant and hotel isn’t cheap, but if someone wants a special weekend in Constable country, I think it could be worth a try.

How to do a Gluten-Free Menu

 

I've just been tidying the office and found the menu from the River Cafe.



What is good about it, is that is a single sheet of paper that the customer can take away and not some grand document, that is totally the property of the restaurant.

You'll notice that the waiter has written all over the menu, so that there is no confusion as to what is a good meal or not.

Elveden Estate

 

Yesterday we were on the A11 at Elveden, which if you know the area, is the only piece of single carriageway road between Newmarket and Norwich.

We went into the Deli/Cafe at the Elveden Estate, which is probably the most luxurious farm shop, we've ever seen. There were lots of very interesting products, many of which were gluten free and probably unheard off outside of Suffolk or Norfolk. It was definitely worth a browse. We bought some Suffolk salami and a Suffolk dressing for salad.

We also had a coffee in the cafe and they said to mention if you had any allergies. Obviously, this didn't apply to the coffee, but I asked and they said they were very much aware of all the problems and would be happy to provide an appropriate meal.

They also have all sorts of other things to do.

Arbutus

 

Celia and I had a great meal at this restaurant in Frith Street, Soho. The lady on the next table was also coeliac and the restaurant knows exactly what is possible and what is not.

Not cheap, but ideal if like us you were celebrating something in London.

The Gambia

 

This will probably end up as a series of posts and certainly I'm quite prepared to answer any questions.

Celia and I decided to go to The Gambia, as we needed a break, wanted some sun and it is about the shortest flight where you can get reasonably warm at the New Year.

To quote the Lonely Planet guide "For vegetarians, this region can be a challenge." I hoped it wouldn't be the same for coeliacs. But then I'm not supersensitive, it was only a week and there was a lot of interesting things to see like the birds, the forests and the other wildlife.

We had a very good time.

We did stay in a very good hotel called NGala Lodge which is owned by its Belgian chef and he had been warned. For instance on the first night, I ordered a starter based on grilled fish. Normally, he breadcrumbed them, but for me he did them plain. And they were very good.

We ate in a couple of restaurants and I had no trouble at all. Generally, the waiters speak very good English, as it is promoted as the National language. One thing though the holiday rep from Gambia Experience told me, is that no-one minds if you seek out the chef and ask his advice.

But the good thing is that most of the food seems to be naturally gluten-free. We had one of the local dishes which was effectively beef in a spicy peanut sauce. There is also a lot of good fruit and plenty of things like eggs and bacon at breakfast, even if I had problems convincing them that I didn't want toast.

So if you want a nice winter holiday, I'd recommend The Gambia. But I would plan more than I did, as we would have had a better holiday if we had. That is nothing to do with food, but I'd take a bird book, stay perhaps in two places and learn more about the people.