A food intolerance pub review

Last Saturday week (14th) I was due to go to a workshop at a pub called The Theodore Bullfrog in Charing Cross. I have been there before, but not when I have had so many food intolerances, and when I have eaten gluten and wheat before. When I ordered the food, I was told by the workshop organiser that I would have to phone the pub myself to check out about food intolerances as that was what others in the same situation had done. So I did. I wanted chicken wings and fries. I was told that there wasn't a guarantee that the chips would come in contact with flour because they use their fryer for other foods, and the chicken wings had flour in, too. I said, fine, OK, I shall take my own lunch then. I didn't go in the end because I had had a bad night and was too tired to travel and concentrate.

So, I shall now give my marks out of 5 for travel accessibility and for catering for food intolerances.

Travel = 2. I could have got a bus to Catford then a train to Charing Cross.
Catering for food intolerances = 0. There wasn't anything else on the menu that I could eat, so I had to take my own lunch if I had. But I shall give them 2 for telling me over the phone what allergens there were in the foods. Something that all food eateries have to do now.

There you have it. One pub I won't be eating in again, and if I do, it will be my own food that I know I can eat without fuss and harm.

An oaty tale

Since I found I can't eat gluten, I have tried to find another porridge to eat as well as millet. I thought I'd found it in gluten-free oats. The first bag I bought was Sainsbury's free from oats. They didn't bind with my rice dream and it was a v runny porridge. So, I decided to find another one. I found Nairn's gf wholegrain oats. Only, after a few breakfasts it proved to be too much wholegrain for me. They were 100% wholegrain. Too much because it had a bad effect on me that involved a small room. I had to give those up.

But I have found I can eat less than 100% wholegrain oats. I can eat gf wholegrain crackers which are 86% and can eat gf oatcakes that are a similar amount of wholegrain.

So, there you have it. I can't eat 100 wholegrain foods, esp oats, but can eat less than that.

Celebrating Free From style

It was my mum's birthday yesterday. Because we are both intolerant to various foods and she has coeliac, too, we can't eat normal cakes, but thankfully there are some yummy alternatives out there, which we have found. We bought Genius lemon cupcakes on Wednesday out shopping and ate them on the Thursday I think it was.

It was delicious. Light and fluffy like a sponge should be, and the lemon icing was gorgeous, too.

Yesterday we had the Free From choc muffin cake with Alpro (soya) custard. V filling and v nice as well. I am intolerant to soya and it did affect me the whole day by making me slightly stuffy. It was worth it though. Today we had the rest of the muffin cake with ice cream and frozen yoghurt. Mum had goat's milk ice cream and I had the frozen yoghurt.

All three foods come from Sainsbury's. The cakes are in the Free From bread section, and the frozen yoghurt in the special ice cream freezer section.

Might try the choc cupcakes next for my birthday in November.

Gluten-free bread

Since I have found I'm intolerant to gluten, I have tried a few gluten-free breads that are out there in the supermarkets. I have found there is one particular bread that is my favourite. But here is my overall opinion of the ones I have had:

In third place is Tescos Free From bread. These were large slices and tasted really dry to eat.

Tesco slices are the bigger ones. One and a half of these would make a sandwich, as I found that 2 was too much to eat, esp as they were dry.

In second place comes Genius. They too are large slices but don't taste that dry, but they often have large cracks and holes in them (I'm not the only one to have found this). This would be my choice of bread when I can't get the Sainsbury's one.

In first place is Sainsbury's Free From white bread. The size of the slices are just right, don't taste dry and hardly come with holes in. So it gets top prize from me. I have also tried their brown seeded loaf and that's OK too.

I have also tried Warburton's white rolls, and like them now and then for a change from a sandwich. So, what gluten-free breads have you tried? Which one is your favourite in taste and size and content?

My local Chinese

A couple of weeks ago, before my mum had her major eye surgery, we went for a meal out our local Chinese 'The Eastern Queen' at Catford, SE London. We've been there a few times before

The walls are nicely decorated in Chinese pictures and symbols.

Every time we go there now, not often, the staff seem to change, but they are nice and friendly towards you. Even holding the door open for you when you leave.

My mum had her usual meal of chicken with ginger and spring onions, and I had chicken with seasonal veg with boiled rice (small bowl between us).

Mine is on the left, Mum's on the right. Be careful you don't eat a piece of ginger by mistake as it's hot!

Both our meals were really nice and dairy and gluten free. We declined the prawn crackers because they do have a form of dairy in. We don't have a dessert because the meal is enough for both of us. But we do take away the mint cream choc that we get given with the bill. It is only a small amount of dairy and doesn't affect me. I used to have the crackers before a meal, then have a pudding afterwards that might have had wheat (flour) on, and did have problems when I got home. Now I don't have any of that and I am fine.

So here is my score for it: service = 8/10; locality = 9/10 (get a bus there and back); food for intolerances = 8/10.

We might go there again but not sure as Mum said she wasn't sure if she would. We shall see. If we do, I shall have something different to try.

RNA conference - What I ate

This time last weekend I was on my last day at the RNA conference in Mile End road. So, how did I rate the choice of foods I was given? Honestly, poor. Here is what I ate:

Friday dinner: I couldn't eat anything on the menu because it either had dairy or wheat in, and the only choice was beef casserole which had wine in. Again I couldn't eat because of my medications. The chef cooked chicken esp for me, which I had with white rice, peas and green beans. It looked like this:

My opinion: they weren't that prepared at all for my intolerances.

Saturday morning came. I went to have breakfast. Were they prepared? No. They didn't have any Free From toast for me, and I had to have fried bacon with grilled tomatoes, and I don't usually like grilled breakfasts. I complained afterwards to our organiser, Jan Jones, who had a word with them. Apparently, they did have gluten free bread there, but no one told the catering staff that were there that morning. Sigh.

Saturday lunch. What did I have? Chicken again, with lots of green leaves, a few olives and a couple of sundried tomatoes, which I tried but didn't like. Here is what it looked like:

I had this lunch again on the Sunday, but that time I complained. I asked the head of staff there if they could have extras like salad. A while later she brought out a big bowl of roasted veg such as peppers. At least I had a bit more to it then. I had a bag of crisps with me on Saturday, so went back to my room to get them.

Saturday dinner was the Gala dinner, and was in the Octagon library in Queen's building.

Because it was a special dinner, it was much better organised. Staff went round asking who had dietary requirements, and they catered for it. For starter I had roasted veg, eg peppers and onions:

For dinner, guess what I had? Yes, chicken. It came with potato and fresh veg such as carrots and cauli. Yay. Different veg. I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed this meal the most out of all the ones I had last weekend, mainly because it was more organised and prepared for me and my diet.

Sunday morning came. Breakfast. And yes, they were prepared this time. I had my gluten free toast, 4 slices of it, with spread and jam. I was happy. I've put above what I had for lunch.

All in all, out of 10, I rate Queen Mary University of London's choice of menu for dietary people - 3. Poor. So there you have it. I plan to rate places where I go with how their choice for people like me, and how they cope with it.

Going away for weekend with food intolerances

I have been away over the years but I have to say, one of the best places I've been to for eating with food intolerances is Dunford House, Nr Midhurst in W Sussex. I was there last weekend for a writing retreat, and they are so helpful and accommodating with coping with my food intolerances.  Here is what I eat for the main meals over the weekend.

On the Friday evening we had chicken breast with new potatoes and veggies. Here is what it looked like:

For breakfast, I had gluten free toast each day.

For Saturday lunch I had gluten free pasta with veggies (tomato and red onion), which was yummy.  Here it is:

 

For dinner we had roast butternut squash risotto (free from dinner). I'd not had risotto rice before but I really liked it because it was crunchy. It was filling so I didn't eat all of it.

 

For dessert I had fresh strawberries. Other days I had fruit salad but didn't eat all of that because most of it was apple which I can't eat. Sunday dessert I was given strawberries, banana and an orange. I gave the orange away but eat the rest.

Sunday lunch I had Moroccan veggie tagine. I didn't take a photo of this one. I couldn't eat all of it because it was too spicy for me. I had to have water with it, then was given some bread which helped. For dinner we had beef bourgnon (prob spelt wrongly) and mashed potato with veggies. All dairy and gluten free, of course.

I remember having this last year and enjoyed it again. All food provided I believe is locally sourced, so we eat in season.

As well as all these meals, there was cake and crisps. I managed to eat some cakes because the organiser kindly baked a dairy and gluten free one for me. So, a lot was eaten and I put on 2 and a half pounds in weight. Most of that has gone now. Roll on next year.