Crewe
After reading the Wikipedia entry for Crewe, I was apprehensive, as it is not complimentary and quotes Bill Bryson as saying it isw the armpit of Cheshire.
But I also have had the other view from the late MP for Crewe; Gwyneth Dunwoody, who used to be my next door neighbour. She was the sort, that if you went to borrow some sugar, you didn’t return until after several stiff drinks.
Even last week at Crystal Palace, a fellow Ipswich fan had said that he’d enjoyed a couple of trips to the town to see Ipswich.
The Crewe Arms Hotel, Crewe
I stayed in the Crewe Arms by the station, which is typical of many station hotels all over the UK. It has mahogany panelling, deep red carpets and brown leather sofas. One unexpected thing it has is free and high-speed wi-fi. It definitely didn’t have that in 1880 when it opened.
I slept reasonably well too, as the bed was comfortable. The room was very clean with a bathroom that looks like it had been refurbished in the last year or so.
In the morning, I skipped breakfast because I ate well the previous night, but the coffee I had in a proper china pot was of a high standard.
I would certainly stay there again, if I went back to the football at Crewe.
The town centre was fairly clean with a lot of flowers and had most of the usual names.
Shopping Centre, Crewe
But the highglight last night was an excellent Indian meal in the Passage to India.
Passage To India, Crewe
The building was best desribed as clean, smart and comfortable, the staff were polite and professional and I give the food at least five bricks in honour of Brick Lane, where C and I had one of our most memorable Indian meals together. How about this for a seious shami kebab.
A Serious Shami Kebab
Non Disabled-Friendly Sugar Packets
Now I’m not disabled, but I do have a left hand that is less than perfect after the stroke.
On the train today, when I had my coffee, I found that it was virtually impossible to open the small square sugar packet without spilling half of it on the table.
Surely, in this day and age we can come up with something better! At least where you get little tubes I have less of a problem
Nothing Gluten-Free on Virgin Trains
There were complimentary sandwiches, but nothing that was gluten-free, except for an apple, coffee and diet-Pepsi.
Sandwiches are always a problem, as you can’t expect gluten-free ones. I would have liked a banana, as I find apples a bit difficult with my mouth from the stroke.
Carluccio’s Risotto is Now Gluten-Free
Carluccio’s new gluten free menu has this satatement.
Our risottos are gluten free. We serve a different one every
week, so please see our Specials Board or ask staff for details.
I had a serious and very good chicken and spinach risotto in their Spitalifields branch last night.
The only trouble with Carluccio’s, is that there aren’t enough of them.
Colcannon Chicken and Apple Pie
I was looking for something a bit different to add to the potato topped pies that I like and keep for suppers by myself in the freezer and I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com. Note that this website marks all recipes as to gluten-free, vegetarian etc.
The ingredients I used for the pie were.
- 1 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 450 gram chicken breast fillets cut into chunks
- 2 carrots, thickly sliced
- 250 ml. pf chicken stock
- 250 ml. of dry cider – Aspalls of course!
- 1 tsp wholegrain mustard
- 1 tsp dried tarragon
- 2 Cox’s apples, thickly sliced
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- salt and pepper
And for the Colcannon topping I used.
- 700 grams of potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
- 200 grams of Savoy cabbage, shredded
- 4 tbsp of semi-skimmed goats milk
- 25 gramsbutter
- 4 spring onions, finely chopped.
These quantities make enough for four, so I froze some of it for later.
The method was as follows.
- Heat the oil in a large, deep, non-stick frying pan. Add the onion and cook over a low heat for 5 minutes or until softened.
- Add the chicken to the pan and cook over a moderate heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until it is no longer pink. Stir in the carrots.
- Combine the stock, cider, mustard and tarragon, and pour into the pan. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and cook gently for 10 minutes. Stir in the apples and cook, covered, for a further 10 minutes or until the chicken and carrots are tender, and the apples have softened but are still holding their shape.
- Meanwhile, cook the potatoes in a saucepan of boiling water for about 15 minutes or until tender. Cook the cabbage in a separate pan of boiling water for 4–5 minutes or until just tender but not soft; drain well.
- Drain the potatoes and return them to the pan. Add the milk and butter, and mash until smooth. Stir in the cabbage and spring onions, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover to keep warm.
- Using a draining spoon, transfer the chicken, apples and vegetables to a 1.7 litre (3 pint) ovenproof dish. Set aside.
- Mix the cornflour with 1 tbsp cold water, stir into the cooking liquid in the frying pan and bring to the boil, stirring until thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste, then pour over the chicken mixture.
- Pile the potato and cabbage topping over the chicken mixture, spreading it evenly to cover. Place in the top oven of the AGA and bake until golden brown.
I made a couple of mistakes in that I didn’t make enough topping and the sauce could have done with more thickening. But it was well worth the ewffort.
Gluten-Free Food on East Coast
Readers may think, I’m just a whingeing coeliac, but no, I’m looking at this from a marketing point of view, as because I know that when there is nothing suitable to eat, I don’t! So that means that every trip I do up and down the East Coast Main Line costs them probably at least a tenner each way in lost revenue. Also, how many coeliacs don’t book say from London to York, because they know if they drive there’s a nice place for a meal halfway!
There are also alternatives at present, as because I live in East Anglia, I change trains at Peterbrough and as I usually have an hour or so, I can walk across to Marks and Spencer in the Queensgate Shopping Centre and have something in Cafe Revive or one of several other places in the city centre. But as I said in an earlier post, the route from the station to the shopping centre is not good.
If I move to London as I intend and I was going north for the day, I’d walk across to St. Pancras and have a gluten-free breakfast in Carluccio’s. I hope my favourite Italian caffes will book a place in the new King’s Cross, as it develops. But if it doesn’t, it’ll always be worth the walk!
But why should I have to, when I’m going on the train?
So what should they do in my opinion?
- East Coast offer a ready-made cottage pie in their Light Bites. As it is just microwaved there is no contamination problem. so this and I think the fish pie could easily be made gluten-free. After all, most peoples’ cottage and fish pies are gluten-free anyway, but then some food manufacturers can’t resist adding flour to everything!
- A nice curry would also be gluten-free. Incidentally, curries are often the gluten-free meal on many airlines. I remember one I had was excellent.
- There is also a smoked salmon salad, which should be gluten-free, but they’d run out last time I asked for it.
- I notice there is a full English breakfast. I might try it one day leaving out the sausage. If they are prepared individually, it should be possible to deliver them gluten-free. That is just systems and perhaps a little bit of training.
- The choice of snacks is important, as some are suitable and others are not! Most coeliac-friendly pubs just stock the basic unflavoured Kettle ones. I didn’t check the crisps on East Coast, but as they were Walkers, they’d have been marked suitable for coeliacs if they were. I’ve been in pubs, where none were!
- Coeliacs don’t drink beer, so perhaps a bottled or canned proper cider, like Aspall or Weston might be an idea. That may not be possible, but wine is fine though, although I find some don’t taste too good with my stroke.
Incidentally, I’d travelled on GNER some years ago and I had asked the waiter, if the salmon was gluten-free. The chef came and said it was, but he'[d cook it personally to avoid any cross contamination. I remember, it was very good.
I don’t always want or need service like that, but with just a little bit of thought and virtually no extra expenditure, train companies might actually increase revenue.
Cider in Edinburgh
Proper cider is my long drink of choice and it seemed to be almost missing from Edinburgh pubs and hostelries. Only as we were getting a bus late on Friday, did I find some Weston’s being advertised outside a J D Wetherspoon’s pub called the Alexander Graham Bell.
Now I’m watching Michael Portillo in Carluke and he is talking apple juice and cider.
So I searched and found this page on the web. But I can’t find his Carluke cider makers.
Fast Food – Loch Fyne Style
When you are a coeliac, snack lunches or quick meals on the go are a real problem. At times, I’ve been reduced to Crunchie Bars, Kettle Crisps or even McDonalds fries. But I always yearn for something better.
Whilst getting tickets at the Gilded Balloon, my stomach asked for lunch and I walked alongside the side of the venue into the fast food area.
What caught my eye was a caravan from Loch Fyne Oysters.
Loch Fyne Oysters Caravan at the Gilded Balloon
I’m not into oysters and muscles, but they did have something deliciously different; kedgeree.
They just put a generous portion into a cardboard punnet and warmed it back up in a microwave. Perhaps not very Gordon Ramsey, but it was certainly better and better for me than a greasy burger.
Let’s make kedgeree the fast food of the future.
Gluten-Free in Edinburgh
Scotland on thewhole tends to be pretty coeliac friendly. On all previous trips since diagnosis, I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem finding good gluten-free food and this trip was no exception.
On Wednesday night, I was taken to Howies in I think, Alva Street. It was good and they even had a gluten free menu. They also hadn’t been warned to expect a coeliac, something that Gordon Ramsey himself, has said is to be recommended as everybody should benefit.
On Friday night, we went to The Outsider on the King George IV Bridge. This was good and I can’t remember if they actually had a gluten-free menu, but they knew what was gluten-free anyway. Incidentally, they don’t seem to have a web site and I couldn’t see a sign on the front of the building. Perhaps that’s why they’re called The Outsider!
Changing Trains at Peterborough
WHen I went North on Wednesday to Edinburgh, I deliberately arranged to have an hour between getting to Peterborough from Ely and then leaving for the North, so that I could get some lunch.
Queensgate Centre, Peterborough
As you can see from tyhis picture taken from just outside the station, the Queensgate Shopping Centre is not too far away and it has a large Marks & Spencer with a Cafe Revive and a Waitrose. So I walked there and had a nice gluten-free salmon salad in the Cafe Revive. The offerings were better than those in the station.
I do hope that when they improve Peterborough Station, that they improve the access to Queensgate, as there is dual-carriageway in between and the bridge is difficult for anyone with limited movement like myself or someone perhaps elderly or with a child in a buggy.
The Anonymous Widower 