Gluten-Free Spinach And Ricotta Ravioli From Marks And Spencer
Gluten-free ravioli is one of the foods that I have missed, since my diagnosis as a coeliac.
But, I was able to buy this new product this afternoon, at a cost of £3.70 for enough for two.
The proof will be in the eating.
Contactless Payments For Food In Marks And Spencer
I have been using contactless bank cards to buy my food in Marks and Spencer for about sixteen months now.
I started making a note of my spending this way, as I wanted to check that this method of payment was secure.
It is!
What has dropped out of my research is that the average price of an item over those sixteen months, has been a couple of pence over two pounds.
So now, I usually only buy fifteen items, so that I’m just below the contactless payment limit.
- If it’s a couple of pounds over, I just drop a couple of pound coins in from my pocket, before using the card.
- As it happens fifteen items always fit in my reusable bag, which I stow in my manbag.
- I haven’t bought a new bag for a year and rarely pay 5p. for a plastic one.
The self-imposed fifteen item limit has certainly speeded up my shopping.
I wonder if other chains have the same item cost!
Over Four Units Of Beer
This picture shows nineteen bottles of Marks and Spencer’s Southwold Pale Ale, which is only 0.5% alcohol.
But it is brewed by Adnams in Suffolk.
I have been drinking adnams beer for over fifty years.
It should be said that you’d need to drink sixteen bottles to get to the four unit of alcohol limit for males.
I couldn’t manage eight litres of water.
I shall keep raiding Marks and Spencer in Finsbury Pavement to make sure I have enough for Christmas.
I’ve Finally Found A Small Wooden Spoon
I have finally found the answer to the question I asked in Where Are The Small Cooking Spoons?.
In that post I said this.
My mother had a very small wooden cooking spoon about twelve or so centimetres long. It was ideal for warming baked beans or making scrambled eggs in a non-stick milk saucepan.
Her’s had suffered an accident and I can remember that one side was slightly burned, but it was still usable. And absolutely the eight size!
I’ve been looking for over fifty years since I left home and not found one yet!
Yesterday, I found one in the Borough Kitchen in Borough Market.
They also had a smaller one.
My Ruined Saturday Mornings!
Since, I moved to Dalston in 2010, my Saturday morning routine has been something like this.
- Take a 30 Bus to St. Mary’s Church.
- Visit the Carluccio’s and have a gluten-free breakfast, like a full English or an eggs benedict.
- Visit Waitrose for half my shopping.
- Visit Marks and Spencer for my gluten-free shopping.
But things have changed.
Egyptian Buses On Route 30
A few weeks ago, new buses started on route 30.
I don’t use them, except as a last resort.
They were built in Egypt. Now, I’ve nothing against Egyptians or their country, but we make very good buses in this country and we should have British buses for British bottoms!
The new company running the route seems to not provide the same frequency anyway, so catching a 30 bus, would often involve a longer wait.
Carluccio’s Has Closed
But the need to take a 30 bus decreased, a few weeks ago, when Carluccio’s in Islington closed.
As there is no other place in Islington to get a quick gluten-free breakfast, that put a big hole in my Saturday mornings. I could go to Bill’s or Cote, but they take a lot longer and are much more expensive.
Waitrose
Waitrose too, are annoying me.
They have redone their self-service tills and they are useless for my way of shopping.
I have a large reusable M & S bag, that folds into my man-bag and although it was fine for their original tills, it’s too big for their new tills.
So to shop in Waitrose, I put the bag in the trolley, load my purchases onto the till without a bag and then after payment move them into my shopping bag. How inefficient is that?
I now limit my purchases at Waitrose by using the much-more customer friendly Sainsburys next door.
Anyway, Sainsburys have a much better gluten-free selection, than the terrible range in Waitrose, where no care is taken to make ranges of foods like sausages and burgers gluten-free.
In fact, I wouldn’t trust Waitrose on their allergen philosophy. The labelling might be correct, but it’s all about how different product types and ranges are handled.
You wouldn’t shop in Waitrose if you were a family with one member who was coeliac or gluten-free!
Marks And Spencer
Marks and Spencer at the Angel carry on as normal, as they have done since my paternal grandmother shopped there ibefore the First World War and, when C and I used to shop there in the 1970s.
But they have competition in that I am ringed by others of their stores in Dalston, Finsbury Pavement, Kings Cross, Liverpool Street and London Bridge.
Yesterday, I ate breakfast in Leon at Kings Cross and then roamed the shops before doing my Saturday shopping in their Finsbury Pavement store. That one is now opening on Saturdays and I can get two buses directly from the store to the zebra crossing by my house.
Conclusion
All of these factors are combining to make me use Islington less.
What the Angel needs is a Leon, so I can have a fast gluten-free breakfast on the go.
One of the great things about breakfast in Leon, is that there is often time and space to layout your tabloid-sized newspaper and eat a leisurely breakfast.
Bad Logic From Marks And Spencer
I am not the largest of individuals being around one metre seventy and sixty-one kilos.
But then many coeliacs are on the smallish side.
So when I saw this small meal which was entiled Beef Chilli & Cheese Filled Jacket Potato, I suspected that it could be gluten-free, as it seems most of Marks and Spencer’s beef chillis are made without gluten.
On turning the packet over, I found my reasoning was correct, as the dreaded g-word was missing.
Next to this baked potato on the shelf, was a Smoked Haddock Mornay Filled Jacket Potato.
Now this is where the logic is bad
- Some of their fish dishes with a Mornay sauce are gluten-free and others are not. This was one of the ones with gluten!
- Surely, if all chillis can be gluten-free, then all fish Mornays should be the same as to gluten.
- Perhaps, all baked potato dishes like this should also be the same as to gluten.
- I also think that with fish, shepherds and cottage pies with a potato topping, whether a pie is gluten-free or not depends on the range.
- And with sausages and burgers, they are all gluten-free.
If you are vegan or need to be dairy-free, I’m certain there are other examples of similar products varying as to acceptability.
How Was The Eating?
Not bad at all! I’ll try another, but I would love to try the smoked haddock variety!
Conclusion
I believe that a regular shopper in a particular supermarket chain, should be able to ascertain, if a product is suitable by just reading the title. They can always check by reading the detailed labelling
Fish Fingers Surprisingly Sustainable, Say Conservationists
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
When I first saw this headline, I was surprised and cynically felt that this was some put up job paid for by the producers of fish fingers or the Fish Fingers Appreciation Society.
But it appears that the research was done by the Marine Conservation Society.
This is the first paragraph of their Wikipedia entry.
The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is the UK’s leading marine environment, not-for-profit organisation. It works for the increased protection of the seas around the United Kingdom, via the creation of well managed marine protected areas. It works with fishermen and industry to find more sustainable ways of fishing and with retailers and consumers to buy and choose more sustainable seafood. It involves volunteers to carry out hundreds of beach cleans and surveys annually whilst also working with water companies and local communities to ensure UK bathing waters are of an excellent standard
I think that and other facts in the entry, prove that we can take the BBC report at face value.
Incidentally of their list of the top fifteen fish fingers rated for sustainability, at least two were gluten-free.
Usually, coeliacs and others who are gluten-free are left out of the results.
My last thought, is that why if we can make fish fingers surprisingly sustainable, can’t we do that for other foods?
Disappointing Kiel
After my disappointment with not getting a ride on the hydrogen-powered Coradia iLint, I decided to take a trip to Kiel.
I had expected a bustling riverside with perhaps nice places to eat overlooking the water. Perhaps, I was expecting somewhere similar to Bordeaux, Gdansk or Stockholm
I was at least able to buy a drink in a cafe, but I didn’t find any suitable food.
So I retreated to a shopping centre and bought a tuna salad in a plastic bowl.
I don’t think, I’ll be going back.
From Amsterdam To Hamburg The Hard Way
You might think that Amsterdam, which is a city of nearly two-and-a-half million people would have a good rail connection to the North German cities of Bremen and Hamburg, which have population of two-and-a-half and five million people, respectively.
But you would be wrong!
- Amsterdam to Bremen is 354 km. and takes 3 hr. 26 min to drive, but the train takes 4 hr. 16 mins with a change at Osnabruck.
- Amsterdam to Hamburg is 464 km. and takes 4 hr. 35 min to drive, but the train takes 5 hr. 14 mins with a change at Osnabruck.
The train to Osnabruck is the same for both destinations and runs every two hours.
I arrived in Amsterdam at 12:32 and the next train left at 13:00, which I didn’t try to catch as I had to queue up for a ticket
So I caught the 15:00, as I had planned, which should get me into Hamburg at 20:14, hopefully in time for supper.
I would need the supper, when I arrived, as I could find nothing gluten-free worth eating in Amsterdam Centraal station. But I did have some EatNakd bars.
The train to Osnabruck, wasn’t one of Germany’s finest and the only customer service was the checking of tickets. I didn’t check, but I got the impression, that the onboard restaurant car had gone AWOL.
There wouldn’t have been anything I could eat, if there had been a restaurant car anyway!
Incidentally, I don’t travel First Class in Germany anymore, as all you get is a better seat, with not even any free coffee.
And you have to pay about five euros for a seat reservation!
The train to Osnabruck wasn’t the fastest either, doing about 80 mph most of the way, which compares badly to the 100 mph typically attained by trains on secondary main lines in the UK like London to Norwich.
There was also an Engine Change At Bad Bentheim.
I’ve had serious delay in Osnabruck before, as I wrote in From Hamburg To Osnabruck By Train.
For a time it looked like it would be episode two, but the Hamburg train only turned up about ten minutes late.
By running at 125 mph part of the way to Hamburg, the train had picked up a few minutes.
So I had a lovely supper as a reward.
Conclusion
I’ve had worse train journeys. But not many!
At 105.61 euros it wasn’t cheap either!
A Delicious Meal For A Coeliac In A Fast-Food Restaurant
When I was diagnosed as a coeliactwenty years ago, fast-food restaurants were all gluten-full and alcohol, especially beer that I prefer was absent.
But look at these pictures of my lunch.
I ate in Leon in Leadenhall Market.
Gluten-free food has certainly changed for the better.
The Anonymous Widower 