They Can’t Tell Sheep From Goats
The Sunday Times is reporting that goats meat has been found in some lamb products.
This doesn’t strike me as serious as the horsemeat scandal, but yet again, it shows the importance of knowing where food has come from.
I’m cooking some pork for my lunch and will be particular, where I buy it from. It will probably be Waitrose, but on other days it could be Marks and Spencer or a proper butchers, like the one on the Essex Road.
If you pay a crap price for food, you probably get what you deserve.
A New Superwheat
You’d think as a coeliac, I would not be in favour of the new superwheat developed at Cambridge as reported on the BBC.
British scientists say they have developed a new type of wheat which could increase productivity by 30%.
The Cambridge-based National Institute of Agricultural Botany has combined an ancient ancestor of wheat with a modern variety to produce a new strain.
But I think this is a victory for traditional high-class science. As I understand it, after hearing the scientist on the radio, the combining of the two plants was done using the sort of methods, that have been used for years. Albeit with some clever seed incubation. No direct manipulation of the genes was involved.
So as this could give a yield increase of 30%, what would happen if these methods were applied to the other staple crops of the world.
Sadly, the problem is that, the Cambridge route doesn’t make any money for the big corporations of this world, who feel that the GM route is much more profitable.
I am not totally against GM, but it has to be used ethically and where it is demonstrated that it the only way to create an important product, such as a new cancer drug.
I Thought Tandoori Chicken Was Gluten Free
But obviously not this junk food.
I Thought Tandoori Chicken Was Gluten Free
Subway is one of these shops that should be made by law to serve at least something that is gluten-free.
Coca-Cola Vanilla Is Back
According to the adverts, Coca-Cola Vanilla is back.
Coca-Cola Vanilla Is Back
I don’t think I ever noticed it had gone. I drunk it once and I’ve tasted better urine.
But seeing it’s on the buses, it probably means it’s got the same popularity as this film.
The First Asparagus Of Summer
I bought some fresh English asparagus yesterday in Waitrose.
I just fried it in a little olive oil, with some seasoning for five minutes. It was delicious.
It’s certainly one of those ‘posh’ foods worth eating!
I Tend To Avoid Sun, Swimming, Salt, Cold And Water
I was wondering today, if my lifestyle choices have been my problem all along.
As a child I spent endless hours in my bedroom playing with my Meccano, and in most of my working life I was programming alone in my office, often watching the television at the same time. Even today, living alone in East London, I spend a lot of time on my computer, with either the television or the radio in the background.
The difference now, is that I try to get some sun and even today, I’ve had an hour or so in the sun walking around the local area.
But I don’t eat much salt and I’ve never liked it. So could I be that rare person, who doesn’t get enough salt?
Paradoxically, although I’m not a sun lover, I do hate the cold and C used to complain that my office and car was too hot. This winter though, I’ve felt a bit better by deliberately keeping the temperature down to 20 °C or less inside most of the time. My gut, which is usually troublesome, has been perfect all the time.
I am trying to drink more water, but only in the form of tea, lemonade, milk or beer. But all I seem to want to do is pee it down the toilet!
So can I get decent health, by controlling my avoidances?
One conclusion, I’m coming to, is that when I was living with C, she used to drag me out for walks and probably curbed some of my excess.
So does that explain, why my health was better for all those years I was married?
Cooking With Celia
Some of my friends will chuckle at this.
Cooking With Celia
I’m actually cooking the fish with beans and peas, I cook regularly.
Excellent Gluten Free Cake At The ViewTube
I went to the ViewTube today, for a tea and cake.
Excellent Gluten Free Cake At The ViewTube
It was actually mandarin and chocolate cake, but if you didn’t like that, then there was another different flavour.
The View From Hay’s Galleria
I’d gone south from the Angel to London Bridge station, with the aim of walking along the River Thames to see Tower Bridge.
To get to the bridge, I took one of the exits onto Tooley Street, crossed the road and walked through the Hay’s Galleria. I took these pictures.
This is one of the best ways to get onto the walk beside the Thames. There are also a couple of restaurants and cafes, in and by the Galleria, if you want to eat or drink.
Gluten-Free Pizza At Pizza Express
For many years, Sunday afternoons and evenings for C and myself had a rhymn. We would go to the cinema at either the Cambridge Picturehouse or the Cineworld and then we’d go for a pizza in Pizza Express, often at the Pitt Club, where I always had a Capricciosa. This pattern stopped in the early 2000s, when I was diagnosed as a coeliac, so sometimes I would have a salad Niçoise, or more likely we’d go to an Indian restaurant.
But all that has now changed, in that Pizza Express have produced a new very coeliac-friendly menu. This is the gluten-free page.
Last night, I went with two friends to the newly-refurbished Pizza Express at The Angel in Islington. We sat upstairs and for an avid street watcher like myself, it is a great place to sit.
I started with a bottle of my favourite long drink; Aspall Cyder.
Aspall Cyder At Pizza Express
They also have Green’s gluten-free beer, but I do prefer my Celia, when it comes to beer. The cyder is better than both with pizza.
I also had a Capricciosa, for the first time in perhaps ten years.
Gluten-Free Pizza At Pizza Express
It tasted just like it did all of those years ago.
I think a personal tradition of a film followed by pizza is going to be revived. all I need now is an attractive lady with whom to enjoy the experience.
I think too, you can’t accuse Pizza Express of being backward about going forward.
Advertising In Stereo
These two signs were outside.
My only problem, is that near me, there isn’t a Pizza Express with the quality of building of the Pitt Club in Cambridge.
I have a feeling that in a few years time, this will rate as one of the most significant events in dining out for coeliacs in the UK.
I wasn’t diagnosed as a child, but it must be very difficult, for both a coeliac child and their parents, when say at a birthday party, they get invited to a family restaurant. Now they can at least eat pizza.
I think it is going to start a ripple in the various chains of restaurants, as they’ll have to follow suit. After all, Carluccio’s and Jamie’s Italian, already operate a sensible policy on gluten-free food, and I suspect others do.
It’ll certainly make things much easier for me on my travels. It’s already happened in Ipswich, in that the town has two Pizza Express restaurants. It’s just a pity, neither is close to Portman Road.
This will probably mean that the UK, will become one of the most coeliac-friendly countries for coeliacs to visit.
The Anonymous Widower 