La Tavola In Geneva
I arrived in my hotel about 19:00 on the Friday and despite the excellent meal in Jamie’s Italian at Gatwick, I was peckish. The hotel recommended two local Italian restaurants, which meant I didn’t have to walk, as it was raining hard. The first was full, so I settled on the second and after a bit of negotiation, I got a table at 21:00. It was called La Tavola and here are a few pictures.
The first course was vitello tonnato, which is one of my favourites and properly made it is gluten-free. The second was salmon, leeks and mash potato. It looked slightly unappetising, but like the vitello tonnato, it was excellent.
I would certainly return to La Tavola again. One point was that being Italian, they knew their gluten-free well. My pronounciation too of celiachia is getting better each year.
I sometimes believe that most Italians believe that good food is the healer of all ills.
I don’t think, I’ve had a bad meal, either in Italy or cooked by Italians, for some years. The only one that stands out for awfulness, was one in Housto, about thirty years ago.
EatNakd Bars At Gatwick
I searched everywhere and couldn’t find any, or in fact any other gluten-free snacks to take with me on the trip.
I had thought I’d forgotten to pack any, but luckily it turned out I was mistaken.
But obtaining gluten-free snacks on the move is always difficult.
Pizza Express and Aspall Cyder
I went back to Pizza Express at the Angel, this evening.
No problems at all, but the pizza seemed to be better than the last time. Not that it was bad in any way then.
The waitress was a bit worried that I drank the Aspall Cyder, as it is not marked as gluten-free on their menu.
I have had assurances from one of the owners of the manufacturers that it is gluten-free. But even if it is not, it certainly doesn’t affect me.
Last summer, I had a full allergy test, to try to get to the bottom of my rhinitis. They couldn’t find any traces of gluten in my body, and as I drink quite a bit of Aspall cyder, it would have showed up positive, if any gluten had been present.
You can’t blame the waitress for being careful. But I just don’t like the Green’s beer!
Anyway, I was conceived in Suffolk, just like Aspall’s cyder.
As I write this post, I’ve got another bottle of Aspall on the go!
And We Think We Have Food Safety Problems!
This story from the BBC about rat meat in China, makes me think we’re lucky. I like this paragraph.
I heard one anecdote about a restaurant in southern China that serves up rat meat dishes. Believe me these establishments do exist.
At this particular restaurant, the owners reassured the customers their rats had been caught in the countryside and not in the sewers.
Incidentally, when I visited London’s sewers, I didn’t see one rat.
Grilled Pork With Asparagus And Shiitake Mushrooms
This recipe was taken from Saturday’s Times and I cooked it for lunch for myself today.
The paper says that for four people you need the following.
4 French trimmed pork cutlets
Knob of unsalted butter
2 crushed cloves of garlic
20 shiitake mushrooms, stalks removed
20 spears of asparagus, cleaned and trimmed
Seasoning
1 hard cheese, I used a French sheep’s one.
Lemon juice and olive oil
I did half quantity and just used pork steaks, as my Waitrose isn’t a posh one, that does French-trimmed pork cutlets. Here’s the pork, mushrooms and asparagus, ready to cook.
Pork, Mushrooms and Asparagus
The asparagus was of course English. I just snapped the ends off.
I cooked the pork in my chargrill pan for a few minutes each side.
Cooking The Pork
After they were cooked I put them in the top oven to keep warm.
I then melted a good knob of butter in my frying pan and when it was very hot, put the garlic and the mushrooms in and cooked them for nearly a minute. I then added the asparagus and gave it another minute.
Cooking The Mushrooms And Asparagus
I then arranged it over the meat, with a few potatoes and scrapings of the cheese and some lemon juice.
Ready to Eat
I did find the two steaks I cooked rather a lot for me, so one will be tomorrow’s lunch. but it was a pleasant change to have the mushrooms and asparagus with pork.
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!
The Anonymous Widower 