Holy Crap
This product got a plug on Have I Got News For You, tonight.
I thought it was a spoof, but if it is, the web site is a masterpiece of misleading information.
It is actually a gluten-free breakfast cereal. The product page is here and I only have one problem with it and that is that it contains cranberries, which are a no-no if you are on Warfarin.
My other problem might be putting on a lumberjack shirt and high heels to eat it.
It Looks Like Crunchies May Now Have Added Gluten
I never trust American food companies not to add gluten to products.
When Cadbury was British, you could trust that Crunchies were gluten-free and I’ve ate many without any reaction.
However, this message has just turned up on the UK-Coeliac Yahoo group.
I just had one of those Cadbury Crunchies from a pack of three, and am now in pain and looking 9 months pregnant.
I checked the ingredients first, and it just said “Contains Milk”… Lying Kraft/Mondelez/Cadbury B^&/4£ds!…
I went to Cadbury.com and it went to “Mondelez” which is apparently the new name that Kraft are hiding behind.
It is very telling that the text on the very top of the page is the current Nasdaq share price, and when I searched for “gluten” on their website it came back with “no results found”.
Cadbury used to be very good about gluten, but it is clear that these evil devils couldn’t give a toss about the poisons they put in their products or the people eating them.
Avoid…
I will do what the lady says at the bottom and won’t touch any more Cadbury products again.
So the Americans have ruined a classic British brand.
Pâté, Lovely Pâté
I’ve always liked coarse pork pâté and this one from Waitrose is one of the best! This was my lunch!
Pâté, Lovely Pâté
The only allergen is egg. It went very well with Genius toast and Benecol.
A Bus Stop With A Carluccio’s
The Carluccio’s in Upper Street, Islington, is a uniquely convenient restaurant.
A Bus Stop With A Carluccio’s
Today, I had to get a snack lunch and then go on to Kings Cross station to pick up some rail tickets for my trip to Burnley for the last day of the football season.
So I got a 30 bus to this bus stop, had my lunch at Carluccio’s and then after lunch got on another 30 bus to the station. It really, is a conveniently placed restaurant, at one of those mini-bus interchanges, you get all over London. And Carluccio’s is not the only restaurant in walking distance of this bus stop.
I do think sometimes, that those who open restaurants forget about the buses and don’t think to place their hostelries, where passengers change buses. I can think of a couple of bus interchanges, where the cafe offerings are distinctly poor.
What’s The Difference Between A Sardine And A Pilchard?
A sardine comes in a flat tin and a pilchard comes in a round one.
I found that answer here.
Baked Eggs And Sardines
This recipe came out of Saturday’s Times and explains the tins of sardines and bread earlier. When I saw the recipe, I thought I hadn’t had sardines for years, so this recipe seemed a good one to rectify that omission.
Baked Eggs And Sardines
All I did was put a crushed clove of garlic, a complete tin of sardines in tomato sauce and two eggs into a buttered ovenproof dish, which then went in the oven at 180°C, until the eggs looked cooked.
I did buy some parsley to chop on the top, but I forgot to do it.
I shall be cooking it again! Especially as sardines are suposedly nutritious and considered by some to be an aphrodisiac. The dish is also so easy to cook. The most difficult thing was opening the tin of sardines!
Even the washing up was fairly minimal!
Am I Reduced To This?
I went to Waitrose on the way home today and bought a Genius loaf and two tins of sardines.
So is this all I will be eating tonight? No!
Am I Reduced To This?
But some could imagine I was living on the breadline!
Giles Coren On Pistachio Doughnuts
This was a classic comment from his restaurant review in The Times on Saturday.
Oliphant, who had been here before, insisted I try the pistachio doughnuts and honey syrup, but all puddings taste like mashed sugar cubes to me and I ate it only out of politeness. For all I know, it may be the greatest pudding ever made. You’d need to ask a fat girl.
I feel like that about puddings too!
Two Quotes From Antonio Carluccio
The Times yesterday had two quotes from Antonio Carluccio.
Religion is hypocritical.
He says that he abandoned it forty years ago. With me it was probably nearly sixty, when I discovered how good science is.
Cooking is good for attracting girls.
He says he taught himself, as he couldn’t afford to go to restaurants.
I’m teaching myself, not because I can’t afford the restaurants, but because restaurants don’t cook what I like. As to whther it attracts girls, I couldn’t possibly comment.
The Return From Sheffield
I had decided to come back directly from Sheffield station to St. Pancras International.
Partly, this was because it was without a change and also it would enable me to compare the two companies; East Coast and East Midlands. But mainly, it was because the journey up cost £33.00 and I was able to get back for £19.80, by the simpler route.
It started well enough in that I was able to get easily by the Supertram to the station, with a change at Fitzalan Square. My only query, would be to ask if Sheffield have enough trams, as the tram was crowded both ways and there was a long delay waiting to get one at Meadowhall? I also find it strange, that we have six modern tram systems in the UK; London, Edinburgh, West Midlands, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield, and all seem to have different trams and different ticketing systems. For instance, other than London, the only tram system I can use without paying is Sheffield.
If we had a standard UK tram and infrastructure, then anywhere that wanted a system, would be able to cost it very easily. Surely too, a common tram, would reduce inventories for spare parts and reduce costs for staff training.
I have had quite a bit of experience of East Midlands First Class this year, so I took the precaution of going to the usually excellent Marks and Spencer in the station to get a drink. As I’d only had the sandwiches I bought at Meadowhall all day, I thought something to eat might be an idea. But Marks and Spencer were out of gluten-free sandwiches and I couldn’t find any salads at all. There of course, is no restaurant in the station, where anything gluten-free is available. So I would have to wait until St. Pancras.
I did check out the toilets and despite being pretty new, they weren’t in the best of states.
Vandalised Toilets At Sheffield Station
Especially, if you compare them with the exquisite ones I used at Doncaster on the way up. Doncaster’s toilets were also free.
So obviously you don’t pay for what you get!
After the toilets, I thought, I’d check out the First Class Lounge.
First Class Lounge At Sheffield Station
It was shut, just like it was at Derby a couple of weeks ago.
The train left Derby on time and I had a table for four to myself. By the time we got to Leicester, I’d had a cup of instant coffee in a cardboard cup, as opposed to the china cups from a pot on East Coast.
Then disaster struck, as we held at Leicester for forty minutes or so, after staff told us that the overhead lines had been brought down in the Elstree area. To be delayed on an electric train by overhead wire problems is to be expected, but when you’re in an operational Class 222 diesel train, it’s somewhat ironic.
We continued untroubled until Kettering, where we stopped for another twenty minutes, before being ordered off the train and onto another Class 222 heading for St. Pancras. I could just about find enough space to stand up. Luckily the crush didn’t last long, as staff told us that at the next stop at Wellingborough, if we got out and walked to the back of what was two trains coupled together there would be more space.
It now was obvious what East Midlands Trains had done. As to get a single train through the damaged knitting at Elstree, would be much easier than getting two trains through, they coupled two six coach trains together to make a twelve coach one.
Before I had moved to the comfort of the second train, I was talking to someone who worked for Network Rail. He blamed Dr. Beeching for all of the delays, as there hadn’t been any investment in the 1960s and 1970s. As I think the electrification that caused all the trouble was installed in the 1980s, that is quite an amazing conclusion.
As all of the electrification of that era seems to cause trouble, no matter where it is installed, I would think that there must be something wrong with the basic design. I did read something about how the Regional Eurostars used to bash hell out of the wires on the East Coast Main Line and cause failures. So perhaps the new Thameslink Class 377 trains are the problem. But I doubt it, as they’ve been around for some years.
In the end we arrived in London at 22:30, after a four hour journey. Marks and Spencer in St. Pancras was devoid of any suitable food, so I went home in a taxi and had cheese on toast.
I wish I’d gone home the other way via Meadowhall and Doncaster, despite it being twenty minutes slower. After all, I was two hours late into St. Pancras. At least, if there’d had been an overhead line failure, I suspect that I’d have been kept going by all that glorious East Coast tea in First Class.
The Anonymous Widower 