Gluten Free Bread In Carluccio’s
On Friday night after the film, I had a quick supper in Carluccio’s in Islington, where the manager informed me that they now had gluten-free bread.
As I was in a hurry and only having a salad, I didn’t partake.
But this morning, I went back for breakfast on my way to football at Ipswich and had an eggs florentine with gluten-free bread.
Carluccio’s Gluten-Free Eggs Florentine
It was so much better, than one without, as the bread was ideal for soaking up the yolk of the egg.
The bread incidentally is Yes You Can, who would appear to be an Australian company, who don’t have a UK web-site. My only problem, could be that the bread is manufactured in Norwich.
Are we starting to see a tipping point, where no professional cafe or restaurant doesn’t offer gluten-free bread? After all, I found that this was very much the case in my visit to Stockholm a couple of months ago.
I did hear that new menus are being printed in Carluccio’s, but certainly Islington has jumped in to offering the new bread. I’ll try a couple of others in the next week or so.
What’s Wrong with This New Genius Bread?
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve got the new formula Genius bread from the littleWaitrose at Highbury Corner.
What’s Wrong with This New Genius Bread?
It never seems to go off and last night, I had two slices with Benecol to go with my supper. It’s even still soft this morning, although I did toast it.
But the sell-by date was the 27th of July.
Bread shouldn’t last that long! But it does!
The only real problem I have is that the Waitrose I use most at the Angel, only sells their own-brand rubbish!
Romeo’s Gluten Free Bakery
It’s not open yet, but this is an interesting development opposite Islington Town Hall on Upper Street, just ten or so shops towards the Angel from the Fish and Chip Shop.
Romeo’s Gluten Free Bakery
I wish Romeo, his staff and of course his products well. I shall try to be there the day the bakery opens.
Schadenfreude Sandwiches
After my experiences in Germany on finding gluten-free food, I can’t help having a small titter at this story from the Telegraph.
I’d have loved to find a nice sandwich, as I can all over the UK and The Netherlands, but Germans don’t seem to be able to produce any ready-to-eat gluten-free food.
Microwaveable Bread
For lunch today, before I took the train to Ipswich to watch the football, I went into Carluccio’s in Spitalfields and had a cup of tea and Eggs Benedict.
The eggs were delicious, but they would be so much better with some toast.
It struck me at the time, that a food scientist should be able to come up with a bread in a packet, that after a couple of minutes in the microwave was perfectly acceptable to soak up the egg yolk and the Hollandaise sauce.
After all, there are some very good meals you just cook in the microwave. As I often do after the football, I’ve just had a delicious Marks and Spencer’s curry and rice.
Surely a method of making a couple of slices of decent bread must be possible?
Call To Scrap Gluten-Free Food Prescriptions
This article on the BBC’s web site, talks about a call in a learned journal for gluten-free prescriptions to be stopped on the NHS.
I have had gluten-free prescriptions in the past, but quite frankly, living where I do now, to take them would be a waste of my time and the NHS’s money.
So what specific gluten-free foods do I buy?
1. A few ginger cakes from Waitrose, as I find they help my dry throat. I can’t make cakes any more and to be fair, I haven’t got any cake tins.
2. I usually have one loaf of Genius bread a week, which I can buy from any number of outlets locally, like Waitrose, Sainsbury or the Co-op.
3. I’m not much of a biscuit person, but I probably eat one pack a fortnight. I actually prefer genius toast with Benecol and jam.
4. As you see from this blog, I do buy the odd ready-meal like the venison from Marks and Spencer. But these are the standard product.
5. I buy some of the EatNatural gluten-free breakfast cereal. I get through about a packet a week.
6. I do buy a specialist gluten-free beer called Celia over the Internet.
If I take out the beers, which are £2.10 each, I probably spend under ten pounds a week on specific gluten-free food. Although of course, I do spend quite a bit more on quality fish, meat, vegetables and fruit.
If I had to get gluten free food on prescription, it would mean going to the surgery and back. Probably I’d walk, which would be good for me, but I have better things to do with my time. I’d then have to go to the pharmacy to collect it.
So for people like me, this would be no inconvenience at all.
Obviously, for those on a very limited income, it might be more of a problem.
But the real key to a successful gluten-free diet is to eat lots of natural foods like meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. None of these cost more if you are a coeliac, as they’re all naturally gluten free.
The expensive gluten-free items to buy are bread, biscuits, cakes, sandwiches and beer. But it could be argued that most people eat too much of these anyway.
If gluten-free food was stopped on the NHS, the only people who would complain, would be the chattering classes, who are probably allergic to nuclear power, HS2, fracking, the Supersewer, the Congestion Charge and using public transport. Many though, like me, will probably have their lunches in upmarket cafes like Carluccio’s.
I would apply the money saved in the NHS, by using it to subsidise the cost of quality gluten-free bread, pasta and perhaps some cakes and biscuits. So for example a gluten-free loaf would then cost very much the same as a quality gluten-rich one.
That way all coeliacs would benefit.
It would also create jobs. Just think of the quality sandwich shop, where the owner makes his own sandwiches to order. So you want gluten-free bread? – No problem!
We don’t have a coeliac health problem over diet in this country. We have a health problem over diet. So let’s solve them all together with a proper integrated policy to get everybody eating well.
You won’t get everyone to eat better, but at least you’ll get some avoiding the problems of a bad diet.
Subway Are Against The Tax On Toasted Sandwiches
Surprise! Surprise!
I saw this in the window of the Subway next door to the Harris and Hoole in Southgate.
Toast The Tax
I can understand their corporate anger, but it still doesn’t get round the fact, that their shops have nothing to offer a coeliac like me.
So how about a gluten tax, based on the amount of poison in the product? Or even just a simple bread tax? The latter would only be applied to non-real bread of course.
Gluten Free Bread Hunting In Brixton
By accident I heard about WAGfree in Brixton, which sells wheat and gluten free products in Brixton Village underneath the railway line. so I just had to go and find them and buy some bread.
It wasn’t difficult to find and these are some pictures I took, together with some of the bread, when I got home.
I liked the bread, although some might find it a little bit cakey. In some ways it was a pity I arrived when I did, as I was too early for their savoury products like quiches.
On the other hand, they can’t be doing too badly, as they just opened an outlet in Selfridges.
I thought that upmarket shop was one place, that certainly isn’t WAG-free! Certainly one footballer I know off, who is married to a coeliac, will probably be visiting.
I shall go to Selfridges myself next time, as it’s an easier journey.
The Arches Underneath
I had gone to London Fields station to find the E5 Bakehouse, that delivers bread to the pub next door. I hadn’t expected this line of railway arches, that had been creatively turned into small business units.
The E5 Bakehouse has a rather good cafe and I had an excellent cup of tea before moving on. There was no gluten-free bread or cakes, but there was at the Happy Kitchen.
I bought a cake for later and it was certainly worth the couple of pounds I paid for it. They said it was a bit stale and that they would have some new ones tomorrow, which they were baking for their stall in Broadway Market.
My one problem with the cake, was that if this was a stale one, just how good is a freshly-baked one? I shall go and get another in a few days.
As I look back on my visit to this immaculate row of railway arches, I can imagine C, my late wife, swooning over that bread in the bakehouse and I was almost feeling resentful at being a coeliac. But then I did have that glorious cake!
Good luck to all, who try to run a business in these difficult times! And especially those, in a small niche market like gluten and everything else free cakes. Except of course quality!
Not A Street For Coeliacs
The name of the road says it all.
Not A Street For Coeliacs
Bread Street is the site of the ancient bread market.
The Anonymous Widower 