Supper By Krakow Castle
I had supper at a restaurant called Pod Baranem, that I’d found with Google.
It was excelklent and so was the Cydr Lubelski
More On Feeling Better
I posted after the Home Run From Bilbao, that I was feeling better.
Last night, I went to Pizza Express for a pizza and the Aspall cider tasted good, whereas one a few months ago, tasted rather horrible.
I trimmed my beard this morning too, and that now feels to have a lot more body and substance.
But perhaps the biggest change is that over the last few months, I’ve found that I was rather unsteady some times when I got up from a hard chair. I haven’t had an incident of that nature since Biarritz.
A Sad Row Of Bottles
I have two drink problems. The first is that I never drink more than one bottle of cyder or beer in an evening and secondly, my fridge that keeps the wine cold has gone and died.
So now, I have a large number of bottles, that are probably ruined and I doubt I’ll drink them!
A Sad Row Of Bottles
I suppose, if I was an alcoholic, they’d have gone by now.
I’ve already poured some once-nice rose down the sink. But judging by the smell, I only missed stripping my gut and ending in hospital.
An Incident In Pizza Express
Last night, I went to a new-for-me Pizza Express in Curtain Road, close to Shoreditch High Street station.
I always have the same meal in Pizza Express, and that’s a bottle of Aspall Cyder and a gluten-free caprisiosa pizza. The pizza comes on a slate.
Gluten-Free Pizza At Pizza Express
It was of the usual high standard and was exactly like the one in the picture, which I took in their restaurant in Islington.
But when I started to cut it, with their pizza cutter, the action set up a vibration, which meant the various bottles and glasses on my table started to migrate about.
I didn’t notice what was happening, until I heard the half-drunk bottle of Aspall cyder fall on the floor, where it didn’t break, but proceeded to spin, spilling some of the cyder on the floor.
I retrieved the bottle and I judged very little had been split, despite the fall as it virtually filled my half-pint glass. A half-pint glass is 284 cl. and the bottle of cyder is 330 cl. But I had had a long drink before the bottle fell.
I think the incident shows the strength of the Aspall bottles, which were brought in to save glass.
The Northgate Is Now The De Beauvoir Arms
One of my local pubs, that I use occasionally is the Northgate on Southgate Road on the Islington/Hackney border.
It reopened yesterday after a change of ownership and a refit as the De Beauvoir Arms.
I have just returned from having a drink there.
As a coeliac, I don’t drink beer, but the Stowfold Press cider on offer was excellent. I do prefer Aspall, but then you can take the man out of Suffolk, but you can’t take Suffolk out of the man.
I shall go and have a meal there soon, to check out the food.
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!
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.
Gluten Free Drinks At Waitrose In Canary Wharf
I was surprised that there was no gluten-free beer at Waitrose in Canary Wharf, but there was a new variety of Aspall’s cyder, I’d not seen before called Lady Jennifer
Aspall’s New Bottle
I went to the Barbican cinema yesterday to see the film, Safety Not Guaranteed. The link is to the review in the Guardian, which gets it about right.
I did though get a bottle of Aspall’s cyder to take in to the screening. The draught cyder was in a new shape bottle.
Aspall’s New Bottle
It looked different and I suspect it saves glass and energy, but at least the cyder tasted the same.
