Gluten Free Food In Croatia
Croatia is not as easy as Poland, as that country and some others in Eastern Europe, who were under Soviet domination, developed skills to cook without flour, as it was expensive.
Croatian cooking seems to use a lot of flour and breadcrumbs, but then Serbia was and probably still is a massive produce of wheat.
But I found no problems in either Split or Dubrovnik, armed as I was with a gluten free restaurant card in Croatian. These are some pictures of the food I ate.
I even found some gluten-free beer from Aberdeen in a vegetarian restaurant called Nishta.
A Tram Map In Munich
When it comes to local transport and walking maps, it’s a case of the bigger the better.
A Large Munich Tram Map
This was in the tram information centre in Munich Hauptbahnhof.
Every main station should have a local transport information centre and the largest map possible.
At the station, I also took this picture.
Tram Sign In Munich
I was going for supper and I needed to get a tram 16 to St. Emmeram, which would drop me in the area of one of the best gluten-free pizzadromes in Europe; Pizzesco.
So what could go wrong?
There was a demonstration in the area and the trams stopped running, leaving me in a part of MunichI didn’t know!
Although, Pizzesco was very crowded and I had to wait, I eventually got my delicious pizza and a bottle of gluten-free beer.
Coming back to my hotel, I eventually found a tram outside the Deutsche Museum.
Onward To Ljubljana
This was an uneventful journey in a comfortable train, but the weather seemed even worse, so there was no serious photo opportunities.
At Ljubljana, I changed a few notes into Euros and got a taxi in the rain.
It might have been a memorable journey through beautiful countryside, but with the rain and the dark, I couldn’t tell!
By Ljubljana, I was hungry and as my comfortable hotel had no choice of food I fancied, I walked a few hundred metres in the rain to the city centre and bought some chips and an orange juice from McDonalds.
I don’t think that the journey from Split to Ljubljana had been successful, but then it isn’t supposed to rain in the Balkans, when I’m on holiday!
Disappointing Bristol
On Thursday last week, I went to Bristol with the aim of perhaps doing a bit of a wander around some of the local railways in the area.
I know the centre of Bristol quite well and I’ve visited the usual attractions and walked along the Avon. After a previous visit, I wrote Walking Around Bristol. I’ve have also visited the SS Great Britain a couple of times, but it is not an attraction, that you can walk past and enjoy, like say HMS Belfast or the Cutty Sark in London. After a previous visit, I wrote The Disappointing SS Great Britain.
I had thought, that I might go to Severn Beach, as I’d read that the trip is one of the most scenic of railways.
But trains were only every two hours and I’d just missed one. How visitor-friendly is that? Anybody going on the off-chance would love to be stuck at Bristol Temple Meads station for two hours.
Services like those to Severn Beach should be at least twice an hour and preferably four times to attract passengers to the route.
I couldn’t even buy any gluten-free food, as the only place to buy anything was WH Smith. The nearest Marks was in the Centre. As there are no shops at Paddington at the moment due to rebuilding, I was starting to get hungry.
It’s also quite a boring and long walk between Bristol Temple Meads station and the City Centre. So I wondered if there was a local bus that could be used to get to Cabot Circus, where I might have some lunch. But there was no information, that I could find.
So, I did what my family always does at times like this. I did a runner! In this case to Bath!
Bristol may be getting new electric trains all the way to London, but they need to think seriously about providing a more welcoming experience for visitors.
I certainly wouldn’t recommend to anybody going to Bristol by train for a day out! Portsmouth, Liverpool, Cardiff and even Birmingham are so much better.
If Bristol was in Europe or had a bit more ambition, which I’ve always felt the city lacks, it would have a tram system.
This Google Map shows the City Centre.
Bristol City Centre
Bristol Temple Meads station is in the middle at the bottom. Only one other station is shown on the map and that is Lawrence Hill station in the North-Eastern corner of the map. Wikipedia describes the station as having minimal facilities. This extract from Wikipedia, describes the services at the station.
As of the December 2013 timetable, Monday to Friday, three trains every two hours run along the Severn Beach Line from Bristol Temple Meads to Avonmouth via Clifton Down, with one extended to St Andrew’s Road and Severn Beach. Most services start at Bristol, but one evening service to Avonmouth begins at Weston-super-Mare. On Saturdays only two trains per hour each direction call. Sunday sees an hourly service to and from Bristol, with only two services extending to Severn Beach, except during the May–September timetable period when all services are extended. The first and last Sunday trains towards Bristol are extended to Taunton via Weston-super-Mare, and there are similar workings in the other direction.
No wonder, the station only has minimal facilities, that level of service will struggle to attract the proverbial one man and his dog.
If as I believe there should be at least a two trains per hour service on local lines, then if the Severn Beach Line and the service to Avonmouth had this frequency, then there would be four trains per hour service across the eastern side of the city centre.
Bristol is trying to organise MetroWest, but compared to say Cardiff, Liverpool and other large cities, it has a distinct lack of rail lines and stations in or near the City Centre.
Talk is of a start in 2019, but I doubt, anything will start until the late 2020s, at the earliest.
In 2014 I wrote Is Bristol Left Behind? After my visit on Thursday, I can’t help feeling that the City is the most disappointing one in England.
Vitamin D And Me!
On Tuesday, there was this article on the BBC, which was entitled Vitamin D ‘heals damaged hearts’. This was said.
Vitamin D supplements may help people with diseased hearts, a study suggests.
A trial on 163 heart failure patients found supplements of the vitamin, which is made in the skin when exposed to sunlight, improved their hearts’ ability to pump blood around the body.
The Leeds Teaching Hospitals team, who presented at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology, described the results as “stunning”.
I have been discussing this with two of Europe’s top cardiologists and we’ve come to the conclusion, that I don’t get enough vitamin D.
And would you believe low vitamin D can cause; bad nails, conjunctivitis and plantar fasciitis.
I have all three!
One cardiologist pointed out that gluten-free bread and breakfast cereals aren’t fortified with vitamin D, like normal ones are.
No-one; coeliac, doctor or dietician, had ever told me that before!
So I get my vitamin D from the sun!
But as the devil has switched it off this winter, no wonder I’m in poor health!
That woman doesn’t like me!
On the other hand, I’m a London Mongrel of German Jewish and French Huguenot roots, with quarters of stubborn Devonian and solid Northants yeoman stock thrown in. A large proportion of my ancestors are also real East Enders and of course my father was a genuine Cockney.
So I hope I can give her a fight!
Incidentally, this winter, I’ve never found so many other people suffering from plantar fasciitis, so are we all suffering from a lack of sun and therefore vitamin D. Two of the sufferers were people, who had indoor jobs, that involved a lot of standing and walking.
Intriguingly, the only other time, I had bad plantar fasciitis was the winter of 2004/2005. I’m still looking for data on that winter’s weather, but this article on the BBC from 2006 says this.
Deaths in England and Wales fell to 25,700 last winter, a decline of 19% on the previous year.
Office for National Statistics data shows the rate, which hit 31,640 in 2004/2005, is back to similar levels as the previous four years.
Statisticians look at deaths between December and March, and compare them to those during the rest of the year.
I shall not be surprised if 2015/16 has been a bad winter for the deaths of the elderly.
For myself, I’ve started taking a vitalimn D supplement as I have been advised.
I’d sit in the sun, if that woman would let it out!
You might ask, why I don’t go to the sun for a week, as I can certainly afford it.
But when you don’t like taking holidays in the sun on your own and can’t walk long distances to explore interesting sites because of the plantar fasciitis, you’re stumped!
Three Good Gluten Free Links From The Londonist
I was looking for some gluten-free teryaki sauce and found these pages in The Londonist.
- Where To Buy Gluten Free Food And Ingredients In London
- London’s Best Restaurants For Gluten Free Dining
- London Pubs That Serve Gluten Free Beer
I shall be exploring.
Serial Cooking – Smoked Haddock And Curried Rice
This recipe is another from Lindsey Bareham in The Times.
Lindsey called this an incredibly lazy twist on kedgeree. I have tried to make it even lazier.
Note.
- I started with a single Marks and Spencer’s smoked haddock. Just two pounds and no bones or skin.
- I hard-boiled an extra egg for the fridge
- I used an onion instead of shallots.
- I didn’t have any fresh chives or coriander
I rather liked it for a New Year’s Eve supper.
A Christmas Gluten-Free Sandwich From M & S
I was looking to buy a sandwich for my lunch tomorrow in Marks and Spencer in Islington and couldn’t see any bright green packets.
The reason was there were only two and several of these Christmasy sandwiches.
A Christmas Gluten-Free Sandwich From M & S
I’ve seen gluten-free Christmas puddings and mince pies, but I’ve never seen a seasonal gluten-free sandwich before!
Perhaps things are getting better!
An Alternative Source Of Celias
It would appear that Waitrose are no longer stocking Celia gluten-free lager.
As I can’t live without them, I went to the Celia web site and searched for an alternative supplier near me.
I found Harvest E8, just up the road from Dalston Kingsland station.
It certainly is a well-stocked organic shop.
Serial Cooking – Chicken, Leek And Bacon Shepherd’s Pie
This recipe is another from Lindsey Bareham in The Times.
The main ingredients are a Waitrose pack of roast chicken thighs, 75g of bacon lardons, 500g potatoes and 200g trimmed leeks.
It was a very simple and good shepherd’s pie.
The Anonymous Widower 