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.
My First Tomato And Onion Salad
I’ve always preferred tomato and onion salad to those with greenery, so today I made one to go with a steak and potatoes.
My First Tomato And Onion Salad
I got the recipe idea from the Daily Mail and all I did was slice an onion and some tomatoes and put some lemon juice and olive oil on top. The recipe is here.
I do wonder whether my liking for tomato and onion salad is because it seems to calm my mouth, when I get dried out in the winter. After all I like eating tomatoes! Is that for the same purpose?
A Few Hours In Hamburg
I got to Hamburg about eight in the evening and my first priority was to get a hotel. It was a new hotel by the station and I booked for two nights.
Hamburg Station
The hotel was a disaster, or more likely the weather was, as my meter was showing 32°C and 70% humidity. I had to wedge the window open with my shoe and that just made the room hotter, as the air outside got in.
When the Tourist Office opened at ten, I was outside and got myself a free map, after a breakfast of orange juice and coffee, as true to form, there was nothing gluten-free in the station.
The map wasn’t the best, as it was far too large and was gradually disintegrating in the heat and humidity.
Hamburg’s Street Map
As the picture shows, it was impossible to hold with one hand. Luckily there were a few decent signposts and maps.
A Map In Hamburg
Eventually, I found my way to the impressive Rathaus.
Hamburg’s Impressive Rathaus
I had heard of a restaurant called Rudolph at Hafen City, that did gluten-free pizza. If this was as good as those in Munich, then this looked to be worth investigating for supper in the evening. The Internet entry said, that it was near to the U-bahn station. So I went into the U-bahn, quickly and easily bought a ticket and then spent thirty minutes wandering underground trying to find the platform for Hafen City. If I sometimes find Green Park and Kings Cross stations bad in London, they have nothing on the Rathaus station in Hamburg.
Eventually, I didn’t get tpo Hafen City, as the station hasn’t been built yet. So was this a case of “We have ways of getting you lost!”. It was also so unlike Munich, where things the information systems seemed to work well. But I also had a good map from the hotel.
It was then that I said that I should cut my losses and move on. So I went back to the hotel, packed my bag and then returned to the station, where I bought a ticket for Amsterdam.
Unwelcoming Copenhagen!
My stay in Copenhagen was not the best.
I arrived in the city at six in the evening, to find the tourist office closed and all the hotels full. I eventually got a room in a rather poor hotel at a five star price. The Danes may be nice people, but some of them know how to rip off tourists.
The room was a fifteen minute walk from the station, so I decided to go there, get some food and then book my onward travel to Hamburg for the morning. I did have the train times, but I only had my tablet and felt that at the station there would be some of the excellent German ticket machines.
In the end, I got an excellent gluten-free meal at an Italian restaurant by the station, but by the time, I’d finished it was eight and the station was shut. There were no automatic machines, that sold tickets to Hamburg either. Customer Service? Forget it!
So I went back to my grotty hotel room and went to bed. There wasn’t even any reliable wi-fi, and there was nothing I could understand on the television. In fact, I doubt that even a Dane could have understood it, as both the sound and the picture was excrutiating.
Would I Go Back To Stockholm?
Most certainly! Yes! Although, I wouldn’t stay in the Stureplan Hotel again!
I’d probably try to get in Hotel Rival. It looks like I can get a room at a reasonable price for a couple of weeks ahead.
The hotel also knows its gluten-free, as it appeared did most of Stockholm.
Perhaps next time I go, it’ll be a stop-over on the way to see the bears!
Everybody needs to go to Stockholm once, just to see the Vasa.
A Good Hotel, But!
I stayed in the Stureplan Hotel in Stockholm.
Hotel Stureplan, Stockholm
It was a good hotel, for what I paid, and I couldn’t complain about the position, staff or the food, where I even got gluten-free bread for breakfast.
But it had various faults that annoyed me.
The first and one of the most serious was the intermittent wi-fi. I couldn’t get it in my bedroom unless I connected first in the lobby that was on the way to the lift. Security on wei-fi doesn’t bother me, but this can’t be the most secure, if you have to use your device in the open.
I think the hotel had had a makeover from a designer. Look at this picture of the shampoo and shower gel.
Shampoo And Shower Gel
The only way to tell is to read the small writing on the back, which for me, means glasses. But as I don’t shower in my glasses, I couldn’t tell which was which, when I needed them. Anbd trhen there was the shower controls.
Unfathomable Shower Controls
it worked well, but which side was the water control and which was the temperature. The only way I worked it out, was by experiment, after giving it a good once over with my glasses. I still haven’t found a hotel shower as good as the digital Aqualiser Quartz, I had in Suffolk.
I think partly, my problem may well be my left hand, which doesn’t work that well and also because I need my glasses to decipher things like this. Surely, all controls should be obvious to someone who is virtually blind!
I wasn’t struck with the shower door, as water leaked underneath and made the floor slippery.
A Useless Shower Door
My balance is good for someone, who had a bad stroke, but I know quite a few people, who would have found the floor dangerous.
But it was the little touches that I didn’t like. The hotel seemed to have quite a few steps like this.
A Tricky Step
If my house can be designed with totally flat floors, surely a good hotel can. Luckily, I didn’t trip up badly.
I also didn’t like the tissues.
A Silly Box Of Tissues
With my rhinitis, it was just one good blow and they were in the bin. Not very green!
Porridge At Heathrow
On the way out to Stockholm, I wanted to eat well before I left the UK. The flight left at 11:30, so it was a bit early for lunch, but I was able to get a second breakfast at Gordon Ramsay in Terminal Five. I had porridge for the first time in years and jolly good it was too.
Porridge At Heathrow
Note in the background, the card describing Gordon Ramsay’s onboard picnics. That is a good idea and the manager assured me they can be gluten-free.
My First Real Fish And Chips In Thirty Years
I’ve never been a great one for greasy fish and chips in newspaper and my late wife, C, wasn’t either. Although, when we lived in St. John’s Wood, we did occasionally get a takeaway from Sea Shell in Lisson Grove. But even in the 1960s, that was of a different quality to for example the chip shop. I remember in East Barnet close to my mother-in-law’s.
Yesterday I read in Giles Coren’s restaurant review in The Times of The Fish and Chip Shop in Upper Street, Islington. I passed it yesterday whilst shopping, popped in and found they could do gluten-free fish and chips. So later in the day, I returned with my son for supper.
The Fish And Chip Shop, Islington
I had plaice in a gluten-free batter and my son had a fish curry. We both found the food excellent and I finished off with an ice cream, the quality and flavour of which, probably betrayed the usual source of most good ice cream in restaurants in the northern and central parts of London; Marine Ices in Camden Town.
The one problem with the restaurant was that we were a bit cramped on the bar, so if you’re thinking of going, book early. My son and I usually decide to go for a meal, perhaps an hour or so before, so we tend to end up in somewhere like Carluccio’s, Pizza Express or Côte, where booking is optional early in the evening or at lunchtime.
On the other hand, as it is very convenient for me, with the 30 bus stop opposite, it’s one of those restaurants, where if I need supper because my fridge is empty or the cooking has gone wrong, I’ll go and sit on the bar and partake of a plaice and chips. As Giles Coren said in his review, the chips are nice, proper, potatoey English chip shop chips.
Eating out in my local area has just got better!
A Gluten-Free Beer Created Accidentally
I went to the Allergy Show at Olympia today and came across a beer called Crop Circle from the Hop Back Brewery. They say this on the web site about the beer.
Crop Circle is a very clean flaxen coloured beer with wonderful thirst quenching properties. The Subtle blend of aroma and bittering hops gives a crispness on the tongue which is delicately fruity, giving way to some dryness
Crop Circle has always been Gluten Free – we have however only recently had it tested and certified and believe it is the first main stream beer to be awarded the Cross Grain accreditation.
It is a real beer and not a lager, but it was really to my taste and I shall be buying at least a few bottles. For scientific and research purposes of course!
The interesting thing, is that I once spoke to the head brewer of a famous real ale brewery. He thought that although his beers were not gluten-free, because of the method of production, they might be very low in gluten. I’ve drunk the odd bottle of his brewery’s beer and I didn’t have any reactions. But then I’m not a serious coeliac!
Can Food Help Us Cope With Grief?
This article on the BBC web site, asks the question, posed in the title of this post.
Cooking and food has certainly helped me, in that when my late wife died, it was either learn to cook, eat out every night or starve.
So as I already had the basic skills from my mother’s training, I chose the first and now find that I can cook pretty well. Or at least those who have eaten one of my meals, haven’t complained! Or gone to A & E!
The article also has some links to some nice meals, I might try, like this cottage pie.
The Anonymous Widower 