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.
To Southgate For a Cup Of Tea
This morning, I took the Piccadilly line to Southgate to try out one of the new Tesco-financed coffee-shops called Harris and Hoole.
The tea was excellent and properly served in a pot. Note the triple-barrelled tea timer, which could time your tea to exactly 3, 4 or 5 minutes. If they’d sold them in the shop, I’d have bought one, but they don’t at present. But they are available on-line from here!
The staff were attentive and if they can replicate this style, the company may have created something like an updated traditional coffee shop, that you still see occasionally in places like Harrogate. It certainly has a better ambience than Starbucks and is laid out with quite a bit of space.
At present, they don’t have any gluten-free offerings, but apparently, they’re working on it. They do though have EatNakd bars.
Overall it’s a good concept and I wish them well, despite the Tesco connection. My allergy to the supermarket chain stems from a business run-in years ago and where there are alternatives I go elsewhere.
In the 1950s and 1960s, when I was at Minchenden Grammar School just up the road, the only coffee bar was the Mayfair a few doors towards Cockfosters from where Harris and Hoole is now. That place was beloved of teddy-boys and served coffee in those shallow Pyrex cups. It was off-limits during school hours!
A Beer Called Celia
I just had to try a gluten-free beer called Celia, as that was my late wife’s name. I found that they served it in a pub called The Regent in Liverpool Road, Islington. It just happened to be Liverpool Road, didn’t it? As of course we met in Liverpool in 1966!
A Beer Called Celia
It wasn’t a bad beer at all and I shall be drinking more of it.
But how long will it be, before we see a proper gluten-free real ale on draught in pubs. I suspect it’ll be there by the end of this decade.
Quinoa
I’ve never knowingly tasted quinoa, but it does come up occasionally on the gluten-free lists I belong to.
I was thus drawn to this article about the grain in the Guardian. The title
Quinoa: good, evil, or just really complicated?
Probably sums it all up well.
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.
Tesco Don’t Know Their Horse From Their Gluten
Tesco seem to have withdrawn their Free From gluten-free burgers after the horsemeat scare.
But they made a mistake in Oxford and got caught out by the BBC, as they report here.
As I’ve said before, the odd bit of horse won’t hurt me, but the levels of gluten in the usual burgers on sale in supermarkets most likely will.
A Friend’s Favourite Food
One of my friends loves sausages. In fact, rumour or should I say their sister says, they would eat nothing else as a child.
Yesterday, when I went to the Empress of India, I visited the butcher, called The Ginger Pig, opposite and bought some gluten-free sausages. I had them for supper tonight.
Sausages For Supper
They were excellent. I did save a couple to make a sausage sandwich to play along with Danny Baker on Saturday morning.
They are actually from Yorkshire. But as a Suffolk man, who loves his Newmarket sausage, I’ll forgive them that, as they were very good sausages.
Breakfast At Leon
I left home to do some photography without having any breakfast, so in the end I went to Leon in the depths of Canary Wharf to have one of their poached egg pots and a cup of tea.
A Proper Mug Of Tea
How often have you had tea in a fast food restaurant in a proper china mug, that was virtually full-up? Especially, when the two items cost just £3.75 together. I took a picture of the poached egg pot in this post.
To The Other Side Of Hackney For Lunch
My youngest son used to live near Victoria Park and to get there I used to drive down Lauriston Road. I also used to go there to get postcards for various clients and businesses from a company called Just Postcards. The company did move to Norfolk I think, but they are no longer on the web. A pity, because they did a good job.
So today, I went to the area to check out a pub called the Empress of India. I was not disappointed with my lunch.
Lunch At The Empress Of India
As you can see I had some beef with cauliflower, capers and kale. It was gluten-free of course. I washed it down with a glass of Hogan’s cider.
I chose it because I’m very much a sucker for capers, but then if you’ve been to the Aeolian Islands, you always are.
History doesn’t record much of Queen Victoria’s taste in food, but would she be amused that a good pub/restaurant is named after her.
It is one of these places that is very convenient for me, as I just get a 277 bus all of the way.
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!
The Anonymous Widower 