A Dreadful Night
It’s raining hard here and I’ll be staying in for most of the night.
I did try to go up to the Angel to see if I could get some fish to make one of my favourite suppers, but a 30 bus turned up first, so I thought I’d try the littleWaitrose at Highbury and Islington. But they had power problems and the tills weren’t working. So I just bought one item for supper.
A Reduced Waitrose Fish Pie
At least it was reduced to £2,99. As you can see it’s a bit battered, but only in the damaged sense!
I do have some strawberries, so with a drink, it won’t be a bad supper.
Back To The Fleet Street Clinic
C and myself used to go here, for our annual flu jabs.
About three years ago, I was unhappy about my cholesterol and went to a private dietician in Ipswich to see if they could help me. They could and did, but sadly they no longer practice at that address.
As a coeliac, I do like to see if I’m doing things right, and as I’d found that the Fleet Street clinic had a dietician, I arranged an appointment for this morning with their private dietician; Ruth Kander.
As I suspected on past experience of the clinic and dieticians in general, I received the quality of professional advice, that I expected.
Allergies
This chicken Provençal from Waitrose was rather nice.
Waitrose Chicken Provencal
But why can’t we have the allergy information on the front? That way, I wouldn’t need to pick up the package and turn it over.
Incidentally, this dish has fish in it. That surprised me, but it was defined as anchovy on the packet.
On the subject of allergies, Waitrose has brought out a range of chilled foods by Heston Blumenthal. All seemed to have added gluten. A pity really, as I recently heard of a sensitive coeliac, who went to his restaurant and had no problems.
Who Ate All The Kedgeree?
This board in the Fox pub on Paul Street by Old Street Tube station tells a tale.
Who Ate All The Kedgeree?
But who ate all the very nice kedgeree?
I did. And very nice it was too!
A Big Hole
This isn’t typical, but I did find this hole in a slice of Genius gluten-free bread.
A Big Hole
It was nice bread though.
The Only Four Fishcake Recipes You’ll Ever Need
I’m pointing to these recipes on the Times web site, so that I don’t have to keep the paper.
You’ll have to be a subscriber like me to read them. Three of the four recipes are gluten free and one would be if you had gluten-free breadcrumbs.
Coeliacs With West African Roots
One of the big differences about London, after coming back to live after forty years, is that now everybody tends to talk to each other a lot more. A black lady and myself had a big laugh about it, after we’d walked up the road talking about our ailments and remarking that twenty years before we’d have been on opposite sides of the road.
One thing that has surprised me is the number of coeliacs, I’ve come across with West African roots. I have written about the chef in my local pub from Sierra Leone, who is a coeliac, but several times, I’ve been asked in the supermarket about the gluten-free food in my basket, by shop staff and others, who are coeliac and have some roots in West Africa.
If it was just once or twice, I’d put it down to a random chance, but it is more common than that! Remember though that gluten has little part in the traditional West African diet, which is based on sorghum.
Hopefully the diagnosis of Michael Obiora; the actor, who was born to Nigerian parents, with coeliac disease, will help spread awareness of the disease.
Hospital Food
I’ve had a bit of that in the last few years and as a coeliac, it’s general been rather poor.
But perhaps I was lucky compared to the lady with coeliac disease in this story. This is an extract.
When she was in hospital a few years ago, she was shocked by the food she was served.
“I was offered toast, but I can’t eat that. I need gluten-free bread. They didn’t have the porridge oats which I can eat, so I ended up with a boiled egg.”
And the subsequent meals did not improve either, despite the fact Kathleen had confirmed she was coeliac when she was first admitted.
“Lunch was fish fingers, which I couldn’t eat because of the breadcrumbs. They asked me why I couldn’t just pick them off.
“At dinner time they put gravy on my dinner and a Yorkshire pudding on the plate too. Because of the contamination risk, I couldn’t eat any of it.”
A friend, who used to work in a hospital always said that the most likely place to get ill, is a hospital.
Carluccio’s Winter Warmer
It was a bit damp and cold in Brighton yesterday and it made me get back on the soup.
Carluccio’s Winter Warmer
Their minestrone soup is gluten-free, if you have oatcakes instead of bread and really warms you up.
It’s almost a complete lunch in itself.
Problems
Looking at the weather over the last few days, I suspect that coeliac disease and my stroke are small problems compared to what some are enduring.
At least I’m snug in a newish warm house in Central London, with buses everywhere. I’ve even got a cafe opposite and a pub next door.
I also think of the problems I don’t have, like a car, a smart phone, and wondering where my money is coming from.
Problems are relative!
The Anonymous Widower 