Subway
I’ve never eaten in a subway, although I once ate a home-made gluten-free sandwich under an underpass on the way to football in the rain, as it was the only shelter I could find.
Apparently, they’ve just overtaken McDonalds in size. So who cares? I don’t, as I don’t usually eat in gluten-rich, American fast food joints. I might have the odd chip and orange juice in a McDonalds, as these are probably safe for me, but after reading Lisa Markwell‘s piece in yesterday’s Independent, I’ll give Subway a wide berth.
It ends with.
Subway has 1,400 branches across Britain. The experience reminds me of that old joke, “Waiter, waiter, this food is terrible … and there’s not enough of it’. To use the damning verdict of the critic: avoid.
I will bow to her better judgement as a respected food critic.
Getting Musks Sausages in London
I like my sausages and they have to be gluten-free. But finding my preferred brand of Musks in London is difficult. It used to be that you could buy them in some Waitrose shops and I definitely saw some in Canary Wharf. But after a trip on Friday especially to the shop, they were no longer there.
I could get them mail order, but really I only like to buy a pack occasionally and don’t want to buy a freezer full.
So does anybody know a shop that sells Musks gluten-free sausages in London.
I can get Black Farmer ones in Sainsburys at Upper Street, but although I like them, I prefer the Musks, as they are not so filling.
Update on the 10th March 2011 – I’ve found some in the Brunswick Branch. The only trouble is that that is an expensive Waitrose to visit, as I can’t resist buying a snack or even lunch in the Carluccio’s there.
Pork Chops with Cyder Apple Sauce
This yet another of Lindsey Bareham ‘s recipes that I’ve cooked in the past, but in the move the cutting seems to have disappeared. However, I did find it on the web.
The ingredients are as follows and the quantities serve four.
- 4 thick pork loin chops
- 1 tbsp groundnut or sunflower oil for the apple sauce:
- 2 Bramley cooking apples
- 1 medium wine glass of cider
- 25g butter
- 1 tbsp sugar
The method is as follows.
- Heat the oven to 400F/200C/gas mark 6.
- Begin with the apple sauce. Peel, core and quickly chop the apples. Place in a pan with the cider. Cover and boil hard for about 5 minutes until the apple is collapsed. Stir in the butter and sugar to make a fluffy sauce. Keep warm or allow to cool; I like hot chops and cold sauce.
- Prepare the chops by cutting down the rind in 3 or 4 places right to the meat, so that when the chops cook they don’t buckle. Season the chops with sea salt, rubbing salt into the rind. Heat the oil in an ovenproof frying pan and fry the chops for 2 minutes a side.
- Finish the cooking in the hot oven, leaving the chops for 5-10 minutes, depending on thickness, until cooked through and the rind crisp. Transfer to a warm plate and leave to rest for 10 minutes before serving with the apple sauce and mashed or new potatoes.
I’m afraid that I haven’t got an ovenproof frying pan, so I just fried the chops in a little olive oil in my non-stick one.
Junk Through the Letter Box
Every time I get letters out of my box, there are at least four copies of leaflets there, which have been left by restaurants that don’t do gluten-free, mini-cabs that I won’t use etc.
When are these people going to learn something about marketing and target their junk? At least it’s recyclable!
Nicole Kidman and Infertility
On my travels yesterday, I caught a headline on somebody else’s Metro, detailing Nicole Kidman’s struggle with infertility. The full story is here.
I hope she’s had her B12 levels checked. I’ve met several female coeliacs, who had all sorts of problems with carrying a baby. You just need the B12 to create a hPregnancyealthy foetus. There’s a lot of stuff on the Internet and this post is quite detailed.
If I look at my family and particularly the male line, which probably carries my coeliac genes, instances of any women giving birth are rare.
Getting the Hang of IKEA
I need to order a washer/dryer as the current setup is tedious, slow and a bit difficult with the clothes washer in the hall cupboard with the boiler and the dryer in the garage. Every time I transfer clothes in and out, I seem to bump my head somewhere or lose socks on the floor.
After my experiences with John Lewis and Dixons, I thought the best thing to do was go and see the various washer/dryers on offer at Currys at Tottenham Hale. Quite frankly I wasn’t impressed, as they are all large and I just want a smaller one, as anything other than my smalls and towels goes to the excellent laundry. I also wanted to get a prescription, so Tottenham Hale was a good cjoice as there is a Boots there. It’s also just a bus ride to Highbury Corner and then three stops on the Victoria line.
I did notice one disadvantage of not driving at Tottenham Hale.
Where's the crossing?
This was the drive-in lane to Burger King. So if you want to get fat, eat lots of gluten and die before your time, you might take a pedestrian with bad eyesight with you, if you drive to get your burgers.
From Tottenham Hale I took the 192 bus to IKEA, as I needed a couple of bits for the kitchen. I also bought an assortment of picture hooks in a box. But the surprise was lunch, which was a bottle of Belvoir ginger beer and some gravadlax. All gluten-free of course. So I’m now finding IKEA a lot more friendly.
It was then back on the 192 and then the Victoria line to Seven Sisters, where I took a bus to Stoke Newington to pick up some paintings I’ve had framed, including one of my mother, by her brother from A & B Framing.
A & B Framing, Stoke Newington
I’ll admit I did struggle home with the framing and the stuff from IKEA. But I did make it and my mother and her cousin and sister-in-law are now reunited on the wall in my living room.
Cousins Reunited
Judging by the date on the drawing, my mother, who is on the left, was around four at the time. The caption is explained by the fact that my uncle, Leslie, married his first cousin, Gladys.
A Coeliac’s Questions About Warfarin
My cardiologist, reckons that if I can keep to the Warfarin regime, then I won’t have another stroke and his advice is also reflected by other doctors.
I also asked my stroke doctor about the new drugs coming in, more out of curiosity than anything else, and it seemed he was not in favour of them, because we’re still uncertain about the long-term effects of the new drugs.
Of late though, I’ve been feeling wretched a lot of the time, with what is best described as flu-like symptoms and a very itchy skin, a rash and bad dandruff in my beard, just like I used to have before I went gluten-free. My toenails are bad and brittle although my fingernails have improved since Christmas.
I had put it all down to North London’s version of man-flu and the general cold and bad weather. Athough on some trips out of London, like the one to Barnsley, I seemed to feel better.
So I looked up the Mayo Clinic’s web site on Warfarin side effects. I’m not a great one for some health web sites, but this one is generally fairly reliable.
But it did seem that some of my problems could be down to the Warfarin. On the other hand they may not be.
But I think I might make one or two modifications to my lifestyle and go and see my doctor and my dentist, as some of my pain may be down to a tooth, I broke thirty years ago. It hadn’t given me much trouble until the stroke.
One modification I have made is to make the house cooler. This seems to have improved the flu-like symptoms, but my feet are now colder. And I’ve never ever worn slippers and won’t start now!
So it’ll be interesting to see how things work out.
One question though, is what is the best time to take Warfarin? I ask this as I normally take it about six in the evening and the itch seemed to get bad after I took it yesterday.
Return to The Talbot
I ate in The Talbot at 109 Mortimer Road in de Beauvoir Town, Hackney N1 4DY for the second time last night. They remembered from my first visit that I was a coeliac, although I had said when I booked earlier in the day. The waitress, who is Italian and has a pregnant coeliac friend back home, then checked the menu with the chef. She came back and told me that only one dish from about twenty or so contained gluten and that was the vegetarian option.
In the end, I had a polenta and potato cake with mushrooms, followed by baked hake on mashed potato and greens.
If you don’t know the area, it’s just a few minutes walk from the new Dalston Junction station. Parking is easy. It’s also on the 76 bus route out of the City.
If you are or are not a coeliac, it’s definitely worth a visit.
Carluccio’s Gluten-Free Pasta
Here it is in its packaging in Upper Street.
Carluccio's Gluten-Free Pasta
I don’t know whether this is the final packaging, but at least it stands out from the other pasta.
The Gluten-Free Championship
i have been perhaps a bit hard on Barnsley, but how do all the other towns with clubs in the Championship stack up?
Here’s a list based on the current clubs in the Championship.
- Barnsley – I’ll post after Saturday, Not heard from the club about their executive catering. I’ve since found they do.
- Bristol City – Judging by the map, it would appear that there are many restaurants, including a Carluccio’s, within walking distance of the station and the ground.
- Burnley – I’ll be going on the second of March, so will report later.
- Cardiff –
- Crystal Palace – Restaurants including Carluccio’s on the way down
- Coventry – Nothing I can find except Pizza Express in the city centre. I must admit last time I went, Coventry was shut.
- Derby –
- Doncaster –
- Hull –
- Ipswich – Pizza Express, Loch Fyne and a couple of good Indians. Gluten-Free Meals Available in stadium restaurants
- Leeds –
- Leicester –
- Middlesbrough – Nothing I saw, but I ate with friends
- Millwall – Restaurants including Carluccio’s on the way down
- Norwich –
- Nottingham – I have found an excellent French bistro in the city.
- Portsmouth – There appeared to be nothing around the football club.
- Preston –
- QPR – Restaurants including Carluccio’s on the way over
- Reading –
- Scunthorpe – A gluten-free-free town
- Sheffield United – I’ve had a gluten-free meal before the match in a Greek cafe.
- Swansea –
- Watford –
I could add a few notes.
- I have eaten in football club restaurants before and like racecourse catering, they are expensive for what they are. I had one good meal in the main restaurant at Ipswich Town, but that was not football-related. So on balance, I will avoid them, unless I’m entertaining a friend or client.
- I’ve never yet found anything gluten-free in the normal catering outlets at a football ground, except perhaps Coca-Cola and coffee. It should be stated here, that Wembley is particularly unfriendly, which is a complete disgrace for England’s premier stadium.
- Carluccio’s is expanding and provides a gluten-free menu in all of their outlets. There are places too, with Pizza Express, where a gluten-free salad can usually be obtained.
- I should also add that some stadia like, Ipswich, Norwich, Burnley, Crystal Palace and others, are close to open spaces, rivers or canals, where you can sit and have a proper picnic.
But as you can see, the standard in some places just about scores zero out of ten.
The Anonymous Widower 