Dr Schar Breakast Rolls

Having gone to the South of France, the Dr Shar breakfast rolls are now on sale in our local Morrisons under the Dietary Specials brand. Makes me feel less guilty about croissants for the rest of the family and Niall really likes them!

South of France

Just spent 3 weeks in France, largely close to Frejus. Plenty of meat and fresh fruit so mo real problems. Tended to search for kids menus that included omelette or steak hache. Life as Niall is older is a lot easier as he eats a wider range of food which meant choosing gluten free options was easier.

Used the search facility on the Dr Schar website and identified that the Le Clerc supermarket in St Rapael did gluten free stuff. Brought some Dr Schar breakfast rolls that were really good.

Only major in issue in France appeared to be that a large amount of ham has barley malt sprayed on it so that's one to watch!

Gluten Free Fish and Chips

We visited the Paragon Fish Bar in Birchington. They have a small restaurant area and do gluten free fish and chips. (Chicken and sausages too). Very friendly staff and the whole family enjoyed it. The restaurant can be found at 100 Station Rd, Birchington, Kent. (Ideal after a day at the nearby Minnis Bay.)

Camping in France

Just got back from the Loire. Had a really good week. Lots of self catering so gluten free was not much of an issue. Many of the larger French supermarkets do not carry GF stuff. However the Cora Hypermarket in Blois does have a range of Schar GF products. The Schar website lists sellers around the world and is worth checking before you go. http://www.schaer.com/en/points-of-sale/

As in the past, we not had any problems with french sausages and steak hache. There does seem to be a lot of prepacked ham with barley malt extract as an ingredient.

Sainsbury and Coeliac

I've been really impressed that Sainsbury don't sit on the fence as far as their own brand food is concerned. They are using a symbol to positively say that items are suitable for coeliacs. This takes a lot of the guess work out of food labelling and makes them better than the other large food retailers. Nice one!

Lunch at La Tasca Bluewater

Had a quick Spanish tapas meal at La Tasca. The server and chef were very clued up on gluten free issues and the menu listed which items were gluten free. Didn't try it but this also included orange and walnut cake which was gf. Well recommended with a suitably wide choice!

Odeon Cinema Pick and Mix

Took the kids to see Bolt 3D. Highly recommend the film! The pick and mix was really impressive as each type of sweet had an ingredients list together with an allergy advice panel. This made choosing very easy!

Legoland Windsor

Last summer, we had a very positive experience at the Pit stop Cafe at Lego land with the staff understanding GF issues and being able to provide a GF omelette and chips. All in all a good day out.

JD Wetherspoons

Noticed that their web site has a downloadable gluten free menu. http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/food-and-drink/

Not sure I'd take the kids but it's useful to know.

Rochester Farmers Market

Most sausages in the UK contain gluten. There are some available in supermarkets that are gluten free. At our local farmers' market, they sell a wide range of really high quality gluten free sausages. They are available on the Web http://www.englishsausages.com/ and they are well worth a try. They do a real mixture and some are gluten free and some are not. You can clearly see on the web site which are which!

Thoughts on Supermarkets and gluten free

Many of the large supermarkets in the UK sell gluten free food. These are often branded "free from" or something similar. Our local Tesco and Morrisons sell a good range of bread, biscuits, cereal, pasta and cakes. Sainsbury do the same but also offer a variety of frozen food such as ready to cook pizza.

The frozen pizza is always handy to keep and gluten free jaffa cakes etc means that Niall doesn't feel left out at parties etc. The Black Farmer sausages sold at Morrisons are another good quality product and gluten free. (Most UK sausages contain wheat.)

Coeliac UK produce a handbook that lists gluten free products (or ones which have an acceptable amount of gluten). Sometimes you can go gluten free just by changing brands e.g. Tesco Cornflakes are listed as gluten free.

EU food labelling laws require cereals that contain gluten to be specifically listed in the ingredients list. (The allergy box is optional so you must check both unless the product is described as gluten free. The Food Standards Agency website http://www.food.gov.uk/ gives more details.

Rainforest Cafe

We tried the Rainforest Café earlier this year. We booked over the Internet and left a comment that Niall was on a gluten free diet. When we arrived, the staff were immediately aware that gluten free was an issue and were careful to go through the menu. The menu actually specified which meals were gluten free. Niall settled for sausage and mash. This restaurant has had mixed reviews but we enjoyed it. Rainforest Cafe The atmosphere was great for the kids.

Coeliac Disneyland Paris

We have spent the last 5 days at the My Explorers Hotel. This is a child orientated hotel run by Thomas Cook. It is not the sort of place adult only parties would want to stop but is very good for kids - a swimming pool with flumes, ball park, indoor play area etc.

The hotel provides a continental breakfast. They offer a gluten free option with some breakfast gluten free cake/bread. We took Rice Krispies with us. The hotel also offered a buffet option which provided enough gluten free scope. The food was ok but not particularly inspiring. The staff were all very helpful and I’d recommend the hotel for this sort of trip with kids.

We also tried the buffet option at the Dreamcastle hotel (which was next door) and had a much better choice. They also offered to get the chef to come out if we wanted to check any ingredients. (Also recommend the Sancerre on the wine list.)

In the Theme Parks themselves we only tried the Cowboy Cookout in Frontier land. It offered ribs and fries. This was the worst service, value for money meal I have had in my life. My advice to anyone would be to leave the park for lunch and go to Downtown Disney!!!!! It would also probably be quicker as the queue for the food outlets in the park was worse than all the rides.

In Downtown Disney we booked and ate at Mickey's Diner. They offer a gluten free kids meal option - plain cod and fries. The meal with the Disney Characters there was a real success and even I thought it was good.

We also ate at the Rainforest Café – again with a very good experience. The kids enjoyed it. Niall had omelette and chips, which he enjoyed a lot. It was lunch time and not busy so the kids could look at the fish in tanks and enjoy the jungle scenes etc. It was a real contrast compared with eating in the Park.

Although we didn’t try it, there is a McDonalds in Downtown and the burgers (not buns) are gluten free at present.

Next to the Santa Fe hotel, there is an Esso petrol station that sells ham, cheese and salads (with croutons but packed in separate sachets). It also worth remembering that the steak hache (beef burgers) tend not to have cereal in them so they have always been our fall back in France.

Larger French supermarkets are also now offering gluten free products too. (Auchan and Carrefour in particular.)

All in all we had a good trip. The Coeliac issue was not too much of a problem. Next time we go to a theme park we must try and pick a quieter time!!!