Sunday 22 February 2009

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.

Monday 16 February 2009

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.

Sunday 15 February 2009

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.

Saturday 14 February 2009

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!!!