Hi everyone and Happy Chinese New Year,
It has been a very long gap between posts. Much has happened. Had a great overseas trip in 2017 – which included beautiful Ireland, London, Paris and Singapore. As you all know my daughter Georgia has Type 1 Diabetes, well let me tell you it is easier to travel with that than being Coeliac.
We found London and Ireland very manageable with some pre planning – but Paris where we were for Fashion Week – was a dismal failure. If it wasn’t for the Four Seasons and a dinner at the Ritz Carlton we would have not had much of a variety of food. We had just taken for granted that Europe was much easier than we encountered. However, we were able to buy plenty of fruit/Cheese platter items which made for a great picnic on the lawns of the Eiffel Tower and although never went hungry – sometimes travelled from one side of the city to the other, in search of the guaranteed Gluten Free Restaurant.
Last year Georgia went to Texas and had it a lot easier – one they spoke the same language and two, instead of staying in Hotels organised Airbnb apartments which allowed for some home cooking and plenty of lunch options.
Back home there has been much improvements in good quality Gluten Free Food being available at your fingertips.
Helga’s gluten-free wholemeal bread is fantastic, gluten free vegemite is about to appear in our stores, lots of Facebook Gluten Free pages give great recipes and new products, it’s a fabulous improvement. I remember the first gluten free bread we ever bought a few years ago, it was like cardboard, so we were at our River property and fed the ducks with it. Even they left it floating away – inedible.
The best news is this – Adelaide – I think first cab off the rank with its very own TOTALLY GLUTEN FREE HOTEL. Thankyou Duke of Brunswick in Gilbert Street, Adelaide. We went last week for dinner and were absolutely impressed. The menu is vast and its almost nerve wracking ordering battered fish and chips, chicken parmy and salt & pepper calamari all with chips and salad. There has been much publicity prior to the opening night. The hotel showed photos of the kitchen being scrubbed to ensure no cross contamination, they have had many families booking who usually don’t get out to dinner as it is too much hassle sometimes. The staff are helpful and the food is honestly just delicious, very generous serves as well. The hotel even have a range of gluten free Beer – and have a lovely quaint Beer Garden with sprayers (for our extremely hot days). Well done to the Duke, really hope other hotels take note – it is really not that hard. All of us will be so used to cooking gluten free and its just easier to eat at home as you know there is no cross-contamination or muddled up orders.
Head over to my Facebook page, some of the items posted have had over 10,000 views and we are still doing well on Instragram. If you have a Restaurant/Café that cater for Gluten Free please feel free to add this to the Coeliac in the City Directory.
Nice to be back on the blog – hope you all have a fabulous year ahead in the year of the Pig.
