Monday, July 25, 2011
Gluten-free Travelling
The Travel Gluten-Free web site has, of course, recommendations of gluten-free places to eat when travelling. It also includes some recommendations for Edinburgh (with some reviews from this blog, thanks!).
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
More Gluten-Free-Friendly Restaurants in Edinburgh
It's tourist-season again, so it's a good time to post a list of a few more eateries.
In Morningside, I've recently tried the Waiting Room (7 Belhaven Terrace, Edinburgh EH10 5HZ). It's an American-style sports bar/restaurant (think TGI Fridays without the flair, or Applebees), but they have a large menu with many gluten-free options. (UPDATE 21/3/12 - They have since redesigned their menu, with nothing explicitly labelled as gluten-free.)
In the New Town, there's The Dogs on Hanover Street. It features "nouveau Scottish" cuisine, and they have an alternate gluten-free menu (as well as dairy-free and vegetarian menus) if you ask.
In Leith, there's La Favorita (325-331 Leith Walk, EH6 8SA), an Italian restaurant with modern cuisine. They serve gluten-free pizzas and pastas. They also deliver. Their sister restaurant Vittoria (113 Brunswick Street, Leith Walk, EH7 5HR) also has some gluten-free options.
Giuliano's (18-19 Union Place, Leith Street, EH1 3QN) has gluten-free pizzas, and is often open late.
Actually, many of the Italian restaurants in Edinburgh have gluten-free pastas or pizzas. I don't have a complete list.
In Morningside, I've recently tried the Waiting Room (7 Belhaven Terrace, Edinburgh EH10 5HZ). It's an American-style sports bar/restaurant (think TGI Fridays without the flair, or Applebees), but they have a large menu with many gluten-free options. (UPDATE 21/3/12 - They have since redesigned their menu, with nothing explicitly labelled as gluten-free.)
In the New Town, there's The Dogs on Hanover Street. It features "nouveau Scottish" cuisine, and they have an alternate gluten-free menu (as well as dairy-free and vegetarian menus) if you ask.
In Leith, there's La Favorita (325-331 Leith Walk, EH6 8SA), an Italian restaurant with modern cuisine. They serve gluten-free pizzas and pastas. They also deliver. Their sister restaurant Vittoria (113 Brunswick Street, Leith Walk, EH7 5HR) also has some gluten-free options.
Giuliano's (18-19 Union Place, Leith Street, EH1 3QN) has gluten-free pizzas, and is often open late.
Actually, many of the Italian restaurants in Edinburgh have gluten-free pastas or pizzas. I don't have a complete list.
Hateful Tortillas
Today I tried some gluten/dairy-free tortilla wraps from the Love More brand:
They can be considered thick flat breads or thin pancakes, but not tortillas.
That made them too brittle---even when heated. (If they required an alternative form of heating, such as steaming, it didn't say on the package.)
Which made them useless for wrapping anything. Even just bending them slightly caused them to break.
They tasted like rice pancakes, not tortillas. (The first ingredients are "water, tapioca starch, rice flour, wholegrain maize flour".) There's nothing wrong with the taste of rice, but rice flour is dense. And these things were very dense. One of these will fill you up.
I don't recommend using these for tortillas or wraps. Maybe as a base for mini-pizzas or quesadillas.
I also don't understand what marketing genius came up with the brand name, "free from foods". I like food, and don't want to be "free" from it.
On a positive note, in April I posted a review of good tortillas, and where they can be found in Edinburgh.
They can be considered thick flat breads or thin pancakes, but not tortillas.
That made them too brittle---even when heated. (If they required an alternative form of heating, such as steaming, it didn't say on the package.)
Which made them useless for wrapping anything. Even just bending them slightly caused them to break.
They tasted like rice pancakes, not tortillas. (The first ingredients are "water, tapioca starch, rice flour, wholegrain maize flour".) There's nothing wrong with the taste of rice, but rice flour is dense. And these things were very dense. One of these will fill you up.
I don't recommend using these for tortillas or wraps. Maybe as a base for mini-pizzas or quesadillas.
I also don't understand what marketing genius came up with the brand name, "free from foods". I like food, and don't want to be "free" from it.
On a positive note, in April I posted a review of good tortillas, and where they can be found in Edinburgh.
Appreciation: Aer Lingus
Almost every time that I've flown across the Atlantic, the airline has forgotten my request for gluten-free meals. (The one exception is a flight that had my gluten-free request for the outbound flight, but not the return flight.)
When I contact the airline's customer service department, I'm usually told that I should have called them a day before, despite having selected gluten-free when booking the tickets on the airline's web site. (That is, when they are polite: I was told by a rep of one airline that there were under "no obligation" to provide food on an intercontinental flight.)
This is made worse when airlines are too cheap to cater meals beyond two choices, with just enough for the passengers, and no more.
I'm used to this, and usually bring a bag of trail mix.
Back in April, I flew Aer Lingus between Dublin and Boston. Despite booking the flight on their website, and noting a gluten-free diet, this information was lost by the time I had the flight. HOWEVER, the cabin crew handled this by looking for something that I could eat: the flight wasn't under-catered, and had enough variety that the crew were able to put a meal together, even replacing a desert with a piece of fruit. They also encouraged me to contact customer service.
I did contact customer service, who not only said they would follow up, but they actually did follow up with a letter (shown right).
So, thanks to the cabin crew for caring about non-first class passengers, and thanks to the customer relations folk for listening and responding.
For comments, what are your experiences with airlines and dietary requests?
When I contact the airline's customer service department, I'm usually told that I should have called them a day before, despite having selected gluten-free when booking the tickets on the airline's web site. (That is, when they are polite: I was told by a rep of one airline that there were under "no obligation" to provide food on an intercontinental flight.)
This is made worse when airlines are too cheap to cater meals beyond two choices, with just enough for the passengers, and no more.
I'm used to this, and usually bring a bag of trail mix.
Back in April, I flew Aer Lingus between Dublin and Boston. Despite booking the flight on their website, and noting a gluten-free diet, this information was lost by the time I had the flight. HOWEVER, the cabin crew handled this by looking for something that I could eat: the flight wasn't under-catered, and had enough variety that the crew were able to put a meal together, even replacing a desert with a piece of fruit. They also encouraged me to contact customer service.
I did contact customer service, who not only said they would follow up, but they actually did follow up with a letter (shown right).
So, thanks to the cabin crew for caring about non-first class passengers, and thanks to the customer relations folk for listening and responding.
For comments, what are your experiences with airlines and dietary requests?
Friday, April 8, 2011
Serious Eats - Gluten-free Tuesdays
I'm a fan of the Serious Eats web site. It's New York based, but they have a lot of recipes and articles on experimental cooking. They also have a Gluten-free Tuesday's column.
Where to find soft corn tortillas in Edinburgh
If you like making your own tacos/burritos/quesadillas/etc, it's hard to find soft corn (maize) tortillas. The soft "corn" tortillas in most supermarkets have wheat. (The supermarkets usually have hard corn taco shells, though.)
I recently found that Lupe Pinto's has soft corn tortillas, from the Cool Chile Company in London. They come frozen in packs of a dozen, and contain (according to the list of ingredients) "stoneground maize (trace of lime), water, CMC, guar gum". (CMC is Carboxymethylcellulose, used as a firming agent and preservative, as well as a gluten substitute.)
The tortillas are good. Importantly, they are not brittle, so don't need to be steamed before using. They heat up well in a frying pan or Foreman grill.
Lupe Pinto's also has hard shell corn tortillas, and a lot of other Mexican and North American foods and spices.
According to Cool Chili's web site, the tortillas are gluten-free.
UPDATE (20 July 2011): Real Foods tell me that they have three brands of gluten-free torilla chips. (I'm unsure if they just mean chips vs soft tortillas, and I've not yet checked it myself.)
It's a good bet that you'll find gluten-free tortillas in a other natural/whole-food stores in town.
I recently found that Lupe Pinto's has soft corn tortillas, from the Cool Chile Company in London. They come frozen in packs of a dozen, and contain (according to the list of ingredients) "stoneground maize (trace of lime), water, CMC, guar gum". (CMC is Carboxymethylcellulose, used as a firming agent and preservative, as well as a gluten substitute.)
The tortillas are good. Importantly, they are not brittle, so don't need to be steamed before using. They heat up well in a frying pan or Foreman grill.
Lupe Pinto's also has hard shell corn tortillas, and a lot of other Mexican and North American foods and spices.
According to Cool Chili's web site, the tortillas are gluten-free.
UPDATE (20 July 2011): Real Foods tell me that they have three brands of gluten-free torilla chips. (I'm unsure if they just mean chips vs soft tortillas, and I've not yet checked it myself.)
It's a good bet that you'll find gluten-free tortillas in a other natural/whole-food stores in town.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Is it Worth Baking Your Own Bread?
For a long time, the choice of gluten-free breads wasn't very good. The breads you could find were either very dear (well over £5 per loaf) or they had a shelf life more appropriate for storage in a nuclear bunker (and not something you'd want to actually eat).
So the better choice was to purchase some gluten-free flours (such as from Dove's Farm) and make it yourself. (Having a bread machine helps, of course.)
Then came Genius Bread, made in Edinburgh apparently. So now you can go to one of the major supermarkets and purchase a relatively fresh loaf of bread that wasn't as expensive. There's even brown gluten -free bread! The brand seems to be a hit, as the shelves are quickly emptied of it.
(I've also noticed another brand in the supermarkets called Honest Bread. However, the loaves that I tried were brittle and crumbled whenever I cut them.)
But a 600g loaf of Genius Bread costs just under £3.00 (400g loaves are about 50p less) at the major supermarkets. Honest Bread seems to be about the same price. So is it cheaper to make your own bread?
Let's look at the ingredients required for making gluten free bread and do some back-of-the-envelope calculations. The ingredients below are from the bread machine instructions for Dove's Farm gluten-free brown bread flour to make a "medium" loaf, and the cost estimates are my own guesstimates based on prices from the web sites of the major supermarkets:
You could cut the price of ingredients by using a cheaper eggs, oil and milk and make the loaf for under £2.00. You might also consider using water and powdered-milk (which the recipes included with some bread makers recommend).
Cheaper gluten-free flour is harder to come by. Xanthan gum (the thickener used in the bread flour in lieu of gluten) is expensive, at £2.50/100g from the major supermarkets (much more from some smaller specialty shops). 2 tsp (10g) of xanthan gum is about 20p, so you'd need to find a gluten-free flour for under £1.60/kg.
I suspect you can get cheaper gluten-free flours in bulk from some of the Asian and Middle-Eastern markets. (Note that while the flour may be made from a grain that doesn't contain gluten, it might have been processed using equipment that also processed wheat, so unless it explicitly states that it is gluten free, it may not be.)
(I sometimes use a few ounces of the pulp leftover from making carrot juice, which is significantly cheaper than gluten-free flours.)
If you prefer to use nicer ingredients, say free-range/organic eggs, good olive oil, organic milk, fair/trade demerera sugar, you're still only adding 50p to the cost of the bread, so it's still cheaper.
Of course, you know what ingredients are in the bread you make. And you can add other things to the bread like seeds, herbs, raisins, cheese, etc.
I don't consider time a factor. It takes about 10-15 minutes to set up the bread in a machine, and only a couple of minutes to clean the machine's pan and paddle by hand. However...
Home made bread doesn't last long at home, as we usually eat it within two or three days. The store bought brands, as good as they (sometimes) are, are still unexciting, so they'll last several days.
UPDATE (24 Mar 2011): a friend reminded me that I was excited when Genius bread first became available, so I should fess up to that. The fact that it's available from the shop is a good thing, even if it lacks the excitement of something that I've made myself.
UPDATE (28 July 2011): I've noticed that the prices of Genius and other GF breads is often on sale for £2.00 at various supermarkets. This makes it worthwhile. And apparently you can get some gluten-free products (including breads) available from the NHS by prescription now!
So the better choice was to purchase some gluten-free flours (such as from Dove's Farm) and make it yourself. (Having a bread machine helps, of course.)
Then came Genius Bread, made in Edinburgh apparently. So now you can go to one of the major supermarkets and purchase a relatively fresh loaf of bread that wasn't as expensive. There's even brown gluten -free bread! The brand seems to be a hit, as the shelves are quickly emptied of it.
(I've also noticed another brand in the supermarkets called Honest Bread. However, the loaves that I tried were brittle and crumbled whenever I cut them.)
But a 600g loaf of Genius Bread costs just under £3.00 (400g loaves are about 50p less) at the major supermarkets. Honest Bread seems to be about the same price. So is it cheaper to make your own bread?
Let's look at the ingredients required for making gluten free bread and do some back-of-the-envelope calculations. The ingredients below are from the bread machine instructions for Dove's Farm gluten-free brown bread flour to make a "medium" loaf, and the cost estimates are my own guesstimates based on prices from the web sites of the major supermarkets:
- 450g (16oz) flour. From experience with the bread machine that I own, the recipe needs a little more flour, so I'll assume 500g. The Dove's Farm bread flours average to about £2/kg, or about £1.00. (On their website the costs are slightly dearer, and from the major chains, slightly less.)
- 1tsp salt, assume 1p.
- 2 tbsp sugar, about 5p.
- 2 eggs, about 40p.
- 6 tbsp oil. The price of cooking oil varies, depending whether you are using bog-standard vegetable oil (£1.50/litre) or a fine olive oil (over £5.50/litre). We'll assume something on the lower-end of in-between, about 20p for 110ml of oil.
- 1 tsp vinegar, about 2p.
- 410ml (14 fl oz) milk, at 89p/2 pints that's about 32p.
- 2 tsp yeast, about 15p.
You could cut the price of ingredients by using a cheaper eggs, oil and milk and make the loaf for under £2.00. You might also consider using water and powdered-milk (which the recipes included with some bread makers recommend).
Cheaper gluten-free flour is harder to come by. Xanthan gum (the thickener used in the bread flour in lieu of gluten) is expensive, at £2.50/100g from the major supermarkets (much more from some smaller specialty shops). 2 tsp (10g) of xanthan gum is about 20p, so you'd need to find a gluten-free flour for under £1.60/kg.
I suspect you can get cheaper gluten-free flours in bulk from some of the Asian and Middle-Eastern markets. (Note that while the flour may be made from a grain that doesn't contain gluten, it might have been processed using equipment that also processed wheat, so unless it explicitly states that it is gluten free, it may not be.)
(I sometimes use a few ounces of the pulp leftover from making carrot juice, which is significantly cheaper than gluten-free flours.)
If you prefer to use nicer ingredients, say free-range/organic eggs, good olive oil, organic milk, fair/trade demerera sugar, you're still only adding 50p to the cost of the bread, so it's still cheaper.
Of course, you know what ingredients are in the bread you make. And you can add other things to the bread like seeds, herbs, raisins, cheese, etc.
I don't consider time a factor. It takes about 10-15 minutes to set up the bread in a machine, and only a couple of minutes to clean the machine's pan and paddle by hand. However...
Home made bread doesn't last long at home, as we usually eat it within two or three days. The store bought brands, as good as they (sometimes) are, are still unexciting, so they'll last several days.
UPDATE (24 Mar 2011): a friend reminded me that I was excited when Genius bread first became available, so I should fess up to that. The fact that it's available from the shop is a good thing, even if it lacks the excitement of something that I've made myself.
UPDATE (28 July 2011): I've noticed that the prices of Genius and other GF breads is often on sale for £2.00 at various supermarkets. This makes it worthwhile. And apparently you can get some gluten-free products (including breads) available from the NHS by prescription now!
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