Glasgow
Gluten Free Prescription
Dec
16
Today I picked up my first gluten free package courtesy of the NHS. 3 loaves of bread, 1 box of crackers, 2 boxes of crisp bread, 2 pizza bases, one packet of shortbread and 2 boxes of pasta.
When I was first diagnosed my doctor had mentioned that I would be able to get free gluten foods on prescription and had given me a couple of leaflets to send away for free samples packs. There seem to be a few different companies out there which do foods available on prescription but the main two are Glutafin and Juvela. I sent away for sample packs of both companies and was quite surprised at what I received. Glutafin sent a large box filled with bread, rolls, biscuits, crackers, pasta, pizza bases and cake and bread mixes as well as adverts, recipes, information and a notepad and pen. I expected the same from Juvela but from them I got a much smaller box but still containing bread, pasta, crackers, biscuits and bread mix. To be honest I couldn’t really tell the difference in taste between both of these company’s products so when I finally got around to ordering the choice came down to which prescription order form I could find first. After lots of searching through all of my gluten free leaflets and adverts, I found the Glutafin one.
The gluten free prescription is a list of products including a variety of breads, rolls, biscuits, crisp breads, crackers, pizza bases, pastas and bread mixes. Each product has a a value attached to it and customers can choose a number of these products up to a certain value. (17 for an average person I think) Most of the products have a value of 1 except pasta which is 2 so you can get quite a lot in one prescription. It is a wee bit confusing when ticking what you want though because the form doesn’t actually list what every product is worth but rather just gives examples of what you could order with the values of these products so I was left partially guessing what my allowance would cover. The prescription I picked up from my GP had most but not all of the things I had ticked on the form so I’m guessing I ticked too many things…oh well, it all looks pretty good and they gave me everything I most wanted anyway.
How to get your prescription: Complete a gluten free prescription form by ticking the products you require (Companies will send one with your free sample pack), hand your prescription in to your GP surgery to be signed by your doctor, pick up your signed prescription and hand in into your local pharmacy, pick up your free gluten free foods once ready. (mine was ready for pick-up the following day)
Gluten Free coffee shop snacks
Nov
25
I’m not a big fan of coffee but still enjoy ‘going out for a coffee’ and a chat or in my case going out for a fruity drink and a chat 
Whether I’m meeeting my boyfriend, friends, mum or dad I sometimes think it would be nice to nibble a wee cookie or cake with my drink but these days, as a coeliac, it is a lot more difficult to find somewhere that this is a possibility. The last few times I’ve gone out I’ve taken my own seed and nut bar or flavoured rice cakes with me to avoid my little green monster showing his head as my mum delves into her gluten filled yet delicious looking muffin. So far I’ve found a few places that do have gluten free options and a few others that don’t…if anyone out there has been to a coffee shop that sells tasty gluten free treats then let me know and I’ll add your findings to my list so that other coeliacs can enjoy a gluten free snack along with their coffee! The following relates to coffee shops in the UK and more specifically, Glasgow
Starbucks: sell a gluten free chocolate brownie and a gluten free luxury christmas cake (at christmas time).
Costa Coffee: sell a gluten free brownie. Concerns? Check out the discussion below.
Bean Scene: do not currently sell any gluten free snacks.
Marks & Spencer: sell a gluten free chocolate muffin
The Curry Leaf
Nov
16
The Curry Leaf is an Indian tapas resturant in the west end of Glasgow and yesterday I thought I’d give them a call to see what their gluten free options are like. When the man answered the phone, I explained that I was interested in eating at their restaurant and was wondering about which of the items on their menu were gluten free. The man started to explain what kind of food and drink they offered. I thought he might not have heard me correctly so re-explained what I was looking to find out. Again he began to explain their menu and told me they were doing a special offer at the moment. For a third time I asked him ‘but what gluten free options do you have?’ and at this point he transferred me onto a colleague.
The woman I was now speaking to understood what I was asking and said she would ask the chef. While I was waiting for her to return I could hear the first man asking his colleague what I had asked. She explained and I heard him saying ‘What’s gluten, like nuts and stuff?’ At this point there was no way I’d be eating at this restaurant but thought I may aswell wait to hear what the chef had to say. When the woman came back to the phone she said that she had asked the chef but that he didn’t know which things contained gluten. She said they could probably make any of the menu items gluten free. This as you might imagine did not fill me with confidence! I thanked the woman for her help but said that I wouldn’t want to risk eating there. She told me she thought I might say that.
If any Coeliacs have eaten here and haven’t had any problems with glutenation then please let me know…Their menu looked pretty tasty but I wasn’t going to risk it when the chef himself didn’t know about the gluten content of the meals he was producing!
El Sabor
Nov
15
Almost every week I meet up with my best friends for dinner and drinks and recently I’ve been trying to find new places to go to prevent us ending up at the same places every week. This time I took a look at 5pm.co.uk which is a good website for booking meals with restaurants offering special deals. 5pm have a little symbol that restaurants can choose to show they have gluten free options so this can be quite helpful for Coeliacs trying to find suitable places to eat.
Last week we decided to try El Sabor, a tapas restaurant situated in Merchant Square, a lovely little area full of restaurants and bars. The deal was 3 Tapas and a 125ml glass of wine for £9.95. Firstly I emailed the restaurant to ask about their gluten free options. This is the response I received:
‘Thanks for your enquiry. We have plenty of gluten free options, infact probably around two thirds of our menu would still be available to you. When you come please tell one of the staff on arrival of your diet and someone will guide you throught he menu telling you all your options.’
OK, but I would rather have more detailed information before choosing to eat somewhere so I thought I’d call them directly to speak to someone. The woman was very helpful and went through the whole 5pm menu (which is decent but fairly limited in comparison to their normal menu) telling me which things were gluten free and which weren’t. Out of the menu’s 17 options, I was told 15 of them were gluten free.
On arriving at the resturant I thought I’d recheck with our waiter that what I’d been told on the phone was correct. I wasn’t filled with the most confidence however, when he starting going through the menu, telling me different things than the woman on the phone. I expressed my concerns to him and he went to double check his information with the chef. When he returned I was told that he was mistaken on a couple of things and started going through the menu again. I was told at this point that 13 of the 17 menu options were gluten free. Slightly worrying, I thought, but I decided to stay and order….
I chose the marinated anchovies with potato salad, beef strips in cracked pepper sauce and salmon fillet cooked in white wine, cream and chives topped with baby prawns.
I didn’t have any glutenation problems so it seems the waiter was correct. My three choices were pretty tasty and with a glass of wine for £9.95 who could complain. I do however think that I probably chose the best the menu had to offer as a couple of things my friends’ had didn’t look like much. I wasn’t hugely impressed with El Sabor as a whole but my 3 choices were good. I don’t think I’ll be hurrying back here as I’ve had far better tapas in other Glasgow restaurants and even more importantly, resturants that clearly mark on their menu which of their options are gluten free to avoid any confusion.
La Tasca
Nov
07
This week my boyfriend and I were invited out to dinner with a group of people, most of whom I hadn’t met before, and my first thought was that I didn’t want to go somewhere that would be difficult to find gluten free options. I love going out to eat and trying new restaurants but the thought of spending half the night talking to the waiter/waitress discussing the gluten free status of the menu isn’t my idea of a great night out, especially if I’m not with close family or friends.
It turned out that there was nothing to worry about…the plan was to go to La Tasca, a Spanish tapas bar in the centre of town. As usual I visited the restaurant’s website the day before to see what my choices would be. I figured that since it was a Tapas restaurant and there would be lots of different choices the likelihood of quite a few of these being gluten free was fairly high. I was ecstatic to see that La Tasca label everything gluten free with ‘GF’…a Coeliacs dream!!!!
The food was delicious!!! When ordering my Paella de venduras and a couple of wee tapas dishes I double checked with our waitress that these choices were definitely gluten free. She assured me that they were and I proceeded to eat and drink lots and lots and lots.
To cover themselves this restaurant includes, at the bottom of their menu, ‘This dish is gluten-free, but please note that we do not operate in a dedicated gluten-free kitchen area.’ This is normal practice and I didn’t have any glutenation problems. I would definitely recommend La Tasca as a simple and delicious option for any gluten free travellers looking for somewhere to eat in Glasgow.
The Wheelhouse, Falkirk
Oct
27
Last weekend my brother and his wife came up from London for the weekend. My dad wanted to take us all out for dinner on the Saturday night and he decided on The Wheelhouse in Falkirk. When he called to book our table he made sure that they had some gluten free options on their menu and was ensured that they did. I decided that since I didn’t know anything about this restaurant I would email them to ask for a list of gluten free options. The next day a personalised reply came: (more…)
J D Wetherspoons
Oct
19
JD Wetherspoons can be found all over the UK and have quite a few locations in and around Glasgow. This restaurant/bar doesn’t sell the most interesting of dishes and always seems to be pretty busy but Wetherspoons can be a good place if you’re looking for a cheap night out with a fairly varied menu and lots of daily drink deals. Most importantly Wetherspoons also caters for Coeliacs. Their menu uses a gluten free symbol to show which of their dishes are free from ingredients containing gluten. There are quite a few options for the gluten free of us, particularly their curry and meat dishes, and some of these are pretty tasty! The only thing I would say made me feel a little uncertain about eating here was when I saw this at the bottom of their menu:
We monitor the presence of gluten in all of our products; however, we cannot guarantee that any items are free from traces of gluten.
This lack of guarantee is due to the fact that their ‘gluten free’ dishes are made in the same area as their dishes which do contain gluten so most restaurants would probably have to say the same thing. Wetherspoons however do recommend that gluten free customers change any order which comes with chips for a jacket potato to decrease the chance of contamination. So far, from my experience of eating here, I have not had any problems with glutenation and their £1.50 Disaronno and mixer will definitely entice me back! Having an eating place like this with gluten free options available, wherever you choose to travel around the UK, is great for Coeliacs.
Laura’s Tea Room
Oct
14
My first experience with Laura’s Tea Room was when my dad took me there for lunch after getting my biopsy at the nearby hospital. He had heard lots of good things about it and of course it was called ‘Laura’s’ so we had to try it out. Despite being pretty out of it as a result of my sedation, I had a lovely lunch in this delightful little cafe in Carmunock, near East Kilbride.
A couple of weeks ago my dad and I went back again for a coffee and a chat. I ordered the usual diet Irn Bru as I don’t have the taste for coffee or tea and my dad got a coffee and a fruity scone. By this visit I had been diagnosed so thought I may as well ask the waitress whether they had any gluten free cake options, thinking the answer would most likely be no as it was a pretty small place. I figured I would just have to make do with my Irn Bru and watch my dad nibbling on his delicious looking scone. To my surprise, the waitress said that they did have quite a few gluten free cakes and went off to find her little list of what they had. She rhymed off 5 or 6 different options and I decided on the banana and raisin bread. It was warm, sweet and delicious…the perfect mid-morning treat for a chilly Scottish day. I was no longer jealous of my dad’s scone and actually when I gave him a piece of my bread to try he said it was nicer than his scone!!!
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bob.dalgleish/Laura’s/
Update: I recently returned to Laura’s for another post-hospital appointment snack and shared two gluten free cakes with my dad…an apple and cinammon slice and a fruit loaf. Both very tasty but especially the fruit loaf! I wasn’t hungry for lunch yet but thought I’d ask the waitress what their gf options were like while I was there. The tea room has gluten free bread so they can make a lot of their sandwiches gluten free. I was told their chilli is gluten free too so I may have to try this next time!
13th Note Gluten Free
Oct
14
I’d eaten at 13th Note a couple of times prior to finding out I had Coeliac disease. It’s a music venue, bar and vegan and vegetarian cafe. I remember going there for dinner with my boyfriend a couple of weeks before being diagnosed and thinking that we would definitely have to come back if it did turn out I was Coeliac as their menu clearly labels the dishes which are naturally gluten free (gf) and others which have a gluten free option (gfo). I remember trying the pad thai noodles on that occasion because I figured it might be my last chance to try them. Sadly it was and they were pretty tasty but luckily the menu has lots of gluten free options which are equally delicious!! If you find yourself looking for a gluten free nibble in Glasgow then travel down to the 13th Note and give your appetite a treat!
Gluten free choices:
Starters:
GREEN AND BLACK OLIVES marinated in fresh garlic, chilli and lemon GF
COURGETTE, BABYCORN and dill cakes with a sweet chilli and coriander dip GF
NACHOS oven baked corn chips with salsa GF
HOUSE SALAD with a lime coriander and red pepper dressing GF
GREEK SALAD lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion, olives and feta GF
Main Meals:
SWEET n SOUR MOROCCAN TAGINE of chickpea, mushroom and peppers served with cous cous GFO
LEMONGRASS, GINGER & PARMESAN RISSOTO CAKES with thai curry, greens and flatbread GFO
POTATO CAKES with mushroom and peas served with a roasted red pepper sauce and salad GF
SALAD of the week served with crusty bread…. Ask your server or see specials board GFO
Lunch:
BAKED POTATO and Salad GF £4.25
Choose from:
- MUSHROOMS with garlic and herbs
- MOZZARELLA and red onion V
- HUMOUS and rocket …….
- CHILLI
Desserts:
CREAMY COCONUT RICE PUDDING - rich and creamy, served with a berry compote.GF
The Butterfly and Pig Gluten Free
Oct
12
Fantastic gluten free food!
The Butterfly and Pig is my favourite restaurant in Glasgow and somewhere I like to visit for dinner at least a couple of times a month so finding out whether or not they had gluten free options on their delicious menu was one of my first ports of call after finding out I had coeliac disease. The Butterfly and Pig is located on Bath Street in Glasgow and is a restaurant and bar with a variety of fun entertainment every night of the week and amazing smells that hit you as soon as you walk through their door. (more…)