With an Elephant Seal
When in the land of half a million penguins...
Our first stop in Patagonia was Puerto Madryn where we spent a week. In and around this pretty little town we saw some of the most amazing animals. Dolphins…whales…sea lions…penguins…sea elephants!
Unfortunately in this gorgeous place, finding places that cater for coeliacs or sell gluten free food wasn’t the easiest. There was nowhere, like in bigger cities such as Buenos Aires and Mar Del Plata, to buy either ready to eat or frozen goods. I found two dieteticas here that sell some gluten free products such as gluten free bars and cookies as well as various dried fruits and nuts but neither sell fresh goods. Thankfully, there are plenty of supermarkets for buying food to prepare yourself. My week of eating in Puerto Madryn consisted of lots of rice and polenta with various toppings! Both John and myself are very content with eating rice every day so this worked out for us but I’ll admit that I did crave an empanada or two every now and again.
I did find one interesting place in the town. Patagonia Sin TACC is a gluten free store run by a woman and her family from their home on the edge of town (Saavedra 166). I spoke with the owner who is a very nice coeliac woman and she told me the story of how Patagonia Sin TACC began. She, her mother and her daughter are all coeliac and she opened the store in her house a few months ago to cater for local coeliacs. They sell a variety of gluten free products including pastas, cookies and various other sweet and savoury treats. They also bake their own bread and can make sandwiches for customers.
I was glad to have visited this store and to speak with the owner but to be honest there wasn’t too much that caught my eye because I was hoping for something ready to eat like empanadas. I ended up buying just a weird crepe thing and a couple of chocolatey treats. Hopefully in the near future Patagonia sin TACC will start producing some more fresh goods which I’m sure would go down a treat in a town that has no other place to buy gluten free products.
Patagonia sin TACC
Dietetica
Esteban
Jun 10th, 2011Hi, I was on the net and casually found your site, I´m the middle Maria´s son… just want to tell you that is starting to cook fresh foods for coeliacs (I am also) so, the next time you visit the south of this beautiful country you will can eat some delicious dishes without gluten and… I´m thinking of opening a free gluten store in Córdoba since I live in that city, I hope you have great travel around the world and without gluten, sorry for my bad english, good luck!
Laura
Jun 10th, 2011Hi Esteban! Great to hear from you..your English is great! That’s fabulous to hear that Sin Tacc is now offering fresh food for coeliacs. The next time I find myself in your beautiful town I will certainly come for a visit!
That’s great that you are thinking of opening a gluten free store in Cordoba..what a great city too but they do not have many gluten free places to eat (like in BsAs) so your store would be an amazing addition for coeliacs there!