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Annie’s Larder Christmas Hampers

18 Nov

Those who have been following Gluten Free by the Sea since the beginning may remember me visiting Annie’s Supperclub during a trip to London in August.  Such fantastic food and Annie has recently branched out to form Annie’s Larder, providing lunch deliveries in London, supplying gluten free pizza bases to some London pubs and cakes to local cafes.  I have seen great reviews about the gluten free lunch service from my London based coeliac friends.

Those of us outside of London can now have a chance to sample Annie’s great food as she is currently taking orders for gluten free Christmas Hampers, and offering UK delivery.  See here for more information.  Choose between such goodies as Christmas Cake, Christmas Pud, Mince Pies, shortbread and an array of local produce such as cheeses and chutneys.  I particularly have my eye on a gluten free Yule Log!


This week I was lucky enough to be asked to do some taste testing for Annie.  A hard job but someone has got to do it!  I received a generous sample of brownie, shortbread and fruit cake.  I am annoyingly fussy and don’t like fruit cake as I don’t like currants or raisins, so I roped my parents in to assist with the sampling.

The brownie was amazingly light and moist, with beautiful chocolate flavour.  I really loved this as did my mum.  Despite dad not liking brownie he still gave this a “very nice” verdict.  The shortbread came out as the real winner though.  All three of us thought these were brilliant.  Best summed up with a quote by dad; “The shortbreads were amazing, light, good texture very tasty.  To die for!!!!”.  I couldn’t disagree with that, and I quickly packed away the leftover shortbread to take home before my parents could get their hands on the rest!  I left my parents to taste the fruit cake, and they both agreed this was “very tasty” and had great flavour.

Finally I asked my gluten eating parents the all important question; “would you know it was gluten free?” and in stereo they both answered a resounding “no”.  So there we have it, good enough for everyone to eat which I know is Annie’s mission.  I am sure if you get a chance to sample Annie’s food you will be equally impressed.

Kevin, Gluten Free by the Sea

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Gluten Free Tasting at Plymouth Greengrocer 17/11/12

16 Nov

For those of you who live in or near Plymouth I suggest you pop along to Plymouth Greengrocer this Saturday, November 17th!  Between 10am and 4pm Julie and Mark will be offering tastings of various gluten free products at their marquee in Chaplins car park.  Plymouth Greengrocer offer a great range of gluten free products, so if you haven’t been along yet then this is a great time to pop along for your first visit.


You will be able to taste products from Baked to Taste including pasties, pies, quiche and of course Christmas Cake.  Also on offer will be warm Christmas pudding with fresh clotted cream and mince pies with clotted cream.  There will be Christmas cupcakes from A Piece of Cake Bakery to sample along with biscuits and tray bakes from Honeybuns Bakery.

Mark and Julie will be taking orders for Christmas too, so make sure you pop along.  To read more about Plymouth Greengrocer, including details of where to find them see: https://gfreebythesea.me/2012/08/23/plymouth-green-grocer/
Kevin, Gluten Free by the Sea

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Prezzo Gluten Free Pizza

12 Nov

The gluten free world was recently sent into excitement by a glut of pizza announcements.  The news that Pizza Hut, Domino’s and Prezzo were launching gluten free pizza bases was swiftly followed up by Ask Italian.  I recently posted a review of the Pizza Hut gluten free offering, and with news that the Domino’s GF launch has been delayed until November 19th and the lack of an Ask Italian in Plymouth, I set out to try the Prezzo version.

Prezzo are currently offering a voucher on their website offering two courses for £10.  The voucher applies to the entire table, and as there were four of us this was a good deal.  Unfortunately the offer expires 12th November.  The Plymouth branch of Prezzo is situated in the Royal William Yard, which is fast becoming a gluten free hot spot.  The restaurant itself is very well decorated and situated in a great location.  It was also pleasing to see an Italian restaurant with several Italians on the staff.

I decided to skip the starter and go straight for the main course.  My wife was the only one to order a starter, some bruschetta, and nearly thirty minutes after ordering this hadn’t arrived.  My wife chased this and it arrived a few minutes later, and I suspect there was a mix up in the kitchen.  Mistakes happen and I always think it is better to judge a business on how they rectify a problem rather than whether they had one.  The waitress apologised for the delay, had the starter out in a few minutes and offered a free round of drinks for the entire table to make it up to us.  Great customer service after a rocky start.

I of course went for the pizza for the main meal.  I asked which toppings were gluten free, and was told I could have everything but the spicy beef.  I had heard the same from a few people on Twitter, so this gave some reassurance.  I quizzed the waitress with regards cross contamination and she seemed well informed.  I am very sensitive to cross contamination and I am pleased to report I have had no reaction at all to this pizza.  I did note that the menu did have a disclaimer that other gluten items were made in the kitchen, and they could not offer 100% guarantee that the kitchen was free from “airborne contamination”.  Unless the kitchen is 100% gluten free, it’s pretty standard to get a disclaimer similar to this.

There were no further delays in the service and our main course arrived shortly after.  I would usually have gone for a meaty pizza, but wasn’t feeling particularly hungry so was going to order a margherita pizza as I thought it would be less filling.  I had seen comment that the pizza’s here weren’t particularly cheesy, so at the very last second I changed my mind and went for the quattro formaggi.  This was a bit of an error on my part as I hadn’t spotted it had gorgonzola on in my last second switch.  I am not a fan of blue cheese so picked this off.  There was also a bit too much goats cheese for my liking which overpowered the other cheeses, so I regretted my choice a little.  The base itself was thin and tasty, it was crispy on the edges but quite soft in the centre.  My parents enjoyed their gluten filled pasta dishes, but my wife wasn’t particularly impressed with her gluteny pizza, saying she would have liked it crispier.  She tried my base and actually preferred it.

I had scoped out the allergy information pre visit and had been excited to see the vanilla panna cotta was gluten free.  However this was not on the dessert menu which was a shame, so I assume this is maybe a special.  The only gluten free dessert choice was a hazelnet bombe.  This was ice cream covered in chopped hazelnuts with a meringue centre.  This was nice but was no panna cotta.  It certainly would have been nice to have another gluten free choice for dessert.

Overall I think I slightly preferred the Pizza Hut base, though maybe this is down to my poor topping choice influencing me.  I’d be keen to try this again with a different topping and it’s definitely nice to have another gluten free option.  I’d give this a good but not great verdict overall.  See comments on this post for reviews from couple of other people who have tried the Prezzo GF pizza.  Next stop, Domino’s!

Kevin, Gluten Free by the Sea

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