Tag Archives: food

Great Offer For GFBTS Readers!

1 May

Friends of Gluten Free by the Sea Plymouth Greengrocer are out and about again this Sunday, this time running a stall at the Good Food Market at Royal William Yard.  The great news is that this Sunday Plymouth Greengrocer are offering a 15% discount on purchases if you mention Gluten Free by the Sea!  Not only that, but by taking up the offer you will also be entitled to 10% off your next purchase with them.  I am very excited by this generous offer and I’d like to offer a big thank-you to Julie and Mark for providing this.

Mark&Julie

Julie said “We are really excited about attending the Royal William Yard Good Food Market this Bank Holiday Weekend, and if you visit our stall and mention our Great Friends at www.gfreebythesea.me we will give you 15% off your purchase.

You will also receive a Gluten Free By The Sea card, which you can keep in your purse or wallet, show your card on your next purchase at our store at Chaplins, Plympton, at any market we attend or on-line at www.plymouthgreengrocer.co.uk voucher code ‘gfree’ and you will save 10% on that purchase too!

The sun must be going to my head! come and buy your gluten free goodies and save at The Royal William Yard Food Market this weekend”

The market will run from 10am till 3pm.  Plymouth Greengrocer will be selling savouries only this weekend due to the number of cake stalls at the event.  As well as the traditional gluten free Steak Pasty, they will have Cheese & Onion, Curried Vegetable and their new Corned Beef Pasty.  Lisa Hackett from Let Them Eat Cake is also running a stall on the day, so plenty of reason to pop down for a look around on Sunday.  If you fancy stopping for lunch Le Bistrot Pierre and Las Iguanas restaurants are both now open offering great gluten free options.  There is also Plymouth Canteen (River Cottage) and most of the menu there is naturally gluten free.

The Liskeard Country Market

Readers in Cornwall will have the chance to pay Plymouth Greengrocer a visit at The Liskeard Country Market in May.  They will be running stalls on both the 11th and 25th May.  The market itself runs the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month on the Parade at Liskeard.  You can read more about the market, and also print off a voucher to park for only a pound at http://revitaliseliskeard.co.uk.  Mark and Julie will be selling cakes as well as savouries at this market.  Plymouth Greengrocer are a member of Food and Drink Devon and do great work supporting local producers.

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The Chancel

24 Mar

My wife and I celebrated our ten year wedding anniversary earlier this month.  I can’t believe it’s been 10 years and she is truly lucky to have me, no wait, that should be the other way round!  We had decided to head out for a meal in Plymouth to mark the occasion, and thought we would head somewhere new for a change.

I’d recently heard good things about The Chancel from Facebook follower Sharon Lewis-King so I emailed them to check their gluten free options.  I had a call back to say they offered gluten free bread, pasta and even pizza in addition to much of the menu being naturally gluten free.  They did warn me that they had a very small kitchen and they did prepare gluten containing dishes, but were able to give me enough confidence that they would take cross contamination seriously.

We arrived at the restaurant in St Andrews Street and when we were seated at our table we found an anniversary card waiting for us, a lovely touch which was much appreciated.  The staff were extremely friendly and immediately came over to discuss the gluten free options with me and the vegetarian options with Abby, without us needing to ask.  Abby was told that if there was something she fancied and she could see the ingredients on the menu they would do their best to make it for her.

Chancel_soupThe option of bruschetta to start was extremely tempting, but we had walked from home on a cold night so we both decided to go for some warming tomato and basil soup to start.  This was extremely tasty and we both loved it, and as you can see from the photo mine came with some extremely impressive looking gluten free bread.  The bread looked so impressive, that I immediately had one of those “is that really gluten free” moments.  However, the waitress had stated it was GF on bringing it to the table and it was suitably different to Abby’s Tiger bread to put me at ease.  The bread was good and overall this was a very impressive starter and perfect for the cold occasion.  The portion size was generous too.

For the main course, I decided to go with one of the naturally gluten free Chancel_steakdishes rather than gluten free pasta or pizza.  I decided to go with my favourite fillet steak, and was extremely happy to be told all the steak sauces were already gluten free.  This meant I could have peppered sauce, something I love and a rare treat!  The only downside was that the chips were not gluten free.  Again I was told this without needing to ask, and received new potatoes as a substitute.  Another enjoyable course, though I have to say the steak was not quite as tender as I usually expect of a fillet, but enjoyable none the less.  I definitely enjoyed being able to have the steak sauce for a change too.

Chancel_dessertFor dessert I was given a choice of creme brulee, or surprisingly sticky toffee pudding.  I am a big fan of creme brulee and was too full for (and maybe slightly wary of) sticky toffee pudding.  The creme brulee was creamy and delicious as you would expect, and a nice light dessert to finish off the meal.

The overall bill was quite expensive, but this was mainly down to myself and Abby making the most of some of the delicious wines that were on offer.  I am not really a wine drinker, but the pinot grigio went down a treat.  Overall we were very well looked after, the food was good and there was plenty of gluten free choice.  I suffered no ill effects so they managed to prevent any cross contamination in their small kitchen with no problems.  I would definitely go back for another meal, and it’s great to be able to add another restaurant to the gluten free friendly list.  Thanks to Sharon for the recommendation.

Kevin, Gluten Free by the Sea

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Seabrook’s to Restore Gluten Free Labelling

21 Mar

Long term readers of this blog may remember that back in October I wrote about Seabrook’s crisps.  Since I was diagnosed with coeliac disease these lovely crisps had been a great snack as they were easily available, labelled gluten free and very tasty.  A great addition to my packed lunch until last year they removed the gluten free labelling from their packs due to legislation changes.  You can read about the history and discussions on this subject here.

Since then I have survived on Burt’s crisps (from Devon) and also the coeliac favourite Pom Bears.  However, I was extremely excited to receive an email today from Emma at Seabrook whom I’d been speaking to previously.  In my last communication with Emma she had informed me that due to customer feedback they were reviewing the decision to remove the gluten free label.  Today she informed me that Seabrook had received gluten free certification and their entire range was now going to be gluten free and carry the crossed grain symbol!

Prawn Cocktail

I have to say a huge well done to Seabrook for listening to customer feedback and not only reinstating the gluten free labelling, but making the rest of their range gluten free (not all flavours were even previously) and going that extra mile to get Coeliac UK certification.  Also, another massive well done to the coeliac and gluten free community to getting the message across.  This just shows that there are companies out there willing to listen, and we are not always wasting our time by trying to encourage companies to give us gluten free options or clarify their labelling.

Seabrook Crisps marketing director Kevin Butterworth said: “Seabrook Crisps has always had gluten-free ingredients but we know that gaining Coeliac UK’s Crossed Grain symbol provides peace of mind to those with coeliac disease and we’re really proud to be able to offer them more choice.”

I am extremely happy that I can add these crisps back into my diet with confidence again, and that those on a gluten free diet will have a greater choice of crisps when the packaging changes in April.  You can read the full press release from Seabrook here.

I have asked Seabrook if they can provide me with an up to date allergen list for their products in the new range, and I will update this post with that information as soon as I receive it.

Update 26/03/2013: Seabrook have now provided me with an updated allergen list, reflecting the new April packs.  Correct as of 26/03/13.  You can view this here.

Kevin, Gluten Free by the Sea

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