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Hey-yaaaa; as they say in greeting in Ireland.
I just returned from two weeks in Ireland and one week in England. I had
contacted the Coeliac (note different spelling of celiac) Society in
Dublin and they sent me a list of gluten-friendly restaurants.
I have to say that I really didn't need the list at all. The people in
food service there are pretty savvy about celiac disease. It has a higher
population ratio in Ireland; in other words, there are more diagnosed
celiacs there per population than in the United States.
All of the restaurant people were very accommodating and excellent in
communicating with the chefs about flour in sauces, etc. They took great
pains to make sure I didn't get sick. And, with one exception (which was
my fault), I never once got sick.
The first two days I had a traditional Irish breakfast, which consists of
fried eggs, bacon (kind of like Canadian bacon), sausages, Heinz beans,
and hash browns. The hash browns are actually little formed patties
somewhat like potato cakes. I got my typical gluten headaches after these
two breakfasts, and determined that it was the potato cakes. Sometimes
flour is used as a binder in these patties, and I am sure they were used
in the Irish version I had.
Many of the traditional Irish foods, such as colcannon (potatoes and
cabbage, sometimes with milk and butter added) do not have added
ingredients. I had a delicious traditional lamb stew that was just cooked
in the meat to make a broth with added vegetables. Delicious! They are big
on salmon and fresh fish and know many ways to cook it. I stayed away from
stews with thick broths and sauces. In some cases, the waitperson was able
to verify that the sauces were made with cream, wine, and/or butter only;
then I could eat that.
One good food item to try is vegetable soup. This is usually made of
carrots, a spice like coriander, leeks, and turnips or potatoes. Some of
the vegetables are blended and put back into the soup, making it thick.
So, don't discount thickened soups. Just ask the people what the
ingredients are.
The best part of the trip was shopping for gluten-free goodies. They are
available in most markets in Ireland, even in some of the small towns. For
example, we visited Cong (where the John Wayne film "The Quiet Man" was
made), a very tiny village of just a few hundred people. I went into the
small market there and found some gluten-free bread!
Their gluten-free bread, usually made by Kelkin, is available at most Spar
or Super Value markets, and definitely at the larger Tesco stores. You can
also get marshmallow-type puffs over biscuit covered with chocolate and
little apple pies, then little berry tarts; all delicious.
I have to talk about the bread though. It is great (toasted, of course),
especially with Irish black currant jam or orange marmalade that is served
at most every breakfast table. All of the restaurants and B&Bs were most
happy to toast it for me. I wish American manufacturers would try the
Irish bread and get on the bus, for Irish gf bread is about 100 times
better than any American gf bread I have ever tried! I bought several
loaves while there, and shipped them back at an exhorbitant cost (over
$100 for a small box), but I think this is worth it. I can put it in the
freezer and enjoy good gf bread for several weeks to come.
Eating gluten-free in England was a bit more difficult, but only because
the waitpeople usually didn't speak much English. The immigration is high
there, and there are many workers who are French, Polish, or Iranian
(especially in London).
The only real problem I had was on the flight over and back. I flew Delta,
and my travel agent requested a special meal, which was printed on my
ticket. When I got on the plane, however, I found that they do not serve
gluten-free meals any more on Delta. The regular choices were pasta or
chicken with gravy, both of which I turned down for obvious reasons. They
offered me the vegetarian choice, but those meals (on both the flights
over and returning) were laden with gluten in the form of pasta or pastry
cakes of some sort. The airplane people are very ignorant of eating with
allergies, I found out, and are not very helpful either. I had to make do
with a glass of milk and a banana on the flight over, and needless to say,
after over 15 hours on planes, I was very hungry when I arrived. On the
return trip, I brought a sack of food, half of which I had to pack in my
checked baggage because security wouldn't let me take it on board. What
was allowed: cheese brick, apples (although I had to eat them on the plane
as you can't bring produce back into the U.S.), and nuts. Not allowed:
canned food of any kind, drinks, or puddings.
Good luck to you if you fly overseas!
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