T minus one

So I finally get an endoscopy tomorrow to confirm my Coeliacness. I've spent weeks being cross that it's taken so long and looking forward to getting on with a GF diet, but now that it's upon me I'm starting to really think about all the things I won't be able to eat.

So I just had a "for old time's sake"" lunch of an M&S prawn sarnie (which trumped wraps or paninis after some deliberation) followed by a cinnamon pastry. For dinner I think it'll have to be fresh pasta as there's some spinach and ricotta tortellini in the fridge. No brekkie tomorrow unless I get up extremely early, so I had mini wheats this morning.

I'm already bloating up courtesy of the sarnie and danish, so I know it's a Good Thing to be getting on with it and cutting out the evil gluten. But I may spend the afternoon wistfully pondering Pret sandwiches, Morton's mozzarella and sun dried tomato baguettes, Ben's cookies and other such lunchtime treats.

I am lucky enough to have a couple of extremely tasty options on my doorstep at work though: the Alpha Bar does amazing salad boxes, and for a once-in-a-while blow-out there's The Mission who will serve their delicious veggie burritos without the tortilla in a bowl instead.

So all is not completely lost. Bring on the endoscope!
(Erm, sort of..)

Buenos Burritos*

Went to see the fantabulously funny Bill Bailey last night at the New Theatre in Oxford, and we stopped for a bite to eat beforehand at The Mission, which opened sometime last year I think, to much excitement from all of us who have been bemoaning the lack of Mexican food to be found anywhere nearby.
Looking for somewhere for a quick meal and not being remotely interested in burger bars even before I was GF, I checked the Mission's menu and found that they do "Burrito bowls": all the ingredients of a burrito - rice, beans, meat, salsa, guacamole, etc - but served up in a box without the forbidden tortilla. I had the veggie one, and it was delicious. Hurrah for tasty GF fast food.

*Note to self: less alliteration in post titles please

First GF meal out

It was with some trepidation that I approached my first gluten-free meal out. I had trawled around the web and found a few places in Oxford that had GF labelled on their menus, but we'd been to Las Iguanas last time, and when I met up with C it was tipping down and we couldn't face the walk across town to Carluccio's to try out their GF pasta. So we opted for Quod.

I worked out the obvious stuff from the menu, but there were a few sauces and things that I wasn't sure about, so when the waitress came over I started with "I have some awkward questions first: I can't eat gluten."

I don't know what I was worrying about. She didn't bat an eyelid, and knew which of the main courses were gluten free straight off, all except for one, which she checked with the kitchen and came back a minute later to confirm it was ok. I picked caprese salad for a starter and she said it was normally served on bread but they would leave that out, and she'd double-check on the pesto that it was served with.

Prawns and salad for a main (I tried to get C to have chips so I could steal some but the waitress pointed out they weren't GF, so it's just as well she didn't), and again she knew exactly which desserts were ok. As she brought the bill I thanked her and said how pleasantly surprised I was, and she explained that she was in fact studying nutrition. So I don't know if I just had an exceptional server, but I hope my meal was a good indication that Quod is happy to adapt dishes for coeliacs. I'll certainly go back to test out my theory.