It has to be said, eating gluten free in the UK was a lot more difficult than I expected. I mean, I always found something, but it would have been nice to not get accidentally “glutenised” several times.
In cosmopolitan London, initial requests to find out the gluten free dishes on the menus were met with blank stares. “G-whaaaaaaat?”. In North Wales, the reaction – although more expected this there – was similar.
So when driving through Porthmadog, a tiny town in North Wales consisting of no more than 5,000 residents, it all looked bleak, and I’m not just talking about the weather. Although, if we want to talk about the weather, on this particular day in the middle of August, North Wales was putting on a balmy 16 degrees and non-stop rain, just for my summer holiday pleasure.
A rose among the thorns
But as I was gazing out at the bleakness from the car window, I spotted something interesting. It has to be said, I am kind of drawn to places oozing a style that is somewhere between hipster cool and carefully arranged shabby chic hippy. So of course, the place I spotted had the eco-friendly hipster charm that screamed “I have gluten free shit”. It definitely wasn’t the type of place I was expecting to spot on Porthmadog’s High Street.
We parked the car and went back on foot to investigate. Walking down the road, we passed by cafes offering sandwiches and roast dinners, and with every £7 roast dinner sign, I hoped just a little bit more that this mission was going to prove successful. Once I found my destination, entered and saw a cabinet with gluten free cakes and a sign which read “please ask us about food allergies”, I knew I was going to be in good hands.
It’s time to order the food
The daily specials really got my attention (especially the Jackcheese and meatball bloomer with chunky red pepper ragu and spinach), but unfortunately the meat balls were prepared with bread crumbs so I skipped to another part of the menu. (Note to self: going to try and make meat balls with those gluten free bread crumbs that I have in the freezer when I get home!) But, if you follow me here or on Facebook, you will know that this was not such a bad thing. Because I am a sucker for brunch.
Pretty much my ambition in life (aside from world domination, visiting every continent on earth and generally attempting to be awesome) is to be a lady who lunches brunches, except perhaps without the kid in tow (although, if I did, it would be decked out in baby cons, a Sonic Youth t-shirt and accessorised with a rainbow headband), meeting friends at the nearest cafe to discuss important issues over a coffee with soy milk. But I digress. I love brunch. So, I got straight to the point with the brunch sandwiches and asked for gluten free bread. And guess what? This proved successful!
The gluten free bread was a rosemary and cheese soda bread made with gluten free self raising flour, and it was huge, spongy and fresh. It was topped with sausage, good quality bacon (seriously, this rubbish they call bacon in Spain is getting to me, can someone please export this?! It’s for the good of the brunch!) and a fried egg, and I finished it off with a splash of Heinz (which received disapproving looks from my mother who claims tomato sauce on food is “too Australian”). This really was the most unexpected, but perfect, gluten free lunch in Porthmadog.
So why not finish it off with coffee?
I really had problems knowing what coffee to order on this trip in the UK. In Spain, life is simple. Coffee with milk. Coffee without milk. Coffee with just a splash of milk. Why make things complicated? And besides, I don’t drink milk so I usually just order a black coffee. And, for the occasions that I do feel like milk, I know every place in Seville that has soy milk (hipster alert).
But in the UK? Well, my go-to coffee is a flat white which is actually an Australian import, and after 4 months in Australia and New Zealand recently, I just ordered a soy flat white by default. The first time I was faced with the coffee dilemma in London, I waited for my friend to order a coffee. When she ordered a flat white, I was relieved that this Australian import was going to be understood in this particular cafe, and I received a flat white with soy milk, just as I expected. So, when faced with the coffee dilemma once more in this cafe which seemed light years ahead of others in the town, I ordered a soy flat white, hoping that the barista would come through with the goods.
Surprisingly, my order wasn’t met with vacant looks, so I relaxed a little. But when my coffee arrived it was huge. I had being served a large cup of steamed soy milk, with some coffee lurking somewhere around there, perhaps down the bottom, cause I surely didn’t taste it at the top. My rant: I wish that if people didnt know what I ordered, they would say instead of just guessing!
Want to know how this story ends? Well, I had the coffee to take away. I didn’t finish the coffee (so never really found out if there was coffee lurking at the bottom or not) and spilt the rest on my crotch, which meant I walked around with coffee stained jeans for another hour or so in the freezing Welsh summer until I could change them. But at least the lunch was good!
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The Practical Bits
Name: The Big Rock Cafe
Address: 71 High St, Porthmadog, Wales, LLC 9EU
Hours: Monday & Saturday, 9.30am – 5.00pm; Tuesday to Friday, 8.30am – 5.00pm; Closed Sundays.
Have you travelled in the UK in search of gluten free food before? How did you find it? Maybe you’ve been lucky enough to stumble across this great little cafe too? Tell me all about it in the comments below.
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