Category: Family

Gluten free eats: Scotland – Glasgow, Stirling, Falkirk, Loch Lomond & the Trossachs

Geographically these tasty meals were a bit more spread out.  Nevertheless, quite tasty

Glasgow –

Ask Italian also has a location in Glasgow.

Tempus (located in the bottom floor of the Grand Central Hotel which is in the main train station in Glasgow):

We stayed here the night that we arrived in Glasgow via trian and were quite peckish the next morning.  When we decided to venture downstairs for breakfast I honestly expected to have a drink and sit and watch the crew eat.  I was pleasantly surprised when told that they had gluten free muffins and buns in stock.  Both were served nice and toasty warm making them extra delicious.

Stirling –

Gabe’s:

We ate here twice and there was an extensive gluten free menu offered (they even offered GF breakfasts with crepes and pancakes! but we never wanted to sit over breakfast).  I only have one set of photos as the food was sooo yummy that I ordered the same thing twice.  This is located beside the movie theaters as well as a nice walking path which runs alongside the River Forth.

GF fish and chips with homade tartar sauce and minty mushy peas.

Lemon drizzle cake for dessert. 

Falkirk –

The Wheelhouse Restaurant –

This is located walking distance from the Falkirk Wheel.  However, we decided to stay at the wheel rather than step out to eat as the girls were really interested in watching it work.  This restuarant offers a gluten free menu.

Falkirk Wheel Cafe –

I expected to eat a bag of chips and perhaps a piece of fruit while the rest ate sandwiches but I was pleasantly surprised.  I was able to order a “cheese toasty” (toasted cheese).  In addition, they also had individually bagged cookies for purchase had I wanted dessert.

Loch Lomond-

Palombos Fish, Chips & Pizza:

After our day on the banks of Loch Lomond and at the nearby aquarium (less than a five minute drive) we stopped here for our last dinner in Scotland.  Mmmm.  Yet another version of fish and chips (I have yet to find a gluten free fish and chip place nearby).  Glenn also got a treat with battered haggis (not gluten free but he rather enjoyed it).

Simple and straight forward.

Haggis and chips served piping hot but not gluten free.

The Trossachs –

Aberfoyle/Loch Ard- 

Wee Bleather Tea Room (on the banks of Loch Ard just north of Aberfoyle): We did not stop here on our day out at Loch Katrine but we drove past it as we went to the top end of the loch.  It looked very quaint and I thought of stopping for a snack but did not expect that they would have anything gluten free so I pulled out our packaged snacks.  Now I am sorely disappointed.  It turns out that this restaurant has a full gluten free menu as well as “normal” items.  Plus, they also have some dairy free options.  Sigh.  There is always next trip.

Doune – We stopped at the Circa Cafe which is at the Scottish Antiques & Arts Center.  It is quite cozy inside.  Unfortunately we arrived with plans of enjoying dinner there only to find out that they were in the process of closing for the evening.  They do offer a gluten free selection but I can’t comment on its tastiness.

Thornhill –

That evening we drove to nearby Thornhill instead and had dinner at the Lion & Unicorn Hotel’s pub.  The atmosphere was lovely with the smell of coal burning fires in the background.  There was a totally gluten free menu upon request and the wait staff helpful.  I ordered the burger and was not disappointed.

Loch Venacher –

On the way to Callander from Loch Katrine, we stopped at this loch for some lunch.  The view from inside this restaurant is gorgeous.  We were able to sit in warmth yet watch the wind creating waves on the water.  They had a number of gluten free options and were able to accomodate me when I decided to go with something which was not marked as gluten free – a burger made from mince butchered by the local Callander butchers.  They were the ones my Grandma used so I knew that the meat would be outstanding and I was not disappointe. Mmmm.

Callander –

We ate at a number of places while in Callander as this was the focus of our visit given that it is my mom’s hometown.

Taste of the Trossachs: I did miss eating at this place but I will have to try the next time.  It is at the bottom end of town near the meadows.

The Old Bank:  Also at the bottom end of town.  We had an early supper here (as it closes early by our standards).  The leek and potatoe soup which I ordered with my toasty was particularly yummy as were the wee teddy shaped chips.  The muffin was served warm and was a nice and fluffy apple spice muffin.  Unfortunately there was a bit of misunderstanding on my part.  The menu read ‘cupcake’ so I was anticipating an icing covered cake of some sort so I was a bit surprised when my muffin arrived.  The muffin would be a great choice if you were looking for a mid afternoon pick me up.

The Atrium Cafe:  This is located on the second floor of the CCW Outdoor Clothing Store near the top end of town.  There is always something gluten free to be had (I have been here multiple times on various trips).  This visit was on a rainy day and my toasted sandwich arrived nice and warm.  The “normal” dishes are posted on a large blackboard on the wall while the gluten free menu can be found beside where you stand to order you food.  Once you have placed your order and given your table number, you can sit back and relax until the food arrives.

The Lade Inn:  Although we did not eat at this restaurant on this visit, I have had the pleasure of eating here a few times before and recall it as quite tasty.  They have clearly marked gluten free dishes on their regular menu.

Other in Scotland tips:

I have shopped at a number of places for gluten free goodies.  In fact, gluten free food can be purchased at Sainsburys, Tescos and Marks & Spencers.  This trip my favourite finds were crumpets at Tescos (the kind which you toast and then slather on the butter so that when you eat it the butter is dripping through the holes onto the plate) and shortbread at Sainsburys.  The crumpets are fairly close to the real thing except that they soak up more butter than they let run through.  The shortbread does not crumble when you take your first bite and it has a nice buttery taste.  Plus, it looks like regular round shortbreads so it has the nostalgia factor covered as well.

Cute Food in London

Okay, simply had to post these photos of two cakes we saw while shopping.  They are really too cute to eat.

Elspeth: Look a sheep!

Me: Yes sweetie.  It is a sheep cake.

Elspeth:  Can we get the sheepy cake?  It is cute.

Me:  No.  We don’t need it.  Besides, you don’t want to eat the sheep do you?

Elspeth looking at me like I am crazy.

Elspeth: No, Aleigh (her sheep) and me play with it.

Me:  Sweetie, it is a cake. Like a birthday cake.

Elspeth:  Oh.  I don’t want to eat sheepy cake.

Right beside the sheep was a hedgehog.  I am not sure how this conversation would go.  “Okay, who wants the butt?  It has the most icing?”  Not sure that eating either is high on my list of priorities but they are adorable to look at.

 

 

Gluten free eats: London

J D Wetherspoon chain of Pubs: (there is now one in the Glasgow airport as well)

We went to this chain twice while in London.  I got the same meal both times as I quite enjoyed it so I can’t attest to the taste of other items.  Ordering was a bit different than we are use to at home.  You go in and find an empty table.  Each table has a number on it and once you have decided what you would like to eat you walk up to the bar, place your order, pay and give them your table number.  Then you take your tray of drinks back to said table and wait for your food to arrive.  The gluten free items are listed in the regular menu although if you need reading glasses I would suggest that you use them as the logos indicating gluten free are rather small in size.

This location is right beside Trafalgar Square. 

This location is across the street from the Tower of London.

I am a bit of a purist in that I rather enjoy nachos with cheeese and salsa.  These nachos are suppose to be served with more toppings.

ASK Italian Restaurants:

The location that we found was less than five minutes walk from our hotel near Kensington Gardens on the tube line.  I found this restaurant by accident and what a wonderful accident.  The food was delicious and the service for kids – beyond compare.  They had child sized cutlery, veggies and dip included in every kids meal as well as a special “babychino” for along with the dessert.  Gluten free items were indicated in the regular menu and were easy to find.

Kids meal-

The girls had pasta with cheese sauce and pancetta.

GelattoCaramelized pineapple with gelatto

Babychinos

Gluten free –

GF pasta with spicy tomatoe sauce, caramalized onions and pancetta.  Heavenly!

Molten chocolate cake

 

Oliver’s Fish and Chips:

We made a special trip on the tube to this restaurant but it was well worth it.  They use sustainably caught fish and you can taste the freshness.  They also offer a kid friendly choice.  Worth the trip (plus, my first fish and chips since I was diagnosed!).

Honest Burger:

This is in Soho and is an easy walk from the British Museum.  The burgers are juicy and cooked medium well (kids burgers more well done).  The thing which pushed this over the top were the fries.  They are hand cut and coated with rosemary salt.  Mmmmm!

Random Finds:

Our hotel was walking distance to a Waitrose and there were quite a few yummy products clearly marked as gluten free.

I enjoyed this with the granola bar I had packed for breakfast.

A plain chocolate bar in a cute package.

Eating these was like journeying back to my childhood visits to my grandmas.  Every bit as tasty as I remember.

These were part of my lunch at the Science Museum.  Not exactly healthy but they took the edge off of it.  A nice alternative to plain salted chips.

This was the healthier part of my lunch that day.  Also clearly marked as gluten free.  As for taste, regular yogurt flavour.

Regular Food in Paris

First I had to show you the GF goodies from our trip.  Now for the rest.

Crepes!

Had them pretty much every day.  When they were not the buckwheat variety they were the regular old made with wheat variety.  Katrine really enjoyed watching them being made.  They were an easy lunch.  Walk along, see stall, presto! Lunch!

Brown Sugar and butter Ham and cheese (Elspeth really got into eating ham on this trip)   

Boulangerie (Bakeries):

This was breakfast every morning for the rest of the crew.  Pasteries, quiches, pannini sandwiches.  Quick, easy and resonably priced.

Don’t you love how some of the goodies are almost as large as Elspeth’s head?

Ice cream:

When planning this trip I thought that I should try to include some kid centered things along the way.  Well, what is more kid centered than ice cream?  I read that there was a remarkably good ice cream store by the name of Berthillion which was located walking distance from Notre Dame.  This was to be the first of many ice cream stops during our trip.  Did the ice cream live up to the hype?  Yes.  I am told that it was extra creamy with very fresh flavours.

 

Gluten free eats: Paris

I knew that the rest of the family would eat well in Paris but I must admit that I was a little bit concerned.  I needn’t have worried.  It was a delicious few days.

Breizh Cafe:

A wonderful location for gluten free crepes.  They make their crepes out of buckwheat and they taste delicious!  Plus, they are as large as a dinner plate.

Just cool that the water came in this bottle.  It was greatly enjoyed by the girls.

Ham and cheesy yumminessHam, cheese, egg sunnyside up and sardines.

Helmut Newcake:

We walked here after our first dinner.  It was a bit of a trek but well worth it (as you can see from the empty plate).  They are the only completely gluten free bakery in all of Paris.  After enjoying a dessert in the seating portion of the bakery, I purchased a selection of goodies to enjoy for breakfast the next two mornings.

BeforeAfter (too good to waste a crumb)

Noglu:

The only completely gluten free restaurant in all of Paris and their food is superb!  They are located in this alley way lined with shops.  From the outside the restaurant looks small but this is deceiving as it actually has two floors.

The meal began with warm gluten free bread and these fluffy GF cheese puffs.

Appetizers –

Asparagus in egg with lentilsWhite fish with mushrooms and grilled red pepper.

Mains –

The girls split this super juicy pork chopGlenn’s fish with quoina

My steak, onions and garlic mashed potatoes

Desserts –

Chocolate brownie cakeToasted Hazelnut torteRaspberry Lemon cake

Creperie Genie:

Now I can not confirm that this restaurant is 100% gluten free as they do make both types of crepes and thus there is a risk of cross contamination.  I took the risk and enjoyed a delightful dinner.  This restaurant is located along Montparnasse and is walking distance to Luxembourg Gardens.

This was not gluten free.  It is a hotdog pannini which Elspeth enjoyed.  I have just never seen one before.

Ham and cheeseFour cheese (including blue cheese)Double egg.

 

Laduree Macaroons:

We never made it to their main store in Paris.  We purchased these goodies at Versailles (no line up).  I am so very glad that we did.  They are simply delicious.

The sight which first greeted my eyes upon noticing the shop.  Mmmm.

 

Other advice for Paris?  Well, if we had been staying longer I would have made better use of our aparthotel.  We had found a nearby supermarket and it would have been easy to purchase fresh fruit, cheese, yogurt and such.  Instead, for lunches I relied on the snacks which I had packed at home.

 

The final day

Yep, all good things must come to an end.  Today was a sunny and windy last day with a more relaxed pace.  We spent the whole day at Loch Lomond.  Glenn drove us up the west side of the loch to Firkin Point.  We walked along beside the loch and watched the waves.  Then the girls went splashing along the shore.  That is when we discovered that they haveworn holes in the soles of their rainboots.  I am looking at it as less to pack.  It also meant unpacking in the middle of a parking lot in order to find the dry socks and shoes.  At least they had fun while getting wet (as opposed to getting wet falling in).  I have to say that the scenery was beautiful.  It left me greatly relaxed.

After lunch we went to the Loch Lomond aquarium and thenada centplayground.  The girls loved the aquarium.  Their favorite parts were the touch tables and the tunnel tank.   We managed to see a few feelings which made it all the more interesting.  It was topped off by long play stints at the park.It  didn’t rain until we were almost at the airport.

It has been a wonderful vacation but I miss bed home, more specifically my bed.  Up early tomorrow morning .  Night.

 

Busy, busy, busy

Isn’t it funny how two girls who area falling asleep in the car are now wide awake?  I am currently hiding in the bathroom waiting for them to fall asleep so that I can start packing.  You see tomorrow is our last full day in Scotland and we will spend the night at the airport so it all has to go somewhere but I don’t want to waste time tomorrow doing it.  Sigh!

okay, yesterday morning we went to Wallace’s monument in Stirling.  While Elspeth and I worked our way up the hill looking at various plants, Glenn and Katrine not only climbed said hill but also all 246(?) steps to the top of the tower. I opted out of the climbing given that it would have involved carrying a child up the winding staircase.  We took the long way down the hill through the woodlot and were luck enough to cross paths withwe rabbit enjoying the sun.  Then we drove to the Falkirk Wheel to meet my cousin Helen.  Upon arriving Elspeth walked into the bottom of a metal sign (I thought she could see it and realized my error but not soon enough forhere to compensate).  I can now say that the Wheel hasunquiet a nice first aid room.  A bit more of a production than necessary but I understand their caution.  Once we had some ice, all was right in our world and we hit the play zone.  During lunch, the girls were super excited to see the wheel in action lifting a boat from one loch to another.  Some ice cream in the sunshinebred ore more playtime.  This time at the giant water zone (more like a giant water table than splash pad).  All of the playing left a lot of time to get caught up.

In the evening it was more family time as we celebrated a cousin’s birthday.  I think that the kids played on the trampoline for almost two hours!  Lots more smilesandbonding.  I love my family.  Have I said that before?  I am truly blessed.  My cousins wife went out of her way to make a large plate of GF sandwiches and even got me muffins so that I wouldn’t feel left out!  It was an awesome surprise and just goes to show how wonderful they are.

This morning we drove though the Trossachs.  We stopped in Aberfoyle to see rare sheep breeds for Elspeth.  Turna out that the real live sheep scare her.  She much prefers her blanket sheep.  Next stopafter a a rather lengthy yet scenic wrong turn, was Loch Katrine.  As you can guess, Katrine was beside herself with joy seeing HER loch!  To be honest, it is rather prett.  Then to see some Hei’lan Coos before lots of park time.  While the girls were at one of the parks playing with Glenn, my uncle took me in to see my grandmas house one last time.  Brought back so very many memories.  Spent many a happy visits there.

Finished the day with dinner with my uncle, a drive through town, a visit with one of my moms school chums and then another trip to the park.  I am tired writing it all down yet the girls are still wide awake”. Oh well.

Stratclyde and the seashore

I know it sounds like an unusual combination but that was our day.

This morning we joined the rest of the clan at Strathclyde Park to cheer on our cousin as she ran in the MND (Motor Neural Disease) fundraising run.  She finished in under an hour!!  Very impressed.  I think that it would have taken me double or triple that time to reach the end.  It also gave us a chance to spend more time with the family.  All of the cousins got dowon beside the water tossing in stones and laughing.  Exactly the type of memories I want the girls to have of our trip.

After a delicious lunch, it was back in to the park to visit the largeplayground.  I get some bad mommy points for forgetting to pack the girls boots and dressing them in new pink sweaters…which are now somewhat browner from the mud.  That said, neither girl stopped smiling the whole two hours we were there.  Even more important,  they consider their cousins as friends.  “you played with your cousins, right Elspeth?” “No!  I play my friend on the slide.”

It was lovely and sunny after dinner and it seemed like a waste to come back to our hotel and call it an evening so we headed out for a drive along the Firth of Forth (an inlet on the east coast of Scotland).  The girls were excited enough about having to cross a large bridge on the way over but I swear that their eyes almost popped out of their heads when the saw the even longer bridge we crossed on the way back.  We stopped between one bridge and the next in a small town.  The tide was out so we all clambered out of the car and walked along the seashore (never expected to write about being at the seaside on this trip).  Theyrustled about picking up stones and various shells.  We discovered that seaweed makes Elspeth nervous, much as grass did when we first came home.  The salt water smell in the air reminded me of out east.  As Glenn said, it was the type of Scotland that his dad would have loved to see.

 

Family Day in Callander

Today was a much slower day with the fOcus on family.  Although those we have loved and lost live on in our hearts, there are times when their memories move to the forefront.  Today was such a day. Stopping in the cemetery drove home missing the funeral and being part of the celebration of grandma’s life.  Seeing both girls giggling and bonding with some of the family reminded me of how much joy they would have brought her.  At the same time, the presence of this sorrow can also help you to recal the good times.  Upon arriving at my uncles he got us drinks and biscuits.  The same types my grandma plied us with growing up.  To visit grandma was to get spoiled with crisps and sweeties.  Hearing them laugh with their family reminded me of a birthday party I shared over here with my cousin years back as kids.  Going to Callander was very much like going home as a grown up.

The girls had none of these thoughts.  They were to busy enjoying themselves.  We hiked to the Bracklin Falls and saw the new bridge.  Then climbed down to what is left of the old one.  They threw sticks for my cousin’s dog and we all got soaked in the raibeautiful ally’s were beautiful.  Well worth the wall.

We ended the day with some shopping on mainstreet and some more visiting before driving to Thornhill for dinner.  In Thornhill, the girls got a charge out of seeing various “dummies” dressed up as part of a town celebration.  Their favorite was a mermaid although they were disturbed by its lack of facial features.

It was a rainy day

The first in a seriessupposedly.  I know, big surprise when one is in Britain.  It provided us with the perfect excuse to spend the day indoors at two museums -Science museum and Natural History museum.  The girls had a lot of fun at both.

The Science museum had a good mixture of interactive displays and information displays.  Katrine was in heaven surrounded by all of the information.  Especially when she got to see astronaut food Nd space diapers.  (Nope, potty humor is not just for boys.). Elspeth of course preferred the hands on areas but also went wide eyed looking at early bikes and lawn “momers”.  There was even an exhibit for Glenn on code breaking.  I got to see the model I made in grade school, well I think Scott actually made it, to go with a science fair project I did on the moon. Seriously, there was the exact same model in adisplay cabinet except it had a better paint job and gold leaf (I claimed it before it was painted.)

After about three hours we were all sciencesout so we headed next door to the next museum and the dinosaur exhibit.  On the way we passed through the bird section where Katrine saw a dodo bird and broke into song “Finding a dodo bird, driving our sister insane”.  Gotta love those text to text connections.  Both girls enjoyed the dinosaurs but near the end it was clear that Elspethwas done so she and I came back for nap and the other pair spent two more hours at the museums exploring whale skeletons and minerals mostly.  Once Gain, Katrine was in heaven.

Tomorrow is a special day to me because we will be meetin my cousin Lillian (my Nana’s mother’s sister’s daughter’s son’s wife, you got that straight?). I haven’t seen her since our wedding so I am very much looking forward to it.  I can hardly wait for her to meet my girls.  So I guess it is off to bed so that I can look well rested tomorrow.