Warrens Bakery

Now don’t get me wrong, in my pre coeliac days Warrens Bakery wouldn’t have been my first choice for a pasty, but quite frankly I’ll now go anywhere that has gluten free pasties!

I had heard on the grapevine that Warrens had started selling gluten free pasties towards the end of 2017, so when I went back to Cornwall earlier in the year, it had suddenly become extremely convenient to try them, as my parents had not long moved to within a few metres of one of their smaller shops in Penzance!

My mum had done a bit of research at the local shop for me and found out that as long as I pre-ordered the day before I needed them, they would make sure that they had some available and precooked by the time we collected them. They have two gluten free flavours (cheese and onion and a traditional steak), so naturally I ordered one of each!

Before I get on with the review, here’s a little bit of information about Warrens Bakery and their gluten free options, taken from their website:

In St Just, near Land’s End, 150 years ago, two families united bringing together the freshest local ingredients and traditional craft bakery skills. Making hand-crimped pasties, freshly baked bread and prized scones and biscuits, Warrens Bakery soon became firm favourites of the miners, farmers and the local community.

Honest Burgers, Bristol

I first visited a branch of Honest Burgers back in 2015 and it was amazing, but it was a shame that they were only available in London as I didn’t visit that often, aside from a few trips for work.

A burger restaurant where I can actually have a burger in a bun is seemingly still quite a rarity, so when I found out that a branch was going to open in Bristol I was extremely excited!

At the beginning of July the latest branch opened in Clare Street (just down from Cosy Club) and I’ve already visited twice!

If you don’t know much about Honest Burgers, here’s some more information about them taken from their website:

We met working at a restaurant in Brighton, while at university. We loved restaurants. We talked about them, worked in them, ate in them, and thought ‘we could do better than them’.

We decided to open Honest over a pint in our favourite pub. And that’s what we wanted it to be: a pull-up-a-chair local with good people and good food.

All change….

It’s hard for me to believe that it’s been almost 18 months since my last blog post, but so much has happened during that time that it has actually flown by for me.

If you’re a regular reader (hopefully there are a few of you left!) you’ll be aware that I took on the role of Group Organiser for the Bristol Coeliac UK Local Group, but having instigated the revival of the group some years earlier, I felt that my involvement in the group should finally come to an end and the reigns should be passed on to someone else, so I resigned from my role and from the committee back in May.

It was a tough decision for me to make, but I needed to get some ‘me’ time back. My little one is now 2 years old and full of energy, so it’s nice to have more time with him and not worry about planning the next meeting or event, instead I’m organising play dates and day trips!

Not A Trace Awards 2016

Regular readers will know that each year I have my own little awards ‘ceremony’ where I acknowledge the best products / companies in various categories.

The awards for 2016 are obviously a little late(!) and as my blog posts were few and far between last year, due to a certain little person taking all my attention, the 2016 awards are more a summary of my blog reviews from last year.

Despite my inability to blog of late, it’s great to have had over 58,000 blog views since Not A Trace began. I am also very proud to see the constant stream of views every day even if I haven’t blogged for a while. Thank you to you all!

So, on to the awards / 2016 round-up….

Pieminister Gluten Free Pies

Having lived in Bristol for over 10 years now, one of the best things it has produced is definitely its Pieminister pies! I always loved having a Heidi pie (goats cheese, spinach and sweet potato) but after being diagnosed as a coeliac four years ago, these became a thing of the past.

That was until Pieminister recently introduced their gluten free pies! Only three of their pies are gluten free at present, but one of them just so happens to be the Heidi pie! Wahoo! 🙂

Pieminister kindly offered me the chance to try their gluten free pies – there was no way I could say no to that!

Before I get on to the review, here’s a little bit more about their gluten free pies, taken from their website:

We’ve spent the best part of a year rolling, mixing, tasting and baking to create Gluten Free Moo and Heidi pies.  And proof that they taste just as great as their non-GF counterparts, they both triumphed in the 2016 British Pie Awards. Taking first place in the Free From Class, the Gluten Free Heidi was crowned Class Champion, making it officially the best gluten free pie in the UK. The Gluten Free Moo was placed in the top three ‘Free From’ pies in Britain, winning a Gold Medal and the ‘Highly Commended’ title.

LumberJack Bars

The early days of being a new mum proved quite hard for me, but one thing that really got me through was a well-timed delivery of LumberJack Bars!

I spent the first week home from hospital effectively stuck in one room as I had a few mobility issues, so Rich was making sure that I was well fed so that I could look after the baby, but mealtimes were a bit hit and miss.

As a result, snacks proved to be very useful for providing that extra bit of fuel, especially protein packed ones….

Bristol Coeliac UK Local Support Group

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll be aware that I have spent a number of years trying to reinstate the Bristol Coeliac UK Local Support Group (the original post from 2014 can be found here).

I didn’t think it was right that a city the size of Bristol didn’t have its own group and that its members had to travel further afield to go to events. Well, things have changed…..

We now have our own group!! 🙂

After a lot of years of effort from a group of very committed people (who are now committee members), the official group had its launch back in July 2016. I was due to have been at the event, but was instead in hospital being unexpectedly induced, so sort of had my hands full!

The event was a resounding success and was just a taster of things to come for the group.

At the start of this month we held our first coffee morning at Windmill Hill City Farm, which was well attended and helped to raise funds for future events. The donations we receive from members are extremely important as we are a self funding group, so if we don’t receive the donations then unfortunately we won’t be able to put on the events.

You’ll be pleased to know that there are more coffee mornings in the pipeline, as well as some free from taster evenings and even our very own food fair!

In order to find out more about our upcoming events, pop over to our official group Facebook page, as well as the Coeliacs in Bristol Facebook group which also shares details of our events.

Salt & Malt, Chew Valley Lake

I first ventured out to Chew Valley Lake last year and experienced the fish and chips at Salt & Malt, an amazing restaurant overlooking the lake. I enjoyed it so much that I didn’t have time for photos, so promised myself that the next time I went I would write a review….

Before I get on to that, if you haven’t heard of Salt & Malt where have you been? Not only do they have a restaurant, but they also have a takeaway so you can have the same great food whilst enjoying a walk around the stunning lake.

However, the best thing about Salt & Malt is that a large number of their items are gluten free as standard! 🙂

Georges Fish Bar, Hanham

Social media really is a wonderful thing…. You’ll be aware that I set up the Coeliacs in Bristol Facebook group with the intention of forming an official Coeliac UK group (more on that to follow….), but it’s also used as a forum for sharing new finds and asking for advice.

One of the suggestions posted by the lovely Sonia was regarding Georges Fish Bar in Hanham and that they are now serving gluten free fish and chips. Having moved to Hanham earlier this year, this was amazing news, so I contacted them for some more information.

At present they only offer gluten free fish and chips on the first Monday of every month between the hours of 17:00 – 20:30, but hopefully with a bit more advertising and interest I’m hoping they may increase this….

Pizza Express – gluten free dough balls

Since I last wrote a review about Pizza Express back in 2013, I’ve visited the restaurants on numerous occasions, whether it be on my lunch break, with the Bristol Coeliac Group or when I booked to have a meal at one of the restaurants in Bath for my hen night!

Back when I wrote the first review, the starter options were quite limited, but now everyone’s prayers have been answered – they have gluten free dough balls! 🙂