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….

Vinegar Jones Fish & Chips, Bowness-on-Windermere

My first blog post back has to be about one of the best examples of gluten free food that we’ve had over recent months.

A few months ago we visited the Lake District for our final break before the baby arrived. We’d visited Windermere a few years ago but that was in my pre-coeliac days, so I did some research into hotels and eateries before we booked our trip, just to make sure I would be ok.

We arrived quite late in the day on our first night due to a very long drive up from Bristol. As a result, I liked the idea of going for a walk rather than sitting down to a meal, so we decided to get fish and chips.

Tea on the Green, Exeter

On Friday I had a day out in Exeter for my sister’s graduation ceremony, which was taking place at Exeter Cathedral.

Knowing that I was going to be there over lunch time, I thought I should do a bit of gluten free research to see if I could find somewhere to eat that would suit the whole family.

I came across Tea On The Green which, as the name suggests, is located on the green conveniently right next to the Cathedral, so it was already a strong contender due to its location, but how would it fair for gluten free options?

I tweeted them on Sunday and received a tweet back pretty quickly saying that they make their own gluten free bread on site and I could have breakfast, paninis, curry, fresh fish of the day, pasties and cream teas!!

D Fecci & Sons Fish & Chips, Tenby

Earlier this week I travelled to Pembrokeshire for work and I asked my Facebook and Twitter followers for suggestions of good gluten free places in the area. I normally eat in my hotel when I’m in Pembroke, but after some disappointing meals I thought I’d see what else was on offer.

A couple of places were recommended by my followers and I did some of my own research too, with one place coming up in a number of different searches, D Fecci & Sons, a fish and chip shop in Tenby.

Ideally I didn’t want to have to travel too far to get my tea, so I decided to stop off in Tenby on my way to Pembroke, just so that I didn’t have to go back out again!

I’ve heard a lot about Tenby, but I’d never visited before. It is a very pretty little town with the most stunning coastline and views and a quaint little high street, which is where I headed to try to find the fish and chip shop.

The shop wasn’t particularly difficult to find as Tenby isn’t one of the largest towns, but it certainly seems to have a lot of fish and chip shops!

Dyrham Park, Gloucestershire

Last Sunday, Rich and I decided to venture to Dyrham Park which is a national trust site only 20 minutes away from us and somewhere I regularly drive past on my auditing travels.

We’ve visited twice before, once with my parents, and the main appeal for me is always the free roaming deer. The first time we went we saw a few, and when we went with my parents we didn’t see any which was a real shame. On this occasion we saw loads!!

As well as walking around the park following a number of different routes, there are also some beautiful gardens, the 17th century mansion, a shop and a tea room.

On our first visit I was very excited to see that they were advertising gluten free scones in the tea room, however after waiting in the queue for what seemed like ages, I was told they didn’t have any.

To say I was annoyed was an understatement and I decided we wouldn’t be having anything (one of those act first think later situations…).

On this occasion, after sending Rich to queue whilst I grabbed one of the last remaining tables, I was delighted that the outcome this time was more positive. 🙂

It wasn’t long before I was greeted with a hot
chocolate, gluten free scone, Rodda’s Cornish clotted cream (only the best!) and a jar of jam. Heaven!

It was a shame that my scone was considerably smaller than Rich’s ‘normal’ one, but it tasted great and the texture of the scone was wonderful.

Of course my cream tea was compiled in the proper Cornish manner(!) and it was perfect for a Sunday afternoon treat!

It’s been a wait to get to try a Dyrham Park scone, but it was well worth it!

I don’t visit any other National Trust sites so I’m not sure if they all offer gluten free options, but I’m pleased that Dyrham Park very clearly label their items with allergen information and also have some Mrs Crimbles goodies!

If you’d like to find out more about Dyrham Park, you can visit their website and follow them on Twitter.

Have you visited any National Trust sites lately? Did they have any gluten free products? What did you think? Please leave your comments below!

Updated: BMI Regional In-Flight Snacks – now includes response from BMI Regional

Back in May I flew to Aberdeen for work and wasn’t aware until on the flight that BMI Regional offer complimentary snacks and drinks. As I hadn’t advised beforehand that I was a coeliac I assumed that I wouldn’t be able to have anything, but figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

To my surprise the cabin crew said they’d check to see if they had a spare gluten free box. A gluten free box?! Ooh how exciting!

I was delighted when a few minutes later, once everyone else had been served, I was given a BMI Regional branded ‘New Well-Being Box, The Good Life’. The front of the box stated ‘say hello to our selection of tasty nut, gluten and milk free bites, chosen from the best of British – enjoy’. Wow – multiple allergies covered in one box, how impressive!

Until you open it….

My Gluten Free Cornish Birthday Celebrations!

As part of my birthday celebrations last month, Rich and I went back to Cornwall to visit my family, and on my actual birthday we spent some time visiting St Michael’s Mount and Marazion.

First up was our trip to St Michael’s Mount.

To most local folk who have been away, you know you’re home when you see St Michael’s Mount on the horizon. It’s certainly been a tearjerker for me when I haven’t been home for a while!

Rich had never visited the Mount himself so I was keen for him to visit and take in the beautiful scenery. For those not familiar with St Michael’s Mount, there are two ways main ways to get there (unless you fancy swimming!) and those are by boat or by foot across the causeway. Obviously there are only certain times when the causeway is accessible due to the tide so I made sure we visited during these times, as I’m not a massive fan of boats myself….

Lamphey Court Hotel & Spa, Pembrokeshire

As you probably know, I stay away quite a lot for work and being a coeliac this is always quite a nerve-wracking experience, as you never know what you’re going to get!

As a result I tend to stick to Premier Inns as I know which items on their menus I can have and their allergen information is always very useful. However when I was arranging a 2 night stay in Pembrokeshire recently, I discovered that Premier Inns don’t exist that far west in Wales. As a result I had to use our internal booking system and the only hotel available was the Lamphey Court Hotel & Spa.

I did a bit of research on the hotel and as always I emailed ahead to make sure that they could indeed cater for my dietary requirements. I was delighted when they said they could and they said ‘Please just state Coeliac when booking and we can arrange any orders we need to put in place’. Ace!

Not A Trace Awards 2013

As we approach the festive season, and I approach my first coeliac anniversary next month, I thought that now would be a good time to look back over the past year and highlight my favourite products, restaurants etc that I’ve come across. What better way to do this than in the form of the inaugural Not A Trace awards!

I’ve reviewed at lot of amazing things since starting my blog in April and having passed 9000 views during that time, I’m very grateful to all of my readers! It’s certainly been a very rewarding and somewhat therapeutic experience for myself and I hope it’s been of some benefit to all of you too!

I must also say that I have made some wonderful friends in the gluten free community as a result of social media, and I’m very grateful to all of you for your friendship and advice during my first year as a coeliac. Thank you!

So, let’s kick off the awards…..

Källarkrogen, Gothenburg, Sweden

This post is a continuation of my main post about my trip to Sweden, which can be found here.

We had planned to eat in our hotel on our last night as our friends’ had left for Stockholm by this point, but having looked at the hotel menu it was very expensive and seemed to have few gluten free options.

Instead we ventured out and came across Källarkrogen which is actually a restaurant within a cellar!