Gluten-Free Afternoon Tea at Browns, Cambridge

I had the pleasure of visiting beautiful Cambridge at the weekend to attend a friend's hen party. I'll admit, initially the thought of a hen party away from home in a city I've never been to before did fill me with dread. It's hard enough eating out being a Coeliac at the best of times let alone when you have no control of the places where you eat. However, the wonderful organiser of the hen party was really understanding and accommodating of my dietary needs and every place we ate at she managed to arrange a gluten-free alternative for me.

Part of the hen do festivities involved a visit to Browns in Cambridge where I had my first ever gluten-free afternoon tea. Now, I'm probably not your typical afternoon tea type of girl - for a start, I don't like normal tea and only drink fruit tea infusions - so some might say an experience like this is wasted on someone like me. Because I am Coeliac I can't eat normal scones, cucumber sandwiches and fancy cakes that you would normally serve with afternoon tea, however, on their website Browns state:-

"If you have specific dietary requirements, please contact your local Browns and we can advise you on our menu or our chefs (with a little notice) can prepare a dish especially for you".



So definitely make sure you call them in advance! I was grateful to Helen for calling them beforehand on my behalf.

Here it is - gluten-free afternoon tea for one

Here's what I got:- 3 sandwiches each with a different filling including cucumber and smoked salmon (I can't remember what the third was but it was yummy) all served on gluten-free bread, 4 bakewell tarts (yes 4) and fresh strawberries and pineapple to top it all off nicely. I was actually really impressed considering they don't normally cater for Coeliacs on their regular menu. Because they probably had to go out and buy gluten-free products especially for me this really shows how they will make the effort if you have a dietary requirement all you have to do is ask. I guess it would have been nice to have had a choice of cakes rather than just 4 bakewell tarts but really I was just so grateful to be included in the hen party activities.

Browns not only provide afternoon tea but they also do breakfast, brunch and lunch menu's, cocktails, Sunday lunch and even lobster nights.

To make a booking at Browns click here for more info

Treacle Market, Macclesfield

I literally couldn't wait to visit Treacle Market yesterday as I'd heard the Foodamentalists would be exhibiting there. I follow the award winning Foodamentalists on Twitter and have been meaning to try their gluten-free products for a while since reading the many rave reviews online. This was the perfect opportunity to sample their products and purchase some to take home.

The Treacle Market is held on the last Sunday of the month and is a very popular and bustling market. There are over 100 stalls exhibiting arts and crafts, food and drink and antiques. Not forgetting the great live music and the real sense of community you get as you wander around the cobbled streets.

First point of call, naturally, was to head to the Foodamentalists stall. It was great to chat to them and I purchased some of their tortilla mix - I smell homemade fajita's coming soon! (future blog post to follow). Seriously though, I could have spent a lot more money than I did, all of their products looked amazing!

A couple of stalls down we found Mrs P's chilli jam. Oh my goodness, you have to give this a try! It's the most amazing jam I've ever had with a real kick to it and it's gluten-free so this immediately went in to my shopping bag.

Next, we bumped in to Adam and Marinha on their Delicious Sauce stand. I've not heard of this brand before but I was intrigued to try their Portugese and African-style sauces and oils, as you can probably tell by now I am partial to a bit of chilli. Everybody was dipping bread in to the taster pots but the lovely Adam and Marinha were really conscious that I couldn't have any contamination from 'normal' bread and so they gave me the sauces to try on a spoon. Plus thanks to the Foodamentalists I had a few slices of their gluten-free bread to dip in (leftovers from their samples). All their sauces are gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan friendly and use only the freshest and natural of ingredients. If you like chilli then these sauces are for you! I decided on the garlic and chilli sauce in the end after much deliberating mainly because they told me that people use it to make garlic bread with - I was sold! Another blog post to follow I'm sure. I also picked up a bottle of their basil and chilli-infused olive oil.

There was plenty of other food and drink to sample (sadly not for me) but this was a great afternoon out in the sunshine and I will definitely be going again.

You can read more about the market here