A Coeliac abroad: Tenerife

I finally did it - I went on my first holiday abroad since being diagnosed as Coeliac. And it was brilliant!

Where we stayed: an apartment in Golf del Sur, which is on the south coast of the island, in the province of Santa de la Cruz.

Staying in an apartment we were self-catering which was perfect for me and it meant I had more control of what I was eating.

A little bit about the area:

Golf del Sur is a holiday resort and golf course in the municipality of San Miguel de Abona. Situated alongside a golf course and marina, it's a peaceful, pretty town. There are black sand and pebble beaches here, not your usual golden sandy beaches. The more touristy Los Christianos and Playa de la Americas are only a 20 minute drive away.

I felt incredibly lucky when my Mum &  Sister announced they were going to take me away on holiday for my 30th birthday. I haven't been abroad since our honeymoon to Italy 5 years ago so a holiday was very much needed! It was also my first holiday since diagnosis.

I was very much looking forward to getting away for a bit of sun. However I was nervous - eating out abroad in a foreign country where I don't speak the language AND being Coeliac - how was I going to cope? The more I thought about it the more I began to panic!

The important thing to remember when planning a Coeliac holiday abroad is: do your research before you go. I spent a lot of time researching places to go beforehand. It was a toss up really between Lanzarote or Tenerife &  none of us had ever been to either before. We wanted somewhere with pretty much guaranteed nice weather and places where I could eat out safely.

My initial research on Google came up with a few places in Tenerife so we booked to go there. But I also was very grateful for the tips provided by Claire Tulloch and her Positively Coeliac blog facebook page who had been to Tenerife just a couple of months before (thanks Claire!) I therefore felt a bit more confident going away knowing that there were a few places suitable for me.

I would definitely also recommend downloading from the internet an appropriate dietary information card in the language of the country you are going to. They are ideal if you are going somewhere & can't speak much of the language - you can simply pass to a waiter or shopkeeper & it will explain to them what dietary requirements you have & the types of food you can & can't eat. I found one in Spanish & printed off a copy from Celiactravel.com - just click here

What impressed me the most about our time in Tenerife was actually the labelling in supermarkets, in particular there was a small Dino supermarket literally a stone's throw from our apartment - this was actually way better than the main, much bigger supermarket a bit further away for gluten-free labelling.

There also wasn't a Free From Section in this Dino Supermarket, and all the gluten-free food was dotted about all over the place in amongst the 'normal' food (which I actually quite liked - it felt normal) but it was all very well labelled with these nifty signs.

In the UK we look for gluten-free or free from. In Spain it's 'Sin Gluten'.

Where did we eat?

All the restaurants we ate at were in Golf del Sur, just a short drive if feeling lazy or a few minutes walk from San Miguel residential village.

The first place we ate out at was Pata de Oro, we liked this place so much we went twice!

 

Here's their address: 

Calle Trasera San Blas | Bunaglow No. 9, 38620 Golf del Sur, Tenerife, Spain

 

Pata de Oro has a great range of tapas, a lot of it is gluten free. The guys that run the place speak very good English and seemed pretty clued up on what is and what isn't gluten-free. This immediately put me at ease. We ordered a selection of tapas. It was great!

Yummy tapas

We also spotted on the menu: Paella. This has to be ordered at least 24 hours in advance for 2 or more people, so does require a little forward planning. Spain's national dish is paella so we definitely had to try some authentic paella whilst we were here. We therefore decided to order a seafood paella for our last night in Tenerife and come back.

Check out this beauty!

Now that's proper paella!

The paella was amazing and I would definitely recommend it! This was supposed to be paella for 3 people but it could have easily fed 5. I think we did a pretty good job though.

Washed down with a large jug of sangria too!

 

Next we visited Rendezvous. You can find Rendevous at the Winter Gardens apartment complex. Their address is:-

 

Ground floor, Winter Gardens, Las chafiras, 38639 Golf del Sur, Tenerife

 

There are 2 parts to Rendezvous - a restaurant upstairs with an A la Carte menu or a bistro-style cafe downstairs overlooking a bowling green. We opted for the bistro which serves your typical bar food. If I'm honest the bistro feels more British & touristy as they were showing football on the big screen (think it was Arsenal vs someone). Don't let this put you off though. Less choice here for Coeliacs but I did manage to get chicken & chips with a nice salad. I asked behind the bar on arrival what gluten-free options they had on the menu & it is really a case of adapting what's on the menu to make it gluten-free. At least the chips were gluten-free. I think if you fancy a break from Spanish cuisine & feel like a few home comforts e.g. fish & chips then this place is for you. I personally don't like going abroad & eating food you can get back home and much prefer sampling foreign cuisine when on holiday, but everyone is different. Sometimes being a coeliac you just can't be that fussy & so eating here was absolutely fine. I think maybe next time I would choose the restaurant upstairs.

Tapas & Chill

Apartamentos Aguamarina Golf Local 3 | Avda. del Atlantico 9, 38639 Golf del Sur, Tenerife, Spain



I was really pleased to stumble across Tapas & Chill. For me this place had the best allergen labelling on their menu. Each dish was clearly labelled whether there was gluten, dairy, and nuts present which was really helpful. I decided on a selection of tapas including the roasted red pepper and pork in creamy port sauce. Delicious! We couldn't really fault the food at all - authentically Spanish, a friendly atmosphere and staff and plenty of gluten-free options for me.












Everything was really helpfully labelled


On our penultimate night in Tenerife we decided to stay in the apartment and cook for ourselves. Our apartment had its own BBQ so we bought a load of BBQ stuff from the supermarket (gluten-free chorizo sausages and salmon fillets, lots of salad for me). It's really easy to self-cater in Golf del Sur, the supermarkets are really good for gluten-free and you will pretty much find everything you need to prepare a home cooked meal. You can always take a bag of gluten-free pasta in your suitcase and a few other essentials but fresh fruit, veg and meat and fish can be found in all supermarkets.

Just a couple of the many brands of

      crisps that are gluten-free in Tenerife!

                                               

Another nifty find was this great ice cream parlour also in the San Miguel residential village, I would definitely recommend you pay a visit here. There are tons of ice cream flavours to choose from and if you ask the lady who works there (she is very sweet and speaks good English) she will tell you that all the flavours are gluten-free. I was a bit dubious about the oreo cookie ice cream so I would maybe avoid that one. But I sampled numerous flavours over the course of the week and was fine with every one I tried.

Overall I would highly recommend a holiday to Tenerife, especially the Gulf del Sur resort. Absolutely stunning part of the world and great gluten-free good!

 

 

Just a little holiday snap to make you all jealous. I really miss this view!

The Roaches Tea Rooms, Upper Hulme, Leek

Could this tea room have possibly one of the best views in the whole of UK? I certainly think so.

Take a look at this for a view.

Not a bad place to stop off for a brew and a piece of cake is it?!

I recently discovered that The Roaches Tea rooms not only have amazing views of the Peak District countryside, but also their very own gluten-free menu! And it's only a short drive from Leek where I live.

Here's a copy of their GF menu

I was really impressed with the choice. Plus there's always a good selection of gluten-free cake.

It's still quite rare for a restaurant to have a separate gluten-free menu so any place that makes the effort to print their own gluten-free menu's will certainly get my business time and time again.

I've been here a couple of times now, the first time just for coffee and cake, but the second to have lunch - which was a lovely tuna mayo ciabatta with chips and salad. Now there aren't many places that actually will have gluten-free ciabatta's available either!

The tea rooms are ideally located at the South-western edge of the Peak District National Park and so is a very popular pit stop for walkers and hikers alike. It can therefore get quite busy at peak times, so may be best to call ahead and either reserve a table or get there nice and early before the lunchtime rush. I would highly recommend one of the tables outside (weather permitting) with their breathtaking views.

I'm so incredibly lucky to live near here!

http://roachestearooms.co.uk/

Gluten-free at Fairways Garden Centre, Ashbourne

You know you are a homeowner when you spend Bank Holiday at a garden centre!

So this is my life now, I own a home. And this is one of the reasons why this blog has been so quiet lately, my apologies.

Fairways Garden Centre is located at Clifton in Ashbourne, roughly 16 miles out of Leek (they also have a centre in Macclesfield).

The garden centre itself is lovely but what I was more interested in was whether they had any gluten-free options in their cafe/restaurant upstairs. Gardening is hungry work after all.

The restaurant upstairs is huge by the way.

More and more smaller, independent cafes are becoming more aware of dietary requirements and a lot now do have gluten-free options on their menu. Fairways is probably one of the more clued up places I have visited recently. And here's why.

I was so pleased to see that their menu tells you exactly what gluten-free options they have - and there's not just one or two choices...they are 5 different options for lunch!

The garden centre's selection of cakes and pastries is pretty extensive but they have not forgotten us Coeliacs either - there was gluten-free flapjack or fruit toast on offer. They clearly know what they are doing when it comes to preventing cross-contamination too as the gluten-free items were all individually wrapped to protect them from any gluten crumbs (all the gluten-containing cakes were on big plates where you just helped yourself).

I was also really impressed to see that all the food was clearly labelled and indicated what allergens were present in each one - so for example, the ticket would read "contains wheat, gluten, egg" etc. So helpful! And is probably a result of the new law that came in in December 2014 which means that now all food businesses must provide allergen information for the meals they serve.

If you don't fancy a hearty meal like cottage pie or a roast pork dinner, there are lighter options on the menu suitable for Coeliacs, like the soup, It was great to see there were two soup options. And there's also gluten-free bread if you ask one of the servers behind the counter.

OK, so it wasn't a bread roll, but still I was able to have gluten-free bread with my soup (for me, there's nothing worse than having soup with no bread, you need something to dip in!). In a lot of places there isn't always an option to have gluten-free bread with your soup so Fairways definitely gets the thumbs up from me.

I think it was probably Genius bread (is it sad that I can tell what brand of bread it was?) and tasted great with a bit of butter and dipped in to my carrot and coriander soup.

The soup itself was really tasty, creamy and filling - it really was a massive portion! All the food is homemade, prepared from fresh ingredients on site and they use locally-sourced ingredients too. I have to say I was really impressed, not just with the quality of food, but also their knowledge of dietary requirements and availability of gluten-free options, I would definitely eat here again.