Gluten free versions of food

I thought people might be interested if I made a post that showed some examples of when I, and another person I'm eating out with have ordered the exact same dish, but I have asked for the gluten free version of the food. I've taken pictures of a few examples which I will show side-by-side.

The butterfly and the pig gluten free burger

Gluten containing version

The difference here is pretty obvious, the gluten free version has a different bread to the gluten containing version. It also happens to have bacon, but that's fairly irrelevant. This was from the butterfly and the pig, a quirky restaurant which has recently opened a new restaurant in the west end of Glasgow.

Gluten free curry accompaniments, Las Iguanas, Deansgate Manchester

Gluten containing version

Ok, I admit these photos are pretty stupid. I forgot to take any once we'd actually put the curry onto the dish, as it was to the side in a pan over a tealight- whoops! The main difference here is the absence of a fried plantain (banana type thing) in the gluten free version. I think I also got extra rice as compensation. Las Iguanas is a chain of Brazilian restaurants, with a dedicated gluten free menu. I find the food really rich and tasty.

Gluten free eggs benedict, Tea Hive, Chorlton, Manchester 

Gluten Containing version

Eggs benedict is one of my all time favourite breakfasts when I'm out. Again, the difference here is the bread, which is gluten free toast rather than a breakfast muffin. The toast wouldn't be as absorbent as the muffin but this is compensated for by the fact the bread is usually bigger. Tea Hive is a cafe in the trendy Chorlton-cum-Hardy suburb of Manchester.

 Gluten free Ham Hock Terrine, The Harbour Inn, Bowmore, Islay, Scotland

Gluten containing version

This is a ham hock terrine with pickled quails egg, broad bean and shallot salad, rye crumbs, apple gel. The difference in the gluten free version is that the rye crumbs are missing, this can handily be seen in the bottom picture where the quail egg has rolled away and revealed the crumbs. The Harbour Inn is a great hotel and restaurant on the Hebridean Island of Islay, which I visited this summer. There were excellent views and great food.

Gluten Free Halibut, The Harbour Inn, Bowmore, Islay, Scotland

Gluten containing version

This is the main course from the same restaurant, which is halibut poached in olive oil, nettle spätzle, savoury granola, samphire, rocket pistou, vierge garnish. The crusty topping is missing from the gluten free version, which is presumably the savoury granola. It was very tasty.

 

Gluten free plain scone, Peak View Tearoom 

Gluten containing version

The scone was completely different to the gluten containing one, and it looked different too. It looked somewhat more authentic and fresh, or perhaps just less perfectly shaped than its gluten containing cousin. My mum tells me that the gluten free scone was a bit drier and more crumbley than her gluten one, but the taste is possibly better in the gluten free version. Peak View Tearoom is a nice cafe on the edge of the peak district, with an exciting gluten free menu.

Gluten free lobster thermidor, The Wensleydale Heifer, West Witton, North Yorkshire

Gluten containing version?

These dishes certainly looked very similar, however, one was announced as gluten free on arrival so you would assume there's a difference. The bottom image looks like it has a thicker skin on it, so maybe they've added some kind of cheese sauce that is missing from the gluten free version. Nevertheless, it was absolutely delicious. The Wensleydale Heifer is a restaurant with rooms in Yorkshire which specialises in seafood dishes.

And finally, since there's no place like home...

Gluten free garlic bread, home, Christmas Eve

Gluten containing version

This gluten free garlic bread was made using the gluten free kitchens' white rolls, it worked pretty well and tasted good. The gluten free kitchen is a dedicated gluten free bakery in Yorkshire, I'm planning to dedicate a post to them once I've sampled all the massive amounts of food I bought from them just before Christmas.

 I hope you found it interesting to see the differences between gluten free and gluten containing versions of things. Usually it's something obvious like bread or bread crumbs but sometimes it's something more unusual like the plantain.

Diagnosis of coeliac disease

Having written a lot of posts about restaurants, cooking and other experiences, I thought it was about time I shared my experience of becoming a coeliac- how I was diagnosed. My hope is that if anyone out there is wondering if they are a coeliac and not sure how the diagnosis procedure happens or where to start with the gluten free diet this will provide some useful information.

            I was formally diagnosed with coeliac disease inn June 2012, aged 19. Statistically, the average time to diagnose coeliac disease from onset of symptoms to formal diagnosis is a whopping 13 years. As I understand it, coeliac disease is not necessarily something you have from birth, but onset is caused by a variety of triggers in susceptible individuals. For example, strong antibiotics can trigger onset, which makes sense because they kill even the good bacteria in the gut, which leaves the body more vulnerable. I’ve also read that quitting smoking after smoking for several years can trigger onset, which is interesting, and probably not something you want to tell someone who’s trying to quit!

            For me, my main symptom of coeliac disease was nausea, which I experienced when I woke up or at other times through the day. Sometimes it would cause me to vomit. I also had some diarrhoea or constipation. Another thing that affected me often was general illness- I always had an infection of some kind, colds, chest infections, UTIs. I went to the doctors over Christmas time 2011, complaining of nausea. At the time I thought I might be lactose intolerant, because I eat a large amount of cheese. The doctor did a wide array of blood tests for all sorts of things, including coeliac disease. The test results take about 2 weeks to come back and I got letter saying they were positive just before I went back to uni.

            I now had the task of getting follow up advice back in Scotland. It’s people like me who are the victims of the confusion caused by Scotland having a separate NHS to England and Wales. In Glasgow I was able to persuade my surgery in England to fax the blood test results to my Glasgow GP. I was then referred to the gastroenterology endoscopy specialist. At this point my symptoms had more or less gone away, but I was still suffering from a long lasting chest infection.

            The second stage of diagnosis is a small intestine biopsy, which involves a tube with a small camera and other equipment being passed down the throat, through the stomach and into the first part of the small intestine. Or ‘swallowing the sword’ as my also coeliac Grandfather calls it. The reason this is done is to confirm the diagnosis of coeliac disease, as false positive blood results are possible and may indicate more rare conditions. Additionally, the biopsy is useful for revealing the levels of damage to the villi of the small intestine to help determine if any vitamin supplements are necessary. The procedure itself was not too bad really; you could choose whether or not to have sedation. I chose not to because it meant I didn’t need to be in hospital for as long. They spray a banana flavoured local anaesthetic into your mouth, which you’re told to swill with. I remember that it was banana flavoured because the nurse asked if I was allergic to banana (I’m allergic to several fruit and veg), and even if I was I’m pretty sure a banana had been nowhere near that spray! Then they pass the tube into your throat and you have to swallow it. They pump your stomach full of air so that they can see the stomach (it’s empty because you’ve not been allowed to eat) so you burp quite a lot. It sort of feels like you are being sick, but of course you’re not because you’re stomach is empty. Actually inside you can’t really feel all that much, and the whole procedure is over in 10-20 mins. Then they give you a piece of paper telling you not to eat for an hour and to go straight to A and E if you start vomiting blood (as if you wouldn’t anyway?!). I sat around for a few minutes until they were satisfied I wouldn’t pass out or anything and then I was free to go. Personally I get really grouchy if I skip a meal, so I started eating pretty much as soon as I left the hospital, and was probably eating a hearty lunch before my allocated hour was up. It didn’t do me any harm, and I’m not one for religiously following medical advice (of course I won’t drink when I’m on those antibiotics, but whisky doesn’t count- right?).

            No one told me how I would get the results, they only told me that I wouldn’t get it through the post, I wouldn’t get them over the phone and there was no way I could get them in person. What options does that leave? Semaphore?! Anyway it had been a long wait to hear anything, I rang my own GP and they’d heard nothing. At this point I was living back in England on the long summer break, which didn’t help with keeping up with what was going on. I’d more or less given up hope of ever knowing the results until I was living back in Glasgow. It must have been 6-8 weeks later when I got the results. It was a letter which said something short and to the point akin to ‘your recent biopsy confirms diagnosis of coeliac disease’. I cried. I’d almost managed to convince myself that I wasn’t coeliac; I was symptom free and healthy! I knew this would affect me for the rest of my life.

            I’ll tell you about how I came to terms with my diagnosis and slowly converted my life to be free from gluten in another post, because this one seems pretty long already!