Time for a new blog

I've been posting about gluten free stuff here for a little while but I thought it was about time I put it all in one central spot.

So here it is... a new blog Gluten Free in BNE (Brisbane)

I'm going to try and list all the places I know in Brisbane/Queensland that stocks and serves Gluten Free stuff.

My Top 5 Brisbane CBD Gluten Free Lunches

As I wandered off for lunch yesterday that it's often hard to find good places for lunch if you're looking for something with a little less gluten. I've been working in the Brisbane CBD for a few weeks now and I've stumbled across a few so I thought I'd make a list of my favourite place to grab a bite in the city during the week.

Cool Beans & Baguettes - Brisbane Square

This is my first choice for a lunch out in the city, they have a great selection of premade gluten free sandwiches (that you can get toasted) for $6.50. They come in a pair and have a range of different fillings each day. They also have a great selection of GF cakes and slices and will make Coffee's with Lactose free milk

Fav Lunch: Chicken Caeser Sandwich - $6.50

Fav Snack: Peanut Caramel Slice - $4.50

Alen's Espresso

These guys are really close and make fabulous coffee. They usually have a couple of Gluten free options on for the day and have a great selection of cakes and nibbles. Be prepared for a little wait though, their coffee is so good there is usually a line out the door to get one.

Fav Lunch: Breakfast Quiche

Fav Snack: Caramel Cheesecake

Extract Espresso Bar

It's a bit hard to find tucked away on Adelaide st but these guys have a great selection of the Gluten Free Topless Tarts and will often have bread to make up sandwiches with.

Fav Lunch: Spinach Risotto

Fav Snack: Lemon Polenta Cake

Spoon Deli (Festival Towers)

I haven't been down this end of town for ages but this used to be a good staple for my weekday lunches, they have lots of the sol breads in stock and lots of biscuit selections

Fav Lunch: chickpea fritter W coriander and yoghurt $8.50

Fav Snack: Gingerbread man

And my fast food option Nandos

This one is for when I'm feeling like a 'bad' lunch, a trip to nandos is on order, their menu has a list of all the items with Gluten in them (the opposite to everyone else).

Fav Lunch: Chicken Steak

Fav Snack: Spicy Rice

My Glutenous top 10

iamhausfrau's gluten binge this week got me thinking, if I had to eat Gluten for a week what would be the first foods on my list. I realised that some of the things I miss the most are the convenience foods, all the good restaurants make delicious gluten free meals (like the lamb rump I had at Aqua Linea last night). So here goes

1. Bacon Double Cheese burger (McDonalds)/Whopper (Hungry Jacks) (I know it seems wrong but I actually miss being able to eat one of these.... especially when I'm hung over)
2. Krispy Kreams/Dreamy Donuts Donut (These came out after I was eating Gluten Free so I'm a Donut Virgin)
3. Cheese and Vegemite Scroll from a bakery
4. Dominoes/Pizza Hut Meat Lovers Pizza
5. Indian with NAAN bread
6. Milo Bars/Kit-Kats
7. Baskins Cookies and Cream Icecream
8. Nutri-Grain®
   
9. Tim-Tams
10. A Hoegaarden (let's face it, gluten free beer is not great)

Annoyances with Gluten Free Bread

Knowing one of my fellow GF friends is now on a Gluten binge reminded me of some of the big annoyances with being Gluten Free. My biggest problem with Gluten Free bread is not the taste or the consistency, there are some really good ones around now. The IGA even has a potato loaf that toasts like 'real' bread. The thing that annoys me the most is the size! It seems that no sooner have you bought a loaf that you're at the end, this is also compounded by the fact that the slices are so much smaller as well... 2 slices of toast for breakfast isn't really much, but by the time you've had 2 slices for breakfast and 2 sandwiches (4 slices) your halfway through the loaf.... (or in this mornings case, the last half way through the loaf).

I'm not expecting it to change anytime soon but a normal sized loaf would be nice.

A beautiful morning for a stroll

In what is becoming an early morning tradition Zachary and I went for a walk along the river. On the good side it means he's swapped his 2-4 awake time for 5-7 and as a result a lot more night time sleep for us, but not as many blog posts.

It was a beautiful morning on the river (even if it was a little hot). There are some interesting outfits on the runners in the morning... all I'm going to say is NO ONE should be wearing those short running shorts but if you're over 60 DEFINITELY NOT!

Ness and Zachary (and Suse) went to a baby shower for my Sister yesterday, leaving Tom and I to fend for ourselves. After a brief stint watching top gear we slotted straight into some 360 time with Gears of War 2. We managed to blaze through the horde for about 4 hours before we could game no more. A pretty good game to pick though if you've got some time for co-op gaming. To carry on the gaming theme we ended the night with some pizza from Hell, which is fast becoming my favourite place to get Gluten Free Pizza. You can order online, they will tell you the exact minute that you can order and they have some fantastic taste sensations. To top it off when I'm feeling really lazy they will even deliver to my house!

I'm back to work full time on Monday which I think is going to be a bit tough, having been with Zach every day since he was born. Hopefully I've got some time working from home after the start of these projects so I will be able to spend some more time with him (even if I have to be working)

The nightmare of our AC failure is starting to be rectified with the final measurements and design being completed on Friday, everything is looking on track to be in by Christmas but I'm still considering putting in some ceiling fans to get us through until then.

Lastly we've made some minor additions to Zachary's room with some cool removable wall decals. I've still got one set to put up but this is the look so far...

Wall Decals

A bit of a new flight experience...

I’m off to Adelaide this morning, not a new thing I know, but today I’m flying in one of the new E190 aircraft. Over all it’s a pretty nice way to commute, the seats are significantly bigger than the ones on the Boeing flights, there are only 4 seats per row (2 per side) and there is even a bit more leg room. There are a few down sides though, not in flight entertainment... at all, I wouldn’t normally be too worried but I’m only got 45mins left on my laptop battery and I’m not sure how charged my DS is. As in flight entertainment goes though, the sunrise is pretty spectacular from 24,000 feet this morning.

I’ve had quite a few blog worthy things this week but I’ve been a bit flat out with the End of Financial year to get around to it. First off all, I had a bit of a taste of how the other side lives on Sunday when I dropped Ness at the airport for her flight to Canberra. She was flying with Qantas and I must say I’m very glad that it’s not my regular carrier. They have also opted for the “Self Check In” option but seem to have no idea what to do once people need to drop off their bags. We arrive with a little over an hour before the flight was due to depart and only made it to security check in with 5-10 minutes before boarding. The only way that people actually get to their gate on time is by “breaking from the queue and lining up at a desk” which then defeats the purpose of the queuing system as all the desks end up dealing with those flights that are about to board. The most frustrating thing about the whole system was the obvious dedication of resources to Qantas Club travellers who have as many staff on dedicated desks as the rest of the passengers desks.

Next on my list for this week was lining up at a Bank. I had to do some no transaction based banking at NAB there other day and again it was a disastrous queuing scenario. Everyone knows the bank at lunch time is never going to be fun but when I found myself only 4 people from the front of the line I thought I was in for smooth sailing. Sadly though, it took me an hour to get to the front of the queue. Again it was the staff dedicated to other areas not taking up any overflow that was causing the issue. It certainly didn’t make me think about changing any of my accounts over to them.

Onto more pleasant things though, I managed to fit in a bit of gaming this week. I had the house to myself for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, so I was planning on cramming in as much gaming as I could. Unfortunately a fair bit of work got in the way but I did manage to cruise through a few achievements on Assassin’s Creed. The game is pretty enjoyable and if you haven’t played it, I would definitely check it out especially while it’s on sale. It’s worth playing just for some of the scenery.

I also found THE BEST gluten free bread for making toast ever! I found it at my local IGA store (which is the one on Brunswick St in the Valley if you’re interested, which had a huge range of other gluten free stuff as well), it’s a Potato based bread and it makes the most fantastic toast. It’s almost like “normal” bread (although it’s been so long since I’ve had normal bread that my view’s probably tainted by now). It comes unsliced and was in the frozen section of the Deli. I only started the loaf yesterday and I’ve already eaten more than half of it...

Speaking of Gluten Free, I also have a had a couple of good GF dining experiences at Southbank in the last couple of days. Timmy’s which is a little restaurant at the end of Gray St (well actually it’s not on Gray st at all but it’s up the end where the Griffith Buildings are). They have a great range of GF options on their menu all the way through to desert (and I’m not just talking about the standard Jaffa Cake that everyone has). Their service was quite good, but the food was excellent and not particularly pricey, I would definitely recommend a dinner there. The other place we stumbled on was “Viet de Lite(s)” which is almost at the piazza end of Gray St. We found it last night on our way to the Kransky Sisters which was hilarious (although not the best thing to be going to before a 6am flight to Adelaide). They have the whole menu marked for Gluten Free with almost more GF than not. The food was very tasty and it was a pretty cheap and cheerful dinner (fantastic chicken rolls for entree!).

That’s probably about it for this flight as my battery warning light is starting to do the “I’m going to shut down soon” dance, so much for 45mins of time. At least that will give me a far bit of time in my rediscovery of Geometry Wars on the DS for the rest of the flight.

Great Dinner..

Last night we went out for dinner with a few friends and discovered what a great little restaurant the Blue Frog is. Ironically in all the time I worked in Toowong I never went there once, but last night was really good. One of the best things about the menu is the number of Gluten free dishes across entrees/mains/deserts (they also list lots of other dietary options against each meal).

While on the subject of Gluten Free, I've been staying in the Old Sydney Hotel while I've been in Sydney and they too have a great selection of Gluten free on their menu. The restaurant's menu isn't as well sign posted but they have everything marked on the Room Service Menu (much of which is shared with the restaurant). The staff have been quite quick to confirm anything that is gluten free though and they have a great blueberry and almond tart that is worth trying.

A little of (GF) Spain in Sydney

First of all I'm going to make an effort to do a few more posts.... Last night, however, I went out to dinner with a Vendor and they took us to a Spanish Restaurant on Oxford st called Raquels Spanish Kitchen. The food was fantastic, but the most impressive thing was the service. We had a largish table and ordered the Banquet. The thing that really surprised me was they asked if anyone needed specially dietary requirements. Normally in big groups like that I just steer clear of anything that might be risky, after telling them I was both Seafood and Gluten Free they not only brought out special meals just for my needs (included as part of the banquet) they also went to great lengths to ensure that the rest of the food was not placed too close to my food and told me which dish I could and couldn't eat.

It was a level of service for dietary requirements I've never seen before (even in restaurants that are big on Gluten Free menus). To top it off the food was great and it was the best Patatas Bravas I've had since we were at the Taxidermista in Barcelona. The food was quite authentic and there quantities were well and truly more than any of us could eat... We were all completely full even before the Paella came out.

I would definitely head there if you were looking for some nice Spanish cuisine