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Lunch Out & About: Eat a Pitta

“Bristols best falafels”, and they’re totally gluten free! Eat a Pitta is my current lunch obsession. You can find their stalls in central Broadmead, the lovely St Nicks market and soon to be on Gloucester road. You can choose a salad box, which they cram full of various chickpea, tomato, carrot and cucumber salads, and then add some of the hot homemade falafels on top. Topped off with hummus and a variety of sauces or salsas, it really is just the perfect summary lunch that is super filling. The food is really clean, fresh and tasty. Crispy falafels with a moist (sorry) centre and hummus make a wonderful pair.

Everything apart from the pittas, cous cous and tabbouleh is GF. If you’re coeliac or sensitive ask for the box to be made specifically gluten free, they then pick all the salads and ingredients straight out of the boxes at the back to avoid any cross contamination from the front counter.

The lunchtime queue is always huge, however they’re very efficient so no fear, you still get your falafels and hummus quickly!

This is just a quick post really to say, if you haven’t tried Eat a Pitta yet, definitely stop by! I’m not the usual vegetarian/salad lunch buyer, but as I said this has sucked me in and I can’t get enough!

Forever, The Awkward Dinner Guest

xx

 

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Aldi’s Raw, Paleo and Protein Bars

If you haven’t jumped on the Aldi bandwagon yet, what are you doing?! It’s cheap, easy to shop in and actually good quality. After moving flats I even go out of my way now to still shop there.

All they’ve been missing is a free from section – until now! They’ve trialled gluten free products a couple of times, but this week I noticed a more permenant looking section with spaghetti, coco pops, soups and the most exciting thing I noticed – raw, paleo, fruit and nut bars. They’re from the company called The Foodie Market who make a few other products for Aldi. I’m already a big fan of their chilli rice cakes which are also gluten free.

There are three flavours available – brazil nut and cherry, cashew and date and macadamia and coconut. All contain simply nuts, dried fruit and oil. High in fibre, vegetarian and gluten free. For 39p each!!! 39p. That’s it?!


They’re tasty, pretty filling, nothing groundbreaking they taste like most raw, paleo bars on the market. But, for 39p it puts them miles ahead in my books. The perfect snack.

Also on offer are protein bars for a whopping 49p. I got the berry flavour but they also sell a banana one. Containing 30g’s carbs and 20g’s protein per bar they’re a really tasty snack during the day or pre/post workout.

Just writing this has made me realise I need to go and stock up before everybody hears about these bars.

Good luck hunting them down! Fingers crossed they’re are here to stay.

Forever, The Awkward Dinner Guest

xx

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Beers and Pizza. GLUTEN FREE beers and pizza!

In July and August this year flat hunting became one of my least favourite activities ever! Apparently a spacious, light, clean apartment in Bristol is near impossible to find.

After another day of fruitless hunting my boyfriend and I decided we needed a treat to cheer up our viewing woes. Pizza was the perfect choice to take my mind off estate agents, online ads and 1 bedroom apartments.

We chose Planet Pizza on the busy Gloucester Road. I’ve driven past the place so many times and after a sign saying ‘Gluten free pizza’ caught my eye, it’s been on my list to visit.

Planet pizza has two restaurants on Gloucester Road and Cotham Hill. They offer takeaways, eating in and a huge menu of gluten free pizzas and desserts –  my favourite.

I chose the capricorn – goats cheese, caramelised onions topped with rocket. My boyfriend went for a mars pizza -meatballs and pepperoni topped with corn chips and guac! Its a really chilled out place with no fancy extras and big servings.

The pizza was tasty but the base could possibly have been cooked for a little longer. Still, this wouldn’t have put me off going back and on a sunny evening it looks like the idea place to sit on the decking and people watch.

5-7pm Sunday – Wednesday is 241 on all pizzas. Its a great spot for mid-week pizza eating, washed down with a gluten free beer or cider and it definitely took my mind off moving flats…for an hour or so! They serve Duara Damm the beer I tend to see most commonly on menus. 

 

Forever, The Awkward Dinner Guest

xx

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Turtle Bay – Delicious Cocktails and Kind of Gluten Free

Some friends of mine and I booked a table at Turtle Bay in Bristol on Saturday night for some cocktails and University reminiscing.

We arranged the table for 19:30 and both the bar and restaurant were packed already. Unfortunately we just missed out on happy hour 241 cocktails which runs until 7pm every day. But, I’d hear so much about the cocktails here that we all order some anyway. I had the Jammin’ – white rum, apricot liqueur, fresh mint, ginger, lemon, apple juice and apricot jam. No complaints, we all enjoyed our choices and they went down very quickly.

Turtle bay do have an allergy menu, which at first glance has pretty much every dish marked with wheat or gluten. From what I could work out none of the starters were gluten free – but I had a good smell of everyone else’s which looked and smelt great – not awkward at all for the group! There are some main dishes on the menu that just have flour written in the gluten box. I was told that these could be GF as the flour is just for the roti and the dish can be served without this. So, that gives you pretty much all the ‘one pots’ to choose from!

Unfortunately all the jerk dishes are off limits as soy sauce seems to be used in all of the sauces.

I took my time deciding between goat curry, curry shrimp and mango or Trinidad curry chicken. I finally went for the latter; spiced chicken breast, cooked in coconut milk with spices, garlic and scotch bonnet.

Turtle Bay say “we like it hot,” and they certainly do! Proudly, I have got a lot better at eating spicy food and really enjoy a meal with more spice in now. This curry was just teetering on the side of too hot for me! Saying that, it really was delicious and I ate the whole lot.

I have to admit we all went particularly quiet while eating, sipping water, wine and milky cocktails after each mouthful – Turtle Bay is definitely not for those who can’t stand the heat.

After reading a few GF reviews before going I was pleasantly surprised at how many of the dishes I could eat on the menu. There are some posts out there telling you to avoid the restaurant completely. I probably wont return any time soon for food on my own but, if you’re going with a group wanting fun cocktails and good atmospheric music its a great Saturday night spot. They have restaurants all over the UK, have a look and I’m sure there will be one within a stones throw from you.

Forever, The Awkward Dinner Guest

xx