Sin gluten chica en Mallorca

Please forgive the very basic and poor attempt at my Spanish. It's a long time since I sat GCSE Spanish and unfortunately the syllabus didn't cover the ins and outs of explaining Coeliac disease and the Gluten Free diet! Nevertheless, that did not prevent my half hearted attempts this week as I hit Mallorca for the half term holiday. It's quite surprising how a desperate look in the eye, the frantic waving of hands and a questioning tone of "sin gluten?????!" can get the message across quite adequately. Thankfully, I had downloaded my trusty translated guide from the Coeliac UK website so I was definitely suitably prepared!

Thankfully, the Spanish are fairly well equipped at dealing with the GF diet so I had no need to worry! Unfortunately, where we were staying was quite small and did not have a large supermarket so I couldn't fully check out the GF ranges I had heard so much about. I did get quite excited when I spotted these in the Spa shop

But, I must confess, I didn't buy them as they don't look all that exciting do they?! €3.10 for glorified rich tea!! Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the idea but no thanks!

There were items that were in with regular products that were clearly labelled which gave peace of mind eg

Labeled at the back....sorry!!

In a small box on the side, if you squint and tilt your head you might just see it!

Ok, I assumed Edam was GF but it's always nice to have it spelt out to you! GF....loud and proud!! I love it!

Admittedly, I was a little jealous as Dale tucked into his freshly scooped glutenous ice cream flavours in a mega wafer cone BUT the branded ice creams are really well labelled. Each shop has a menu board of ice creams and each shop I stopped at (ok, yes, I sampled a few!!) had clear GF labelling on the appropriate ice creams. Blogging failure on my part again as I forgot to take a photo.....I was too dazzled by the ice creams! A particular favourite was

and of course there was always the trusty Magnum!

We were originally booked in the Hotel Cala Bona. We purposefully chose this hotel at it specifically stated it catered for Coeliacs! To my disappointment we were moved at the last minute to the Levante just up the road!!

Now, at the risk of turning my blog into a trip advisor review I would just like to say a few words about each hotel with regards to GF eating, just incase anyone is looking to go to Mallorca in the near future!

We did not get to stay at the Hotel Cala Bona (www.calabonahotel.com) but we did go there for lunch on our first day before it closed for the season. I managed to make a 100% fool of myself by ordering completely the wrong thing but nevertheless the staff were friendly and helpful (and more than happy to change my order!) Despite the language barriers they were very clued up about Coeliac Disease and did not take any chances. They understood the importance of cross contamination and even said they have as separate kitchen! If you are looking for somewhere Coeliac friendly this could definitely be a winner!

However, the hotel Levante (www.levantehotels.com) does not state anywhere about catering for restricted diets BUT they couldn't have been more helpful. I felt confident they fully understood my requirements and they advised me appropriately. I ate well.....very well (what a shocker eh?!). Bacon, scrambled eggs, tomatoes and fruit selections were for breakfast. The Thomson reps even offered to buy me GF bread if I wanted! There was a huge selection for dinner but I mainly opted for the meats that were grilled on a griddle in front of you to order.

I got far too excited on the second night when they brought out some "Gluten Free" labels for the puddings. This meant I had a choice of healthy fruit selections or cream caramels, mousses etc too. I even noticed the ice cream pots and frozen yogurt was labelled with a cross grain sign.

I haven't been abroad and ever had so much choice. I was very impressed!

I did, of course, take my trusty snack supplies with me, not knowing what the food would be like. For lunches I relied on some rice cakes I'd taken with me with the above Edam cheese and yogurt drinks. I snacked on 9 bars (see previous blog posts), Metcalfe's popcorn (soooo moorish!!)  and some chocolate stashes I'd taken!

My only moan......airline food!!! What a load of rubbish!! I wasn't on the flight long enough for a meal but Thomson offer an extensive snack menu.....extensive if you can eat anything! They have a lovely clear "Gluten Free" label which they use on the menu but it's only used once!! ONCE!!! Tomato soup?!! I ask you!!!! I don't fancy tomato soup when my feet are on terra firma let alone 6 miles in the air!! Thank goodness for for the grab bag of Cadburys Buttons I had left over from my stash! ;0) Come on Thomson, surely a big company like you can do a bit better?!

Soooooo I'm back to being Gluten Free in London. Wish me luck as the new term starts, see you next week! X