Post by kickingfrog on Mar 1, 2012 13:10:01 GMT
Report back on my trip to New Zealand including stopovers in Singapore, Sydney and HongKong
Posted by Pam, Dorset on 29/2/2012
GF board
We had a brilliant time - 4 weeks in NewZealand, the most gluten free friendly country I've visited. GF bread was available everywhere, in shops and cafes, and in hotels. I have never eaten so many lovely cakes - there was usually a choice of several. Even the smallest towns (and most towns outside the few cities are very small)had gf options in cafes. And it was completely understood - I never once got that 'what?' response you get so often here.I had done some research before we went and so was able to track down gf pizza at Hell Pizza and sheer chance led us to gf fish and chips in Dunedin
{...think it was called the Best Cafe - just a fish & chip place, eat in or take away. It was on the street leading up from the station to the main bit,(Stuart St?) on the right. I found it as there was an advert in a Dunedin tourist brochure which I just happened to see - and my gf spotting eyes homed in on it! You could have any fish with gf batter and it was good.Not posh, quite retro. }
Sydney seemed as good but we were only there 3 days - there was a fabulous cafe in The Rocks where nearly everything was gf, and in Darling Harbour had a lovely burger in gf bun. Again restaurants knew what you were talking about.
Singapore stopover - the highlight of which was afternoon tea at Raffles, booked online and assured of gf sandwiches and pastries. Bit of a disappointment (though lovely place and atmosphere). The sandwiches could only have been made with gf bread as it was so awful! and it was currant bread, which as the sarnies were savoury eg tuna, ham & tomato, was decidedly odd.The pastries were non existant though my individual tiered cake stand had choc dipped strawberries and mini creme brulee which were lovely. You could also help yourself to tropical fruits from the buffet so I had enough to eat but it didn't quite live up to expectations, or the price. The service was nice and posh though!
Apart from that in Singapore and Hong Kong I struggled and resorted to McDonalds a few times which is not my thing at all, but I was scared of all the very foreign Chinese type food and lack of understanding of English. I had a translation card but it didn't seem to help so I ate my crackers, bought fruit etc - fine for 2 days.
Flights were mostly with Quantas, one BA. Gf meals always turned up and on the outward Quatas flight to Singapore the food was brilliant - nice fresh gf rolls, a special gf snack bag for me. It was all downhill from then on as the food was awful.No more gf bread on Quatas - just rice cakes and always soya milk and spread for some reason.Every meal was fish too. My husband is diabetic (not coeliac)and fared even worse - his breakfast was a bread roll and a cup of water!! At least I got juice with my rice crackers.
The final BA flight home from Hong Kong was the worst - the food was completely inedible - I have never experienced anything like it. There was a disc of something totally solid masquerading as bread, apparently. I could not get my teeth in it but it would have made a good weapon/discus. The staff urged us to complain as they are so fed up with complaints from passengers. We will.
The rules about taking food into NZ and OZ are pretty strict but I declared my gf crackers and was waved through - they didn't even want to see them in Sydney. I had taken my prescription and they had the pharmacy label on but there wasn't a problem.
Hope all that helps if you're planning a trip - I haven't been able to mention specific cafes as there really is no need - there was always something gf to eat and on one occasion when they apologised there were no homemade gf cakes'today' they added 'But we can make you a toasty as we always have gf bread'.
However my favourite gf cake (after extensive tastings - you'd expect me to wouldn't you?!) was from Cheeky Monkey in Wanaka, NZ and was called a magic slice
**************
Posted by Pam, Dorset on 29/2/2012
GF board
We had a brilliant time - 4 weeks in NewZealand, the most gluten free friendly country I've visited. GF bread was available everywhere, in shops and cafes, and in hotels. I have never eaten so many lovely cakes - there was usually a choice of several. Even the smallest towns (and most towns outside the few cities are very small)had gf options in cafes. And it was completely understood - I never once got that 'what?' response you get so often here.I had done some research before we went and so was able to track down gf pizza at Hell Pizza and sheer chance led us to gf fish and chips in Dunedin
{...think it was called the Best Cafe - just a fish & chip place, eat in or take away. It was on the street leading up from the station to the main bit,(Stuart St?) on the right. I found it as there was an advert in a Dunedin tourist brochure which I just happened to see - and my gf spotting eyes homed in on it! You could have any fish with gf batter and it was good.Not posh, quite retro. }
Sydney seemed as good but we were only there 3 days - there was a fabulous cafe in The Rocks where nearly everything was gf, and in Darling Harbour had a lovely burger in gf bun. Again restaurants knew what you were talking about.
Singapore stopover - the highlight of which was afternoon tea at Raffles, booked online and assured of gf sandwiches and pastries. Bit of a disappointment (though lovely place and atmosphere). The sandwiches could only have been made with gf bread as it was so awful! and it was currant bread, which as the sarnies were savoury eg tuna, ham & tomato, was decidedly odd.The pastries were non existant though my individual tiered cake stand had choc dipped strawberries and mini creme brulee which were lovely. You could also help yourself to tropical fruits from the buffet so I had enough to eat but it didn't quite live up to expectations, or the price. The service was nice and posh though!
Apart from that in Singapore and Hong Kong I struggled and resorted to McDonalds a few times which is not my thing at all, but I was scared of all the very foreign Chinese type food and lack of understanding of English. I had a translation card but it didn't seem to help so I ate my crackers, bought fruit etc - fine for 2 days.
Flights were mostly with Quantas, one BA. Gf meals always turned up and on the outward Quatas flight to Singapore the food was brilliant - nice fresh gf rolls, a special gf snack bag for me. It was all downhill from then on as the food was awful.No more gf bread on Quatas - just rice cakes and always soya milk and spread for some reason.Every meal was fish too. My husband is diabetic (not coeliac)and fared even worse - his breakfast was a bread roll and a cup of water!! At least I got juice with my rice crackers.
The final BA flight home from Hong Kong was the worst - the food was completely inedible - I have never experienced anything like it. There was a disc of something totally solid masquerading as bread, apparently. I could not get my teeth in it but it would have made a good weapon/discus. The staff urged us to complain as they are so fed up with complaints from passengers. We will.
The rules about taking food into NZ and OZ are pretty strict but I declared my gf crackers and was waved through - they didn't even want to see them in Sydney. I had taken my prescription and they had the pharmacy label on but there wasn't a problem.
Hope all that helps if you're planning a trip - I haven't been able to mention specific cafes as there really is no need - there was always something gf to eat and on one occasion when they apologised there were no homemade gf cakes'today' they added 'But we can make you a toasty as we always have gf bread'.
However my favourite gf cake (after extensive tastings - you'd expect me to wouldn't you?!) was from Cheeky Monkey in Wanaka, NZ and was called a magic slice
**************