The Sample Ward Kitchen
I know that everyone is curious how we are doing finding food, especially Amy-safe foods. Well, one good thing is that we have a fabulous kitchen. A better stove than we had back in Portland and we bought all the pots/pans/wok the day we moved in so we could get to cookin'!
We have myriad spices, whole and ground, including hot curry powders, sesame seeds like you wouldn't believe, hot chilies and chili flakes, curry and lime leaves, and so much more. The most painful, because of its weight, at the time but best in the long run purchase from IKEA so far as been the mortar and pestle for making up some great spice mixes.
Sauces have been harder to find as far as gluten free since they have mostly the same selected we have back home. We have found a brand that makes GF soy sauce but it's really expensive and comes in a small bottle so we go through it too quickly. We have all that we really need though with soy sauce, rice vinegar, garlic chili sauce, and some Indian spice concentrates. Tofu is actually pretty hard to find, at least tofu that isn't already flavored and thus glutenized.
Earlier this week I visited heaven, well, a place that matches the location's description to my understanding: an organic grocery store up the street from our flat that has all the organic, gluten free, vegan food I could possibly eat. I went in just to check it out and ended up coming home with a bag of groceries and all the things we needed for dinner. Plus some extras! Including (everything is O, V, GF) a bottle of pesto, largest jar of peanut butter I've seen in the UK so far, largest box of Amy-safe cereal I've ever seen (and only 1.50!), baking supplies, tofu, tea... I even got Max an organic IPA, bottled at a little organic brewery in the UK. He said it was the first real IPA he's ever had in Europe and it was actually hoppy! It is from Pitfields Brewery if you want to check it out!
We have even made some of our favorite dishes lately, and maybe made them even better than ever! For example, we found the huge rice noodles to make with spicy stir fries of mushrooms, bell peppers and onions (think PK), great tofu and broccoli for the General Tso's, awesome pre-made organic pasta sauces for penne with peppers and spinach, and gluten free vegan already-made bread so we can have garlic bread with dinner and peanut butter and jam sandwiches for lunch!
So, obviously, there will certainly be no need to worry about our food situation. We are just fine, and actually, very full!
