A Peruvian gluten free restaurant round up!

I’ve picked four restaurants to highlight, in cities you’ll probably visit if you weave your way to Peru.

Jack’s Cafe, Cusco

A huge gringo favourite. Normally we’d probably avoid this place, but coming to Cusco from Bolivia where we had our share of tummy upsets we really appreciated something that felt safe. They are good with allergies and I can highly recommend the big breakfast and nachos, but personally I loved the drinks. Awesome hot chocolate and mango and strawberry lassi.

Nuna Raymi, Cusco

(Slightly drunk looking, but the bread is glutenfree! )

A little treat, normally probably a bit out of or price range but it was our leaving meal after volunteering with NGO Taxi and a great night. It makes my noteworthy list add they were really good with The gluten free thing, had a large selection of dishes I could eat and served bread baskets with three kinds of gluten free breads!

Astrid y Gaston, Lima

OK, this was a crazy treat. This is the number 18 restaurant in the world and so a little out of our normal budget. It’s £70 for their 28 course tasting menu, which lasts about 3 hours. We had to go as this is so much more affordable than its European equivalents. On booking (only the day before for lunch, months for dinner) we told them about coeliac disease and they said they would adapt the menu for me. Gluten didn’t feature heavily in the boyfriend’s food, but whenever it did I had an equally wonderful gluten free alternative! Money very well spent. (And don’t worry if you only have shabby clothes, ours were awful but at lunch at least it’s perfectly fine)

Raw Cafe, Lima

A more reasonable find. All the menu here is gluten free, healthy and delicious. A bit of a walk but very worth it. We wanted to go back but ran out of time; the pizza and a sun dried tomato and linseed base was great, as was the chocolate avocado mousse dessert. The juices are also some of the best we’ve had in restaurant, the hulk (spinach, apple and other green things) is recommended!

Gluten free tips for organised tours

I am not a really big fan of tours; anything where someone else is controlling my time and experience really gets me grouchy. However, the reality is that all around the world there are incredible sights that cannot be seen without signing up to a tour group. Not the majority, but some. Some could be done in a hire car or your own car, but our experience is that if public transport doesn’t go there, you will need a 4×4, and it’s normally prohibitively expensive on a backpacker budget. For these reasons we have done some tours. Half day tours, full day tours, but nothing overnight; that seems to be my limit.

Aside from the awfulness of being shunted around in a minibus (I know, sorry, some people like tours), for us, there is a food aspect to consider as well. So here are my tips:

1) Check what will be provided

Clarify with the company exactly what they provide, and what they expect you to bring. Sounds obvious, as many things do, but when it is the fifth company that you’ve spoken to (comparing prices, important!), your spanish is stretched to it’s limit and all you want to do is shower after a long journey, it is very easy to just pay and run away, only wondering later if you need food.

2) Request special food

Don’t be afraid of making a fuss, or having people stare at you like you grew a second head. If they are providing food, you have a right to be able to eat it. Not a legal right, but a moral one. (NB this rarely works-it’s a tour, it’s preset and they deviate for no man, woman or coeliac).

3) Pack enough to keep you going

My favourite personal rule- take more, not less. You can always bring leftovers back and it is awful being forced to watch others eat when you can’t. Even if you don’t want the food, you know you have an option.

4) Take a lot of water

Not much to do with being gluten free, but a valid point none the less.

5) Don’t pick around the gluten

Own up, come on. Who’s guilty of this. Wanting to join in, not wanting to cause offence, you casually nudge the bread rolls to the side to eat a bit of the salad they have contaminated. I know you’re hungry, I know it looks tasty, but if it’s not kept seperate from gluten it is poison. Walk away. Those crisps that they are serving as snacks whike you watch sunset with a pisco sour (real life example), do they have the packet? No? Then don’t touch them. Or go ahead, as I did, and feel awful later.

6) Try to get a discount

Why not? Nine times out of ten that food is included in a tour you will not be catered for and they will not offer any replacement. Haggling is the norm in many places anyway, so use this in your favour. At least you won’t end up out of pocket.

So these are my tips. Do you have any of your own? Let me know!

WWOOF and Workaway – volunteer abroad gluten free

We have been very fortunate to do a lot of work exchanges whilst we’ve been travelling, by which I mean we do a few hours work in exchange for accommodation and food. Although it is so much more than that. For us it has been a way of travelling slower, meeting more local people, improving our Spanish and learning new skills, as well as the obvious goal of helping people out. And we have had a huge amount of fun, as you can see here.

The snag is the food that is on offer, and I could understand people being dubious about being understood and catered for accordingly. The good news it is no barrier to having a great experience, there are only a few little tips that should make it easier and less stressful.

1) Explain. In detail. In advance

This is so obvious I am embarrassed to write it, but at the beginning it sort of slipped my mind in the excitement of searching through the incredible opportunities that were on offer. We arrived at one couple’s house geared up to teach them English, but had completely neglected to tell them I had any dietary requirements. Luckily, they were the nicest people in the world, and pretty aware of what being a coeliac meant, so we had a lovely week eating safe, delicious meals and I made them a lot of gluten free desserts to say thank you! Generally you have to give people a window to say if they can’t accommodate you (for example in a hotel, if you will be eating the same as the guests, it may be to hard for them to change everything for you). And also, if you discuss what you can and can’t eat in advance, you will feel a lot more comfortable rocking up at their home or business for a while.

2) Don’t assume the food you’re given is gluten free

Sadly, whilst explaining is a good start, people forget, or get confused, or just plain don’t think. It doesn’t make them evil, just human. So yes, I have been served breaded chicken (covered in sauce-sneaky), beef bourginon, bechamel sauce and so much bread. I like to get involved with the cooking (because I enjoy it anyway thankfully) so then there’s more control.

3) Don’t be afraid to say you can’t eat something

Following on from point 2, if you do get something questionable, don’t panic and eat it anyway or just starve; explain why you can’t have it. You may be worried about an awkward moment, but usually people are very understanding and if anything just feel sorry to have given you food you can’t eat.

4) Learn how to explain your diet in the native language of the country you are in

You don’t need to be fluent, but this is so useful. Even very good speakers of English might be confused when you start explaining in detail about your diet. They may never have spoken or thought much about it in their own language, so in English it is even less likely. If you don’t feel confident with this, then there are great coeliac language cards available on the internet that you can print and carry with you, such as these.

5) Be prepared to feel a bit sad

Lots of the places we stayed at my boyfriend could eat great food made with produce from the farm we were on, or exciting local dishes, or delicious home baked treats. The number of times I could do the same has been considerably lower. Sometimes it is hard when you are used to cooking quite well for yourself to have quite plain food, especially when everyone else I’d tucking in to something much better. But I just remind myself that it’s only food; I’m healthy, in good company and in an amazing place. It is worth the sacrifice.

6) Bring snacks!

This follows on from above again really; this seems to be considered an additional food and as such people don’t tend to provide a gluten free replacement. We stayed at one farm with a really nice couple running it, and every ten minutes they would bring around cookies for the workers and despite them catering for me really well at all other times, I never had anything. And I wanted a snack too! So I take my own. Sometimes this is more important than others. At a remote farm that was struggling to make ends meet, most people were filling up on bread and there was no money for an alternative for me. Having my own nibbles meant I wasn’t hungry and no one felt bad.

7) Opt for a host that doesn’t provide food

Plenty of hosts, on both Workaway and WWOOF lists, will take people to work less hours and only receive accommodation. Or you can contact people and ask if this would be possible. Great experience, compete security!

What I’m basically saying is go for it! You will have an amazing experience and, in all likelihood, no food based problems.

Here are the websites for the organisations I have talked about:

http://www.workaway.info

http://www.wwoofchile.cl

http://www.wwoofargentina.com