Eating Out for the vegetarian and Gluten free in Christchurch

Eating Out

Going out to cafes is always a bit more difficult when there are foods that you can't eat. Mum has been gluten free for decades, way before it was the commonly known issue it is now. She lives in Wanaka and as there was not the bread available that there is in the supermarkets today, she had to create her own. Buckwheat flour, that has quite a stong flavour, seemed to be the only flour readily available. So she made banana buckwheat pikelets as her 'bread'. A bakery in Christchurch started producing gluten free bread and were prepared to send it down to her. This was a great help for her: the bread was still quite heavy but when you haven't had it for a long time, anything that you can eat without getting stomach pains and bloating. Thank goodness for all the products available now.

Cafes usually don't allow you to bring in your own food but I remember some being Ok with Mum eating from her container of pikelets. Others would have to wear the wrath of Mother! Sometimes it was salad and a piece of ham! You certainly found out how many products contain flour! 

Mum's Diverticulitus meant she went on a FODMAP diet a number of years ago. Dairy became an isse: So Gluten Free, Dairy Free, FODMAP diet. Gosh! Tricky. She isn't vegetarian so that made things slightly easier for her. I have a vegan friend who was forced to go on a FODMAP diet due to ongoing stomach issues and she had to start eating some meat as it was so difficult for her not being able to eat the grains and legumes like chickpeas and beans.

The Low -FODMAP diet involves restricting foods high in short-chain carbohydrates, also known as fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols. Short-chain carbohydrates contribute to irritable bowel syndrome symptoms because they are poorly absorbed in the small intestine and are fermented instead.
One of the hardest things about the FODMAP diet is you have to avoid garlic and onions entirely. Adding Hing (asafoetida) powder helps with flavour. Mum puts a whole onion in soup while it is cooking then takes it out before blending.

My partner is Gluten Free, Dairy Free and Vegetarian. His fall back dish is hot chips! For which he is very happy! In saying that we have found lots of cafes and restaurants around Christchurch that have Gluten Free products.

I have been pleasantly surprised by the availability of gluten free items in cafes. In saying that some of the establishments that I thought would have gluten free food don't and others that I think won't have anything, do! An example was the Colombus Cafe in Mitre 10 Mega store in Hornby. We were in there for some hardware and I was curious what they had - not expecting it would be much, but they had two gluten free and vegetarian savoury dishes. So Pete had a frittata and I had a yummy pie. 

Little High Eatery is a group of shops in High Street, Central Christchurch. Base Woodfired Pizza have gluten free vegan pizza and the base is really nice! (Pete has tried a lot of gluten free pizza bases and they have been very disappointing). 

While visiting Pet Central on Moorhouse Av and deciding we were hungry, we spotted the cafe next to the furniture shop, Cafe 218 and without much hope of finding anything vegetarian bar chips let alone gluten free, we scanned the cabinet and menu only to be pleasantly surprised. They had a section in the cabinet for gluten free items! The gluten free vege pie looked so yummy that I decided to have one as well. And it was! We also took note of the Creamy Mushrooms on the menu for another time.

 I hope to document a lot more of the places we have found.