Charlotte Answers

Here’s a new feature – Charlotte answers! Every day I get a list of google searches that have brought people to my blog. Sometimes they are bang on and I know that my blog has their answer. Sometimes, I look and know that I haven’t written about what they were looking for. So, here I would like to answer some!

Girly things to do in Frankfurt…?

Well, there’s not much that’s specifically for girls that you can’t get anywhere else. Girly chats in a teashop? A day at a spa? You can even get ridiculously expensive high tea at some hotels. I’m sorry… there isn’t much to do here.

Makeup for celiacs. I just googles this myself (after being very skeptical that this is a thing) and it turns out that gluten in makeup may be harmful!! Is nothing sacred?! I have no advice for this. I don’t think my allergy is strong enough for me to watch what makeup I use…

Any restaurant that won’t let you wear sparkles is a restaurant that’s not good enough! End of!

What to tell friends who want to come live in Frankfurt?

On Toytown there are ALWAYS people posting asking what to expect from Frankfurt. Things you might tell them include “start looking for an apartment asap”, “yes you can live well in Frankfurt on your salary”, “things are pretty cheap here”, “there are mainly expats here so you’ll be able to find that home comfort if you search hard enough” and “it’s only dull/boring/lonely” here if you don’t try to make the most of your time here.

Nintendo office hours (for the Niederrad offices anyway) vary depending on the person you’re trying to get hold of. Most people work from 10, until around 6. Germany people tend to be in much earlier, as are the testers. Producers, CC people, and managers are often working until ungodly hours.

One day of shopping in Frankfurt… it’s not that exciting. You might want to try the airport shopping centre (which is also open on Sundays). But you shouldn’t come to Frankfurt purely to shop, unless you are one of the hundreds of Chinese tourists who come here and buy overpriced stuff from all the designer shops.

 

This was pretty fun to do so I hope to do another one soon! I hope people continue to find my blog through random-tastic google searches!!

More Wheat Free Goodies!

DM is probably my favourite shop here. It’s not glitzy and glamourous like Boots or Superdrug in the UK, but it has everything I want in makeup and on good days, the staff can be pretty smiley  and friendly too!

What DM also has is an AMAZING selection of wheat free goodies! Above is my current favourite – buckwheat bread. A friend of mine at work the other day had some amazingly yummy looking dark German bread like this and I was craving some so much. I didn’t taste any, but I’m sure this buckwheat bread is just as yummy!

With some cucumber quark and some real life cucumbers, this bread is a real winner with me! It’s not crumbly at all – a lot of wheat free breads crumble away as soon as you pick them up. This is slightly dry (hence why it’s a good idea to slop on something creamy!) but otherwise it’s really yummy-tastic!

Of course, we can’t have perfect products all the time… and this bread certainly is far from perfect. For some reason I assumed that because the bread needed to be cut yourself, it meant that it might be softer than normal wheat free bread. I was sadly wrong. I made some tuna sandwiches with this and if it wasn’t for the tuna oil and the mayo making the bread soggy, this would have fallen away in my hands. What’s more, it’s completely tasteless. It’s saving grace is that it’s still cheaper than Rewe’s bread offerings, and isn’t a white bread.

I’ve yet to find a good gluten free bread that is good for sandwiches (without having to be toasted first). If anyone knows of any good brands (preferably in Germany!!) then please let me know!

Both these breads can be found in DM drug stores in Germany. I had a poke around their website and found the website of the company whose products I like best in DM – here is the website. They have an American website too so maybe if you’re in America you can find their products too – these are the best ones I have found so far!

Gluten Free in Frankfurt

On a different subject, do you know what’s awesome about Germany? Homemade lemonade being sold everywhere!!

I’ve been living (pretty much) wheat free for about 5 years now. When I was in high school I had terrible problems with my tummy and thought that it was maybe an allergy to potatoes. Without getting anything checked, I went without eating potatoes for about a year. This has caused me to love potatoes more than anything now… haha.

I finally went to the doctor about it in my second year of uni and he told me to try going wheat free for a few weeks, which I did and it sorted all my problems. Since I’m extremely scared of needles, I didn’t go for the official answer from a blood test for 2 years after that.

Being in Japan made it easy to avoid wheat to a certain extent… well, when I could choose my own food I could pick rice over bread or spaghetti… but during the week I had to eat something like the following for school dinners…

Yup, nice balanced meal!! The American boys used to laugh at how I was always complaining about carbs in my meals…

But now I’m in Germany. Germany is really pretty amazing for wheat free stuff. I mean, it’s not perfect (how awesome would it be if there were wheat free products used in restaurants!) but in the local supermarkets they have a pretty decent range of wheat free – and lactose free – goods. My local supermarket, Rewe, has recently launched a new range  too…

The Frei From range is a little pricey – though just as expensive as in England – at about 3-4 Euros per product. I feel happy paying 3 Euros for the bread on the left there, since it’s quite  big pack so will last me all week and also it doesn’t go stale before I’ve finished it. The thing with wheat free bread is that without the gluten in it, it’s lacking the “glue” to hold it all together and so many wheat free breads will crumble in your hand like sand when you pick it up. This bread is slightly stronger than most so it’s pretty good. I also tried the muesli in the range (about 4 Euros) but sadly it’s completely tasteless and yucky.

The Riveta-like things on the right are my staple food stuff. They taste great, last me all week, and are quite versatile. They come from a brand that does loads and loads of different Riveta-like things so this isn’t a special brand that makes things just for people with allergies like the others.

You can also get wheat free goods in drug store/pharmacy places like Rossman and DM. I bought the pasta above from DM, which also has a very good range of wheat-free breads. It’s a lot cheaper than other products at around 2 Euros, and it tastes pretty good.

As for eating out, though I do forgo my wheat ban occasionally and scoff a burger, I find it pretty easy to be wheat free out of the house. Most German food comes with potatoes anyway, but I like nothing better than having a big slab of meat (steak, or German style roast pork knuckle or something) which usually comes with salad or sauerkraut anyway.

I know my vegetarian friends find it hard here some times but I must say, as a wheat free person, I think Germany is pretty darn good. Are there any other wheat free peeps out there?

Someone made me something and it was awesome – 05.03.2012

So a lot of people don’t know this but I am actually allergic (well, “sensitive”) to wheat. What this means is that I can consume (for beer counts too!) wheat in small quantities once in a while, but not all the time. A croissant as a treat on a Friday morning wont upset my stomach, but a thick cut sandwich or a bowl of ramen might set me off a little.

Mr’s wonderful flatmate who is super awesome in every way, made me this super yummy cake with almond powder instead of flour. The thing with wheat free stuff is that it’s usually dry and crumbly, making it difficult to eat. But this was so soft and moist. I must get the recipe from her.

Being wheat-free in Germany isn’t that difficult, actually. The bread is nice here but it’s not so very tempting. I prefer brown bread to white, and it’s all white bread here, except for things like rye bread or pumpernickel. In my local supermarket, Rewe, they have wheat free dry breads (similar to Ryvita) that are yummy and go very well with hummus, or goats cheese (some of my current food obsessions). The food courts of the department stores have some extra offerings, such as half baked wheat free bread (the stuff I tried wasn’t so good unfortunately) and wheat free pasta. The prices for these things are similar to those in England, (ie very expensive – maybe 4 Euros for a small pack of bread or a small packet of pasta. The drybreads in rewe are about 3 Euros.) But in England they stock stuff in most supermarkets so you don’t need to go hunting for it as much.

In Japan I found it quite hard, though people assume it’s rice everywhere. Especially with school dinners, I’d find terrible days where the lunch would be a bowl of wheat noodles, a large bread roll and soup with croutons (this actually happened). There were no goods made for people with allergies – it’s more common for Japanese people to be allergic to milk, or buck wheat, as opposed to normal wheat – but they seem to get by without having specific good for their needs, since there are none available.

One awesome trick I have for people who are wheat free like myself is to swap spaghetti with Asian rice noodles. You can find lots of different kinds in varying thicknesses and lengths, so there should be a kind out there to suit your tastes. The Asian supermarket would be the best place to look for this kind of stuff but it’s possible to find more obscure Asian foods in normal supermarkets these days, so there might be some there too.

If anyone else out there has some wheat free tricks, do let me know in the comments!