Starbucks, coeliacs and Twitter – part 2

After nearly a week of following up on Twitter (for the record, whoever is doing the @starbucksau feed is pretty switched on – I was pretty impressed with the fast replies), I got this email in my inbox today.

Obviously, the typos are the writer’s own (hazard of my job – I notice typos in pretty much ANYTHING that gets sent to me by a company) and I don’t believe the part about the email response within two days (no proof of an original message and nothing came up when I did an inbox search – including my junk mail and archive), but the sentiment is nice.

Hi Kaitlyn,

I received your feedback regarding your experience at the Circular Quay store a couple of weeks ago. I sent a response within two days but I believe you did not receive my e mail. I hope this one reaches you.

I sincerely apologies for the lack of service you received from the staff at the store. I have already shared your feedback with the store manager who has followed it up with the baristas who were on shift the day you visited. She has reiterated to them that if they are unsure or unaware of information to provide to customers they need to seek it from the manager on duty or call Head office to get the correct information. I have asked HO to provide stores a quick reference guide with product specification including potential allergens.

We invest a lot of time training our partners (staff) to deliver legendary service and it is disappointing to hear that at times this is not delivered. As a token of my apology, I would like to send you a preloaded Starbucks card that you can use in any of our stores. I hope you give us another opportunity to serve you. Would you be so kind to provide your preferred postal address and I can mail the card to you directly.

I really appreciated hearing that reference guides will be available in Australian stores – we’ll see if Starbucks can follow through on that one. When that gift card arrives, I’ll make a point of asking at the store on my next visit if the Orange Mocha is gluten-free.

Come to think of it, it’s kind of weird that this allergen information wasn’t provided in his email, seeing as that was the whole reason for my message in the first place. But as long as staff can give me an answer when I’m in next, I’ll be satisfied.

Starbucks, coeliacs and Twitter

My love for Starbucks coffee is frowned upon in Australia (they tend to favour their local coffee shops with good reason – there are many to choose from and the quality is excellent) but I enjoy it there for a few reasons.

The coffee cups are bigger, for starters, and there’s something really nice about Starbucks’ consistency – the main drinks are essentially the same everywhere in the world. Also, the customer service is usually excellent.

Emphasis on the usually.

This morning before work, I popped into the Starbucks store at Circular Quay to grab a coffee pick-me-up. The Snackasaurus, who doesn’t understand my fascination with all things caffeine, was with me and a poster for the new Orange Mocha caught his eye.

So when I placed my order (grande skim flat white, if you’re ever buying me a coffee), I asked the barista if the Orange Mocha was gluten free.

She looked at me like I was crazy. “Gluten?” she said. Uh oh. It’s never a good sign when your server/barista doesn’t understand the food allergy you are trying to communicate.

“Yes, gluten,” I said. “Like wheat flour.”

This isn’t 100 per cent technically correct, but it usually does the trick in explaining gluten intolerance to people who don’t understand.

“Uh, I don’t know,” she said, turning to a co-worker. “Gluten?”

He turned to me. “Yeah, gluten, it probably has it. We don’t know.” And then he sort of dismissed us by waving his hand in the air and then turned away.

This surprised me – it’s not really in keeping with Starbucks’ excellent customer service – and I am pretty sure that the stores back in Canada have some sort of nutrition reference guide they can check. But the staff at Circular Quay didn’t seem to want much to do with us, so we left.

The experience played on my mind all day. I don’t like feeling passed off, or that a simple nutrition request can’t be answered by food service staff. The ex-waitress in me never would have let that customer experience happen. So I decided to get in touch with Starbucks using a two-pronged approach – email and Twitter.

My email to Starbucks went like this:

Good morning,

I’m a regular in your Circular Quay store (I’m probably in 3-5 mornings a week) and wanted to send a message to say how disappointed I was with the level of service this morning.

I usually drop in alone, but today I brought my boyfriend, who is a celiac (gluten intolerance). I placed my order for myself and enquired whether or not the new Orange Mocha drink was gluten-free. Not one of your staff members could tell me whether this drink contained gluten. At most other establishments (Gelatissimo, McDonald’s, Hungry Jack’s, Baskin Robbins, to name a few), staff have a nutrition information chart to refer to. If this chart exists at Starbucks, nobody made a move for it this morning.

There were no apologies, no suggestions for alternative safe drinks and we felt we were passed off and rushed along, even though we were the only people waiting for a drink. He arrived planning to spend $5 on a coffee, but left with nothing. And if this is the way your staff have been trained to address customers with food allergies, I might start getting my flat whites elsewhere too.

Is there anywhere we can find out information on the nutrition content of your beverages – specifically whether or not they contain gluten?

Thank you for your time,

Kaitlyn

I then Tweeted that I was disappointed with my experience too – hopefully there will be a response soon!

Eating out – Grill’d

We discovered Grill’d during our first few weeks in Melbourne – they claim to specialise in healthy, fresh burgers and even have gluten-free offerings – or so we thought.

Like many Australian takeout places, Grill’d has excellent intentions, but falls down on execution. Each venue is slightly different when it comes to being clued up on coeliacs and their unique dietary requirements (gluten-free buns can’t be toasted in the same oven as regular buns, for example) and lack of awareness on the part of staff meant that there was some visible cross-contamination going on.

I don’t have to eat gluten-free when we go out, but for the Snackasaurus, this is a way of life – he can get really, really sick from being ‘got’ by gluten.

On one visit, I ordered a regular burger and he ordered a gluten-free one. They toasted our buns together in the oven, and used the SAME SPOON to spread sauces on both buns. This is coeliac 101 – a major no-no.

That being said, Grill’d only pledges that its buns are gluten-FRIENDLY, not gluten-free. It’s a really important distinction. Most of the burgers can be converted into really lovely salads (just steer clear of the condiments that are used on the burgers, those spoons have been rubbed all over wheaty buns).  The really excellent fries are gluten-free too.

If you’re watching your gluten intake for personal reasons (rather than medical reasons), you’ll probably be fine with the gluten-friendly bun – otherwise, stick to the salad or proceed at your own risk.

I’m back – and blogging

After a very long (too long, inexcusably long, I know) hiatus, I’m back!

You might be wondering how I’ve been spending the last year – and I hope I’ll get a bit of gluten-free blogging forgiveness with my excuse.

Snackasaurus and I moved to Australia.

You weren’t expecting that, were you?

But nonetheless, we’re here. We left the UK last August and travelled to the Land Down Under via Los Angeles, Auckland and finally Melbourne, where we spent five memorable months before heading north to the sunny harbour city of Sydney.

The past 11 months have been filled with quite a lot of travel, hard work and adventures. Our ceiling flooded, we learned a great deal about Australia’s many pests (mice and roaches and spiders oh my!) and we’ve had some fabulous experiences travelling around the country. We roadtripped the Great Ocean Road, rode camels on a Victoria beach, spent several days sweltering in the 40+ degree heat in Adelaide and even made our way up to Queensland for a quick trip to the Sunshine Coast.

In fact, we’ve had such a good time that we’ve decided to stay – for a little while longer, at least. I’ve found an excellent job with an online media firm and so we’ve started to put some roots down in Sydney.

Now that we’re settled (stable income! bigger apartment!), I’ve decided to start blogging again. So please stay tuned for our gluten-free adventures in fabulous Australia.

sprinkles = sadface

I made a terrible discovery last week while looking for something red/pink and sparkly to top off a set of Valentine’s Day brownies for the Snackasaurus.

Sprinkles – at least the kind that are readily available at the Tesco closest to my apartment – MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF GLUTEN.

Disappointing for many reasons – not the least of which is that my ignorance of this has probably unwittingly contributed to a bit of wheat-bloat in the past. You’ll probably want to leave the sprinkles off of those pretty blue cupcakes that I made a few months back as well.

To my nearest and dearest who are eating gluten-free, I’m really sorry if I’ve inflicted this on you. The best I can say is that I’m still learning.

And to everyone else – do you have a good wheat-free suggestion for cake decorating? Because cupcakes without sprinkles are a bit, well, unfinished-looking, don’t you think?

kaitlyn is a slacker

You’ll probably have noticed that I’ve not posted anything for awhile (except for two days ago).

There’s really no excuse for this – case in point being my wonderful, yet over-achieving boyfriend. We both work full-time, but while I head to the gym after my regular 9-5 (actually 8-5 in my case), then flop on the couch in a pair of sweatpants to watch several consecutive episodes of 24, he comes home, does some freelancing, writes/directs/produces a fairly successful online web series for teens and preps for work in the morning. He’s always looking for a new project or making his current work better – and it’s about time I took some inspiration from him.

If he can do all that, I can surely muster up some 200 words or so at the end of each day, eh? Especially when I’m writing about a topic I actually LIKE. I write all day about all manner of things, but it’s about time I re-claimed something back just for me. And you too, if you’ve not given up on me!

So this, dear reader (yes, I left this singular on purpose, as I am pretty sure there’s only one of you left at this point) is my pledge to you. My February resolution is that you should see at least three posts a week up here. Deal? Deal.

happy day-after-valentine’s-day

New year, new post! It’s pretty horrific that I’ve not posted anything in three months and this is going to change, I promise.

This weekend was Valentine’s Day, a holiday that’s not really a holiday and that girls seem to like a lot more than boys. Valentine’s Day is also a time when lots of couples go out for something to eat – and restaurants are a bit of a minefield when you’re allergic to wheat.

We wanted to find somewhere local and casual where the Snackasaurus and I could grab a bite that wouldn’t send him into two days of agony afterwards (nothing says I love you like wheat bloat? I think not). Fortunately, we stumbled upon the absolutely fantastic Dough Pizza Kitchen in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. Check out their spectacular menu – most of their pizzas can be made on a gluten free crust.

I also ordered mine this way so we could do a swap – we tried the spicy chicken (me) and the tandoori chicken (him). Delicious! And best of all, the meal was hardly a bank-breaker – a pair of yummy gluten-free pizzas and a bottle of wine set us back a whopping total of £25. Not bad!

In terms of dough quality, it’s a far sight better than the frozen gluten-free fare you can find in the supermarket. Not quite the same as the real deal and a bit of a pain to cut (the crust is very touch!), but it’s as close as we’ve ever come to finding proper pizza since we started hunting for a coeliac-friendly alternative. Amazing discovery. We’ll definitely be back for more!

PS – A small word of advice. If you plan to go and you’re on a date, ring ahead and make a reservation. A quick phone call landed us a cosy table by the window so we could enjoy our meal without too much hustle or fuss from other tables/staff with trays/kitchen sound.

pretty cupcakes

I stumbled across this recipe ages ago – what caught my eye was that it was re-printed in my local paper back in Canada.

Turns out it also makes some pretty brilliant cupcakes, which are totally celiac-friendly! Enjoy the article, written around this time last year, here. And enjoy the recipe, below! These cupcakes originally appeared in the book Gluten-Free Baking Classics, which is available on both sides of the Atlantic via Amazon. The recipe calls for prepared frosting, but icing is so easy that I make my own – I’ve included my instructions at the bottom of the cupcake recipe.

 

Pretty Vanilla Cupcakes

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cups brown rice flour mix (I couldn’t find any, but was able to get some Dove’s Farm All-Purpose Flour, which was great)

1/4 tsp salt (I didn’t use any – I choose not to bake with salt, but it’s a personal preference)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Position rack in centre of oven. Place  baking liners in a 12-cupcake pan. Beat sugar and eggs in large bowl until smooth (The recipe calls for an electric mixer, but I don’t have one, so I used some elbow grease!). Add flour, salt, baking powder, xanthan gum, oil, milk and vanilla – beat all together. Pour the batter into the cupcake liners – I use a soup ladle. Place in centre of oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until centre springs back when touched and cupcakes are very lightly browned.

When you remove the cupcakes from the oven, leave them to cool in the pan for five minutes, then transfer to a wire rack or the kitchen counter. Don’t frost them until they have cooled completely.

 

Blue Frosting

2 and 2/3 cups icing sugar

5 tbsp butter or margerine, softened at room temperature

10 tsp milk

1 tsp vanilla flavouring

5 drops blue food colouring (or any colour you like – add more for darker colours and less for paler shades)

Mix icing sugar and butter together, then add all the liquids. For runnier icing, add more milk, for stiffer icing, add more icing sugar. You can either spread the icing on the cakes with a knife or pipe it on – I think piping is prettier!

A perfect, pretty treat!

And voila! Perfect, pretty, gluten-free cupcakes. Top with sprinkles or any other cake decoration you like.

gingerbread cookies

There’s something about the fall – sorry, autumn, for those of you in the UK – that makes me crave lovely, cinnamon-y desserts. Springtime and summer are for fruit, winter is when I get my worst chocolate cravings, but I always want spices in the fall.

Pumpkin pie is my favourite fall indulgence (or anything pumpkin, come to think of it. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin spiced latte…) but the craze hasn’t really hit the UK yet and pumpkin as an ingredient is quite hard to come by  – I admit I prefer the cheater’s method of using canned pumpkin puree in my baking. So in a pinch, gingerbread – my second-favourite fall flavour – will do.

These gluten-free cookies are from a conversion of a recipe from Company’s Coming Kids Cooking. I don’t know if it’s even still in publication anymore, but the book was given to me as a Christmas present by one of my aunts when I was about nine or ten and these cookies are one of the first things I ever baked on their own.  I don’t know where that cookbook is anymore, but I know the recipe was on page 37 (because I got a huge blob of molasses on it that made the pages stick together) and I made them so many times, I learned it by heart. These cookies are my mom’s favourite and became part of my regular baking routine – which I kept up when I moved across the country to university. And when I moved to England, they played a fairly important part in a series of events which netted me a lovely boyfriend, so they’ve been very good to me over the years.

I prefer my gingerbread cookies to be chewy and soft – if you like yours crisper, keep them in the oven for an extra minute or two. But watch them carefully – you don’t want them to burn! And if you’re making the regular variety, rather than the gluten-free, substitute all-purpose flour for the wheat-free blend and cut out the xanthan gum completely – or else you’re going to have really gummy cookies!

With a few modifications, here’s the recipe:

Delicious Autumn Gingerbread Cookies

1 cup butter/margerine, softened at room temperature
1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar (plus about 1/4 cup  to 1/2 cup exta for coating at the end)
1 egg
2 tbsp dark corn syrup (or golden syrup for you folks in the UK)
1/2 cup molasses (UK translation: black treacle)
3 cups plain gluten free flour blend
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves

Mix butter, sugar, egg, corn syrup and molasses together, using either a hand mixer or some pretty vigorous stirring. When smooth, add all remaining ingredients and stir together until flour has been absorbed. If the mixture appears to be dry, add a few drops of water.

Make sure the texture is not-too-sticky, not-too-dry

Using clean hands, roll the cookie dough into balls (mine are usually around 1 inch in diameter, sometimes 1.5 inches if I want larger cookies) and coat each cookie in the extra granulated sugar.

Roll each cookie in a bowl of sugar to coat.

When cookies are covered in sugar (don’t flatten them!), place on an ungreased baking tray and bake for 12-14 minutes at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Ready to go!

They will flatten on their own in the oven and a pretty ‘crinkle’ texture will appear on top. Let them cool on the baking tray or on wax paper. They’re delicious for dunking into a glass of milk or chai tea. Enjoy!

Mmmmmm.

some news

No recipes today, just a bit of news!

For starters, I’ve now got a Twitter account. I’ve tried Twitter before and remain unconvinced, but all my techy friends keep telling me it’s the Next Big Thing, so I’m giving it a second try. You can follow me (and keep up with this blog) at @ihasahungry. Please do – I’ll follow you back and do my best to reply to any direct messages.

And for seconds, I’ve got an AMAZING new smoothie maker! While on a recent holiday to Australia, I fell in love with smoothies in a big way and am doing my best to recreate my favourites at home. I just busted it out for the first time tonight and the concoction I made in it was delicious! Watch this space – I’ll be sure to update once I’ve perfected the art of the smoothie.