Too bad that there's not more like Too Good!

We were recently saved from 'the worst day ever' by the lovely folk at 'Too Good to be Gluten Free'.

We had dear old friends staying for the weekend and despite them having been in Nottingham numerous times before, we had never made it to Nottingham Castle with them. We had decided that this was to be the time that we would go to see the historic monument, however, Nottingham City Council had given over the venue to a Great Food and Drink Festival for the weekend.

Undeterred, we were looking forward to having a stroll round the stalls before tackling the tourist trail. There were cooking demonstrations by the obligatory TV chefs, a nice kids play and crafts section, live music and numerous lovely artisan food and drinks stalls...... of which a grand total of 1 was dedicated to gluten-free food.

As we wandered around, our gluten free kid was getting more and more upset as there was nothing that she could try. (She could have had the amazing passion fruit vodka from I Heart Vodka had she been of drinking age, but she's not, so I had to have her sample. And a bottle- just to make sure it really was that good!). To add insult to injury Alex got a free balloon and within minutes it had burst. In her best drama queen style she threw her stick with the flaccid red latex hanging off the end to the ground and wailed at the top of her voice 'this really is the worst day ever!!'

Fast forward to a very forlorn walk towards the exit when we came across the No G camper van, gleaming in a ray of sunshine! Too Good to be Gluten Free offer pies, quiches and tarts that are genuinely good. The flakey, buttery pastry and rich tasty steak and ale filling was just what our hangry diva needed, and for us non-coeliacs, we couldn't tell that it was gluten-free. To brighten our day even more, the charming people from No G offered us some of their other flavours to take home and try. Chicken, bacon and leek, fish and potato and vegetable were all as good as each other, heating up well in the

oven. When we asked where No G pies are available, we were told Sainsbury's or Ocado. They had been available in Asda, but unfortunately, Asda had been pushing for too much of a reduction to make it viable for the company to continue to supply them. (SHAME on you gigantic supermarket chain- we want more options for good quality gluten free food, not less.)

In the end, it was a lovely day and we even got to meet Robin Hood! It would be so much lovelier though, if the food festival organisers could do something to encourage/ facilitate more stalls with options for people with dietary requirements. Unless I knew for definite that there would be stalls that Alex could enjoy, I won't be rushing back to another food fair with her in the foreseeable future.