Bournemouth Food and Drink Festival 2014

That's right folks, I have been hitting the food festivals all weekend. I'd love to say this has been an entirely altruistic attempt to tell you where the best gluten free options are, but I'm afraid it's more a pure, unadulterated love of food and drink (not to mention being out in this heat wave seem to be getting!).

All in all, the Chilli and Cheese Festival yesterday might have been more of a success on the gluten-free front, but I wasn't disappointed. Why? Well, we got into Bournemouth just after 10am and, having forgotten briefly that it was a Sunday, and that the shops wouldn't open until 10.30am, we stopped by the Food and Drink Festival first. For those who haven't happened upon it yet, it's all based in Bournemouth Square.

Before you get too close, even as early as 10.30am, you can smell all the delights that await you. Primarily cooked meats, there is plenty there for everyone. But the first place we found that could cater for coeliacs was Giggi's Gelataria (normally based in the Burlington Arcade in Bournemouth).

Although they do stock a non-gluten free ice cream (Cookies and Cream), all their other flavours are safe and they use a separate scoop for each flavour, so the risk of cross-contamination is very low. The prices are NOT cheap (a small tub cost almost £3) but I must tell you that their pistachio ice cream - my very favourite flavour - was the best I have ever tasted, outdoing even that offered Forest Glade Ice Cream in Lyndhurst. It was creamy, yes, but the flavour of pistachio was deliciously strong and nutty. It's definitely worth a try!

The second place I found was a fantastically fun creation called 'The Taco Bus'. Aside from being very eye-catching, the Taco Bus offers a great array of different tacos, which they can make in a gluten free tortilla on request.

I'll be honest here. Although they do say their corn tortillas are gluten free, I didn't risk having one because I believe that they primarily use wheatflour-based tortillas and I couldn't be 100% certain there would be no cross-contamination. Have you ever eaten gluten free from the Taco Bus? If so, please comment below!

Brilliant news for fans of Spanish food - there were a great number of paellas there, including those provided by popular restaurant La Tasca! Unfortunately, no vegetarian paellas to be found anywhere but La Tasca's paellas are suitable for coeliacs and, if cooked properly, they other paellas at other stalls should also be safe.

Fancy a drink to go with your food? There are also a number of stalls offering thirst-quenching purchasables, including a small, locally-based firm that makes cider.

It's been a terrific weekend. I hope you'll take the opportunity to visit either the Bournemouth Food and Drink Festival, running until 29th June (for more info, check out the website), or visit one local to you, and check out what is available for either yourself or for the coeliac in your life.

Have a great week, folks!