Chilli & Cheese Festival 2014

Oooh today has been a fun day for me! Why? Because today we went to the Bournemouth Chilli & Cheese Festival at Bournemouth Sports Club.

Naturally, as a coeliac, I expect there to be nothing much for me to try at these events. Although, yes, most of the dips, sauces and salsas are gluten free, the tasting pots are always accompanied by bread or crackers and are therefore out of bounds to the sensible coeliac (that would be me).

But sometimes people surprise you. Where to start?! Well, first of all, there were a couple of stallholders who, when I explained I was coeliac, proffered a teaspoon and my own little supply of whatever it was I wanted to taste. The fiery peach ketchup was an interesting find. Not something I would want on my chips and onion rings, but just the sort of thing you might want on a meat dish like pork. Beautiful stuff and pretty spicy!

However, my two main finds were Purbeck Ice Cream, who we all know make gluten free ice cream. What was surprising was they stock gluten free ice cream cones! Yes, that's right, I actually got to eat a gluten free ice cream IN A CONE!!!! If you aren't a coeliac, that will seem a bit of a sad reason for such excitement. But as a coeliac, it's the most incredible thing if you find an ice cream cone you can eat. And for the same price as a 'normal' cone. As you can see, I was rather chuffed!

The other find was a Venezuelan stall. They were doing these sort of kebab/bun things like arepas, which they then stuffed with combinations such as pulled beef or pork, black beans, tomatoes, feta or cheddar, and their own homemade avocado sauce. They looked and smelled INCREDIBLE and the best part was that it was ALL gluten free!!! Unfortunately, this particular blogger was so overwhelmed with excitement that I forgot to take a picture or even note down their name. All I remember is 'Venezuelan' on their stall. Sorry about that. I desperately wanted to try one, but having downed a cocktail and an ice cream cone, I had no room to fit these enormous delicacies.

Thankfully, my husband and a friend both had one and I can tell you that they were very, very happy with their purachses! If you get to go (they're still there tomorrow) then I recommend you stop by this stall. And maybe pick me up a vegetarian one while you're there?!

In the meantime, here's an extremely happy and blissed-out me, drinking a chilli margarita at just after 11am!