Allergy-friendly Travel Eats! Find #2 - Green and Pleasant Tearooms, Bourton-on-the-Water, Cotswolds, UK

Wonderful surprise discoveries while travelling with allergies!

Find #2 - Green and Pleasant Tearooms, Bourton-on-the-Water, Cheltenham, UK 

I originally posted about this last May, while I was on holiday in the UK, in a blog entitled, 'How living with food allergies can be a most wonderful thing...' and I really meant that title.

For all the difficulties that food or any other allergies can cause, the experience teaches you a great deal and it's impossible not to develop an appreciation for so many things, and for all the people who have actively tried to open up different foods for people and allow them to experience something that so many others never have to think twice about. I'm absolutely not saying that people without allergies necessarily take food for granted, but when you're forced to watch out for everything, it gives you a unique opportunity to experience and really savour firsts that others will have long forgotten... and those moments are amazing.

This particular first, was my first scone. I'm Australian and I had my first scone at the age of 35 while taking my mother on holiday with me to the UK last May. All the cheers to Green and Pleasant Tearooms for not only making allergy-friendly scones and cakes, but for also ensuring they are prepared and displayed safely away from the possibility of cross-contamination. This is the kind of effort that should always be commended!

Now, that trip was already something of a dream trip in itself and I got to share it with my mum, who has been my Rock through everything, and treat her to experiences she had never even thought of. Watching someone who raised you and is almost twice your age seeing, experiencing and marvelling at so many things for the first time is a glimpse of Heaven, I'm certain.

This was a trip where I got to see and visit places I had dreamed of seeing since I was a child or a teenager, where I got to go away after a year of multiple health difficulties which made me wonder if I would ever get to make such a trip again (of course, that I can even think to take a trip like that is a massive privilege in itself) and where the sheer size of the UK's population means that allergy-friendly or niche diet foods are far more abundant than they are here in Australia, even in Sydney, therefore allowing me to partake in foods that I just hadn't even imagined.

Living with allergies is hard. That goes without saying.

But at the same time, those struggles only make the good moments and the good foods just that much sweeter.

Originally posted on May 30, 2018:

'Today I had my first ever scone and therefore my first ever Cream Tea 😄 Apparently I inadvertently favoured the Devonshire style of scone by going 'cream' (or in this case, Vitalite) first. Either way, all the cheers, Green and Pleasant! 

This is one of the nicest things I've ever had. Seriously, holycrapYUM. I fully plan to get another one tomorrow before we head to Heathrow and have already found places back home that do vegan scones and vegan high teas so we're all in for a treat, my loves, because you are all getting dragged. 

A funny thing - Ma was taken aback by the awe, which is fair enough considering surely someone has come up with vegan scones by now and surely it's not hard to make them yourselves with the right substitutes, but thinking about it, when you've had allergies spanning 3 decades (oh waah, I know, but hear me out), you've pretty much erased certain foods from possibility. It doesn't occur to you to even think of alternatives until someone presents the very thing right to you. The chocolate and a bunch of cakes, biscuits and other previously unthought of treats have thankfully made their way into my brain over the last decade (all thanks to a random Easter present, by the way) but new stuff will inevitably keep coming - like scones. 

After years of being told they're off limits, you write them off and the thought of having one simply doesnt occur to you till some bloke in a village in the Cotswolds says, 'I make vegan scones here'. 

Then you eat, grin, gush (if you're me) because holycrapdeliciousthankyou and add it to the growing list of new awesome foods that you previously assumed you'd never have and had practically 'forgotten'. Long story short, it's pretty much why I'll never stop getting so freaking excited about food and it's a fun ride along with those of you who get just as excited for me 😃❤ #greenandpleasanttearooms #bourtononthewater #cotswolds #allthefood #allthesweets #allthestepsfromthisholiday #happilynegated #😊'

My scones - carefully made and stored separately from the other goods in the cafe.

Lemon Drizzle Cake.

What a beautiful little place.