Traveling Gluten Free in London!

Sorry for the absence. It has been one thing after another around here! First off, TJ broke his foot about 6 weeks ago while playing basketball at work. He had surgery and had to be completely off of it until 2 weeks ago. Now he is walking in a boot. It's been a long and frustrating last few weeks but T is getting there. TJ is usually a huge help around the house and with the kids but until recently he couldn't do much. So between that and him needing a little more help himself, I have been a bit busier. Thank goodness for our helpful families!
 
(TJ at the ER right after he broke it!)

We've also had a few other things pop-up here and there, including a trip to London! TJ's work wanted him to throw together an event so I tagged along! We are here now. And I love it!
Gluten free has been a bit tricky but here's what I've learned so far...

1. Delta airlines is pretty good with gluten free meals. TJ called a few days beforehand to request it. We were served the meal first. It was still airplane food, so nothing great. But they clearly labeled the tray "gfml", which made us feel much more comfortable with it. (btw TJ hates rice cakes but found if you spread butter on it and a little salt it's kind of like popcorn!)
 
Breakfast was another rice cake with honey (not too bad if you are really really hungry) and a banana.
2. Bring food you know is good. You only have so much space when traveling, so fill it with stuff you like to eat. We made some sandwiches before we left out of Rudi's gluten free bread that I bought from Sprouts. It was terrible! The flavor was fine but the bread disintegrated as we tried to eat the sandwiches! It was in the fridge section, so maybe that's why (should have been frozen)? I could have sworn I really like Rudi's bread! We also brought an assortment of chips and candy and snacks, so we were fine. Plus Delta peanuts are OK.
3. Airport food. You can almost always find at least a salad, just have a vinaigrette if you are questioning the dressing. We also saw some various chips at the little convenience shops that are good.
4. If you come to London you should go to Otto's. Cornmeal crust pizza is amazing! They were very friendly and said 99.9% of the time everything is gluten free. If it isn't, they know it and will tell the customer. They make their own sausage but if they run out they have to buy it and that sausage is not always gluten free.
 
They were in Notting Hill. The little restaurant was so fun! And they let you get a few different types of pizza on the same pizza (see pic). We had spinach and artichoke, pepperoni, and some kind of sausage one. I really liked all of them. The ingredients were super fresh.
 
Also they had this awesome poster up, in the bathroom. Yes, I made TJ go in and take a picture of it for me! What a nice husband he is!
 
5. Also we went to Zirris. They have gluten free pasta that they will cook up for you. It was pretty good. To be honest, nothing spectacular. The noodles were under done and had a little crunch. The one thing we both really liked was the chili-infused olive oil they used on TJ's dish. It was really yummy. I had the seafood mix with red sauce. The seafood was really fresh, so it tasted pretty good.

For breakfast each day we just ate at the hotel. They had a large buffet and a chef on hand to make fresh eggs, thank goodness. We did run into a snag on day 2 when we realized they put bread beneath the bacon and sausage to soak up the grease. Turns out we noticed a little too late and TJ was not well that day. He took some peptobismal tablets and had to keep working, poor guy! 

I'll post some more of our learning experiences soon!