the gluten free expo @ olympic park

A couple of weeks back, I saw an ad for this in Superfood Ideas or it could've been Australian Table. Anyway, I did my best to ask my closest foodies (Mandy and Amz) to join me but with no luck (a sms from Mandy and an unreturned call from Amy), I ventured over to Olypmic Park with J. Probably the first time we've driven to Olypmic Park and unbeknown to us both, we ended up parking in a carpark (which was a long way away) and then to realise there was actually 2 hours free street parking closer to the hall. Ah well, at least the admission to the show was free!

The website for the show had been quite vague as to its actual location. It simply said Olympic Park and as most will know, Olypmic Park is actually quite spread out. With a bit of common sense that involved following the direction where people with bags were walking towards us from (of course any food show is incomplete without the bags of goodies!), we found the Show in 'The Showbag Hall of the Easter Show'. Definitely well hidden away and at first sight, seemed rather deserted. This was certainly not the case as we ventured inside.

The main entrance.

People crowded each stall. We started off with some Gluten free Honey Cereal Loops, then progressed to gluten free bread, then there was gluten free chocolate, gluten free cakes, gluten free chips, gluten free pies, assorted gluten free snacks and might I add, Belgian chocolates from Leonadis in Chifley Square (are they gluten free?). Gluten free foods are generally identified by their dense texture (given gluten gives food it's stretchy/chewiness). I actually didn't mind what was on offer and what I saw, definitely made me appreciate the companies out there who are catering their products to those that are gluten intolerant. Thumbs up from me!!

And well, as you can imagine, I'm not gluten intolerant. When I got home, I actually spent some time reading about what it meant to be gluten intolerant and was quite surprised that some of the symptoms were quite normal. At some point, I was thinking even I could be displaying those symptoms when J commented 'You eat too many cakes, there's no way you have a problem with gluten'. Well, it was just a thought.

J with our loot of gluten free chips, crackers and sausages!!

J trying to look pissed off.

All in all, it was a nice day out at Olympic Park! J & I have possibly ODed on the Chipman Corn Chips which we brought back from the show. And well, I seem to have mistaken gluten free for 'fat free' in the space of the day. Hmmm....