Growing up, I went on some pretty memorable family vacations, but one that really stands out is our cross country adventure. For a whole month one summer, my parents hitched a trailer to our suburban and drove us from New Jersey out to California and back again. We saw so much of the countryside traveling this way and got to stop at some pretty cool places too like Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park, Alcatraz, Muir Woods, and the Grand Canyon. Not to mention visiting some quirky sights too like the Corn Palace, a place made entirely of corn, riding the trolley cars, and walking the crooked street of San Francisco. It was a jam packed vacation that took us to places we may have never been to otherwise. Thanks to my parents I’m able to tell my little girl more about this country than I ever dreamed I could.
Some of my favorite times on our cross country vacation were spent in California where I met a whole other half of our family for the first time, where we went to Disneyland, and where we walked the streets of Los Angeles and San Francisco, taking in all of the sights, sounds, and tastes these cities had to offer. I still remember like it was yesterday, spending a morning seeing San Francisco’s Alcatraz and then walking along Fisherman’s Wharf, picking out a place for lunch. We decided on soups and/or sandwiches from a delicious restaurant nestled right in the wharf, offering authentic San Francisco sourdough. It was so chilly and windy, a perfect San Francisco day for soup and sourdough bread. I remember my mom and dad’s huge sourdough bread bowl, overflowing with piping hot soup inside, it was a sight to see for sure and apparently tasted even better than it looked. Never being a huge soup fan, I had a sandwich on sourdough bread and I can still taste the delicious flavor. The crust was so crunchy on the outside and the inside was light and filled with wholes, but chewy too, just how a perfect sourdough roll should be. Years later, and we haven’t been back to San Francisco but the flavors and textures of that lunch have not been forgotten.
Since going gluten free, my diet has been left with many holes in it, without gluten free substitutions to fill them in. As the hype and popularity of this diet/lifestyle grows, there seems to be more and more unique gluten free options out there. We’re far from where I hope we’ll end up one day but just being able to find new items like this gluten free sourdough is really encouraging. Which brings me to the beauty of Twitter. I was blogging not too long ago and stumbled upon a gluten free sourdough bread company in San Francisco, Bread SRSLY. Just after one glimpse, I was instantly transported back to my family’s time in San Francisco and couldn’t help but crave a taste of that crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside sourdough bread. But would these gluten free rolls and loaves of bread compare to the ones that stood out in my memory? Well there was only one way to find out.
A little chat later, and the generous gluten free folks at Bread SRSLY in San Francisco were sending along a couple of samples of their gluten free sourdough bread. I couldn’t have been more excited for their arrival and thankfully didn’t have to wait too long. I opened the box like it was Christmas morning and found three brown paper packages of gluten free sourdough in a few varieties, including rolls, a loaf of regular bread, and a loaf of kale bread. I couldn’t wait to dive into one of them, so that day for lunch I decided on a warm sandwich of fresh mozzarella and sliced tomatoes between two halves of a sourdough roll.
Looks tasty doesn’t it? Well, I’m happy to report that these rolls taste just as good as they look. After unrolling the top of the paper package you get a whiff of sourdough. The rolls are bit darker than your classic white sourdough rolls but texture and flavor are right on point. You can enjoy them with or without toasting, both ways they taste good. The crust on the outside is crispy and the inside is chewy and light, just like the sourdough deliciousness I enjoyed years ago. Of course you can enjoy these anyway you’d like, but I highly recommend heating up a couple of slices of mozzarella and tomatoes on a toasted gluten free sourdough roll. You end up with a warm, gluten free sandwich, with all of the fantastic flavor and texture of the sourdough roll, that would be perfect being served in Fisherman’s Wharf for a breezy and cool San Francisco day.
Bread SRSLY has joined the ranks of companies that have seemed to accomplish the impossible. They’ve produced a gluten free product that is 100% unique to the gluten free world that resembles it’s regular version remarkably well. We all know that perfecting taste and texture of gluten free products, especially those in the bread family, is incredibly difficult but seems to be done flawlessly by some of these smaller companies. My favorite feature of these sourdough rolls is that you can taste the love that’s baked into them. You can just tell that so much thought, trial and error, and passion has been put into making a great product, which just makes them taste that much better.
Take a look at the Bread SRSLY site to see the entire list of gluten free products that they offer. And if you’re not in the Bay area it’s not a problem, neither am I, but I can still order some of their sourdough products on their site and get them sent right to my front door. These rolls are yet another fantastic addition to the gluten free world and one that I’ll add to my pantry whenever I can. Congratulations Bread SRSLY on your gluten free success!
Sincerely,
Lindsay