Norfolk Street Bakery Cambridge Gluten Free Bread!

I can barely contain my excitement from eating this bread - it truly is superb!

The Norfolk Street bakery is situated towards the east of Cambridge city centre, in a quiet terraced road scattered with little shops and cafes such as this. I have walked past it many times assuming I wouldn't be able to eat anything at it - but how wrong was I!

I bought a GF loaf for £3.10 (I think) which is fairly standard for GF fare, and no more expensive than the average loaf you get from a supermarket. I left happily cuddling my loaf and excited to cut into it and give it ago.

This is what it looked like- bread! It was soft but with a decent crust on it as well. The texture was light and fluffy and the taste was very good. It tasted like bread - slightly sweet with a very slightly bitter aftertaste. But still very very tasty. I was over the moon - a loaf of bread that actually tastes like bread, that is enjoyable to eat and not a chore! So often bread is just a means to an end - something I can toast and spread something on so I don't go to work without breakfast or something to hold the sandwich filling in (often very half-heartedly!). This is a loaf of bread that I can actually imagine sitting in the garden with a glass of wine and dipping in some olive oil and just eating as a nibble - because it tastes good and is pleasant to eat! I could definitely tell it was fresh as well - I was assured that it was made in the early hours of that morning!

Another slice in and I discovered a bit of a hole near the top - goes through quite a long way but not too big. I think this might be to do with proving for too long. It's not a big problem though. It looks like the loaf was baked in quite a small (width and height) but long tin and has mushroomed over the top. I quite like that though - makes it look rustic.

Anyone who lives anywhere near Cambridge and requires gluten free bread HAS to go hear ASAP! I can't believe this place is only a six minute walk from my front door!

P.S. Sorry the photos aren't great - only have my pc webcam to take photos at the moment.

Bruschetta Gluten Free, Kingston

Last weekend I was in London visiting my brother and on Sunday we made a pilgrimage to Bruschetta, Kingston. Bruschetta is the kind of restaurant coeliacs dream of. Everything on the menu is available gluten free, including fresh handmade pasta. Here I am outside the restaurant looking excited:

Any restaurant with the crossed grain symbol on the outside is a definite good start!

 Taking a look at the drinks menu I noticed it said 'gluten free beer'. I asked which beer it was and was given a choice, yes a choice! They had Celia gluten free lager or Estrella Damm Daura. I hadn't tried the Celia lager before so went for this. It was very nice, refreshing and tasty.

 To start with we had a bruschetta classica and a  9 inch foccace Biancaneve. The bruschetta was toasted with tomato, garlic and basil on top. It was very tasty as was the salad it came with.

The bread was not made on the premises but imported from Italy. All their Pizza bases and some of there pastas were made fresh on site. The  9 inch foccace Biancaneve was essentially a garlic pizza bread with mozzarella: 

It was very nice, the pizza was quite thin and crisp around the edges but could've done with a bit longer to make it crispy all the way through.

As a main course I had the fresh gluten free ravioli of the day, which was stuffed with spinach and ricotta and ricotta and served with a cherry tomato sauce. 

The pasta was very nice, probably the best I've ever had since I've been gluten free. You could tell it was freshly made and it had a great taste and texture. 

My brother had a gluten free margarita pizza:

It was very good, the base was cooked better and was properly crispy. The toppings were nice, it was definitely up there with the best I'd had in Glasgow. At this point I was stuffed, I couldn't even finish all my ravioli. I asked for the dessert menu just to see what they had, here it is:

I was very excited to see gluten free tiramisu on the menu, it had been my all time favourite dessert. I'd never seen a gluten free tiramisu on a menu before and only made it once because it's quite time consuming. I asked if it was possible to have tiramisu to go, but it wasn't as they were already set in a glass bowl. Instead I had the caprese cake, a chocolate and hazelnut cake. Here it is later at home:

It was very tasty, moist and chocolatey. I'd recommend Bruschetta to anyone living near, or visiting London. It really was a trip worth making. The also sell gluten free produce in the shop. I bought some tagliatelle, as I've not seen this before and I haven't tried it yet. The coeliacs of Kingston and London are lucky to have this haven right on their doorsteps!