Saturday, April 19, 2008

The Best Wheat Substitute

I don't think it would surprise anyone to know that the type of food most impacted by a gluten-free restriction is bread. In a nutshell, gluten-free bread sucks. It's actually hard to find gluten-free bread thats not frozen. Even full metal bread sucks after it's been frozen. Second, GF bread has this... too dense, too mealy, too crumbly quality to it...

There are a few notable exceptions... First - if you toast the bread, it sucks far less. Second - if you get it directly from a wheat-free bakery (like Rose's Wheat-Free Bakery), the results can be surprisingly good. Roses has a burger with beef from a ranch owned by Bill Curtis (yes, that Bill Curtis) served on Rose's sandwich rolls. The first bite is unsettling, because we have built up expectations about the kind of bread upon which burgers should be served. By the second bite, you notice how well the flavors and textures work together. By the last, you're anticipating the next time you can order one.

We've tried a number of GF frozen pizza options with varying degrees of success. The best of these has been the Amy's Rice Crust Pizza. Lou Malnati's, however, takes a completely different approach to gluten-free...



While other efforts replace the wheat with rice or corn, the Malnati's crew seems to have thought, "That's too hard." They went ahead and replaced the wheat with... wait for it... Sausage! That's right: When you order a Malnati's Gluten-Free Pizza, you get a big disk of sausage with sauce, cheese, and toppings on it. We actually got Pepperoni on a disk of cheesy, saucy, sausage... It ruled.

While this may be the nutritional equivalent of Hawaii trading a rat problem for a mongoose problem, I am looking forward to Malnati's serving me a hot dog on a bun made of sausage. Or, perhaps, a salad served in a sausage bowl... The possibilities are endless.

1 comment:

edP said...

Is there a picture of Bill Curtis on the box?

Please say yes.