Before arriving in France for the summer, we spent a hellish week in London — while I love London (I spent a few years there back in the early ’90′s), this visit was especially bad as there were five of us (myself, the wife and three kids) dealing with jet lag and not being close enough to an Underground station. It was just way too much walking.  Oh well, live and learn.

In my usual tradition of seeking out a supermarket, I decided to revisit an old favorite, Sainsbury’s. Back in 1993 when I was in London last, I hadn’t been diagnosed with celiac disease and I had no idea what a gluten-free diet was and I’m pretty sure that Sainsbury’s didn’t either. Now, Sainsbury’s offers a wonderful gluten-free line, freefrom. Literally, hundreds of products ranging from frozen dinners to desserts to cereals to loaf bread. They also carry a decent selection of third party brands as well. Looking for a good breakfast item, I decided to try their freefrom Granola Style Cereal. The first thing I noticed about this granola is that it wasn’t loaded with corn like so many gluten-free granolas that I’ve tried in the past but it did have a bit more sugar than I usually like in my cereal. All in all, the granola was tasty and had some great ingredients not commonly found in store bought granola — buckwheat flakes, sunflower seeds, hazelnut nibs and flaked almonds.

The next thing that I had to try from Sainsbury’s was Genius gluten-free bread. I’ve been hearing about this for months on the Celiac Handbook Facebook page and I was really anxious to try it. With some sliced turkey and sharp cheddar cheese, I made myself and my kids some sandwiches and I have to tell you, it was one of the best store-bought gluten-free sandwich breads that I’ve tasted. A light and fluffy texture, it didn’t crumble and best of all, it didn’t require being frozen.

We’ll be back in London in August for two weeks and this time we’ll be staying somewhere that makes the city a little bit more accessible and require a lot less walking. This next time around, we’ll be focusing on restaurants with gluten-free menus as well as sampling more of what the local supermarkets have to offer. If there’s something or some place that you think I have to try, leave a comment and let me know — I’m always open to suggestion for good food.