Quejos

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Don’t let your taste buds fool you—the baked goodies at Quejos on Vancouver’s Main Street are all astonishingly gluten-free

It is commonly said that gluten-free bread tastes like cardboard. Obviously those skeptics have not travelled to Main Street and snacked upon a Quejos cheese bun.

Owner and chef Frances Wong discovered the cheese buns while travelling in Brazil. “I learnt the recipes from a small group of local women in Belo Horizonte, the capital of cheese buns,” explains Wong.

“The cheese bun is a native recipe to Brazil. I am not allergic to wheat, but I love the taste and so I decided to bring the recipes home with me. It took me awhile to perfect them, but now even a Brazilian couldn’t tell them apart.”

Gleaned from a Brazilian recipe, Quejos’s gluten-free buns are made from manioc powder; meaning they are yeast, wheat and gluten free! And they’re available in seven flavours: extra cheese, sun-dried tomato and basil, flaxseed and almond, fresh spinach and onion, fresh jalapeno, fresh garlic and black olive.

With the success of these buns, came the addition of other products. Quejos has added dairy-free buns, soya buns, muffins, pizza shells and cookies.

Heather Lochner is a stay-at-home mother and a freelance writer. She loves combing the neighbourhoods of Vancouver to find locally owned shops and restaurants. Together with her two children, husband and dog, she lives aboard her sailboat in Vancouver. When not at work or school, the Lochners are out cruising the BC coast.