Bread-guy vs. Meat-guy

The antidote for meat overdose: I've had out of town family stay with us the last couple of weeks. We've been eating little more than steak, hamburgers, meatloaf, machaca, sausages, pepperoni pizza, beefy stew and fish. I never thought someone like myself could get "over-meated" but now it's happened. As an experiment, I tried being vegan for one week last year sometime, and towards the end I literally started having dreams about meat. I surprised myself yesterday by ordering spinach enchiladas; they were delicious. I take back all those mean things I said about all you vegans and vegetarians.

Bread charma

Behind the counter at the bakery this morning I notice these little loaves of bread, so I naturally ask about them. I'm told they're not for sale and are only used to make sandwiches. So I turn up my charm and convince her to let me try one. She has to have at least 10; she counts 11. My bread charma is good today.

Taking pictures

Sorry, I remembered to snap a picture of my breakfast only after eating half of it already.
So as I'm ordering my spinach bun this morning, the french lady comes out from the back: "So I hear you like bread."
"Yes, I must confess..." I turn and accuse my coworker of spilling the beans.
"You like to take pictures; You like to take pictures of my buns?"
The french accent might have had something to do with it, but I was completely caught off guard. I haven't blushed like that since high school.

Pictures of her buns

Yes I do.

New domain name

new domain name:

www.breadguyblog.com

for your bookmarking pleasure...

Vietnamese French Sandwiches

I was fortunate enough today to find myself in the neighborhood of my favorite vietnamese bakery today. I ordered the patté banh mi, which I have been told numerous times is "too advanced" for me. While waiting for our sandwiches the 10 year old chubby little girl at the register asks me if I'd like to also buy a loaf of raisin bread:


"It's fresh out of the oven, still hot, only 2.99"
"No, thank you."
"Are you sure?"
I nod.
She's gone for a second, and appears bearing samples of the raisin bread. Nobody dares refuse the hot samples. Our sandwiches are up. As I pick them up, I also order a loaf of the raisin bread. I lean in and whisper to the little girl: "That was a pretty good trick with the samples"
She whispers back: "That wasn't a trick, it was a sure thing."
I think she knows.

Other peoples breads

Guest Toast; today we have a photo of my coworker's toast, which she swears is delicious. Not having tried it myself, I have to disclaim that the views and opinions presented above may not necessarily represent those of the blogger. Mmmmm

Don't forget breakfast

Earlier at the bakery today:
"I'll take a plain bun, (that'll be for breakfast when I get to work...)


... and a loaf of Pugliese to make my lunch sandwich,
what, it's not out of the oven yet? Ok, I'll take a ciabatta,


... and 2 ham and cheese buns (for my coworkers)



and a baguette for breakfast. (I had forgotten about the buns from 15 seconds earlier)
End result:

Happy bread-guy.

The secret to happiness

I got this tomato and feta spinach danish a couple days ago from the french lady. I usually get the spinach bun. She asked if i was trying to be wild; I told her I was trying to mix it up. She rolled her eyes all ooh-la-la like at me. Not related to bread, but coincidentally related to my other passion, her bakery is full of welded metal art. Its like the place is made for me; bread, welding and wifi.

I just liked this picture of my breakfast.

I bought this for my coworker this morning. The victory dance I was rewarded with was definitely worth more than the $3.75 reimbursement for this ham bun.

The loaves in my life

I am currently the owner of four loaves of bread at various stages of being eaten.
From left to right: Safeway Asiago Cheese, Di Prima Dolce Ciabata, Como, and a loaf of Pugliese at work. I'm not sure at what level the experts call it an addiction, but I think it's borderline compulsive. I've been trying not to buy bread before I'm out, but sometimes I just have to. No I don't need an intervention! I could go on the Atkins any time I want to.

The Golden Proportion

The Golden Sandwich Ratio,
One of the ways i judge a sandwich is by the ratio of bread vs. other stuff. If we were to apply the golden ratio, we'd end up with about 1.6 times more bread than other stuff. I would consider this to be pretty close to perfect. Unfortunately this is very rarely found in the sandwich world. Today's lunch was an especially offending case. Breadiness score of 3 out of 10. +1 because they toasted it, but -1 for the chips they missed, which in my case also go down the breadhole. (i don't have a piehole at all)

More on the golden ratio

defined as:




where a=.8 and b=.5 in todays example of a sandwich I made myself.
therefore: (.8 + .5)/.8 = 1.62 or .8 / .5 = 1.6


The golden ratio is the limit of the ratios of successive terms of the Fibonacci sequence (or any Fibonacci-like sequence):

Therefore, if a Fibonacci number is divided by its immediate predecessor in the sequence, the quotient approximates φ; e.g., 987/610 ≈ 1.6180327868852. These approximations are alternately lower and higher than φ, and converge on φ as the Fibonacci numbers increase.

Take that!
You can't argue with science;
Q.E.D.!

Breakfast

I was introduced to a new bakery recently.
The bread is from Di Prima Dolci Italian Bakery in Portland. It's a small place and has been sold out twice of my beloved Pugliese. But when it's there, mmmmm. I think Grand Central Bakery Como may have to settle for silver.

Post Lunch Review

Chicken sandwich on crusty baguette, slice of crostini for the soup and a side of chips. Breadiness rating: 7 on scale of 1 to 10. The baguette requires more effort in chewing than any other bread. Not for the faint of jaw.

Bread Guy

A coworker called me bread guy yesterday. Then it occured to me that I have a lot to say about bread. They're probably tired of my lunchtime rantings. More bread wisdom to follow shortly.

All rise!

You may be seated.