Comparing bun sizes with my coworker...

Ok, so I cheated; mine's a actually a loaf of garlic and 3 cheese bread.

New record

We have a new record today. Six bucks for a loaf of bread.


and well worth it.

The beginning

This is where it started, the first place I discovered that sold good bread, many years ago.


I already had sandwich fixings at work, but my willpower was weak today.

Back to my anonymous ways

My breakfast came in this blank bag,


with this blank cup of coffee,


with it's blank cozy,


Bacon & bleu cheese & pear danish!

Jam

I decided to eat more jam. I forgot how delicious this tasted as a kid, so I had to order it when I found it. It goes great on toast, just not the toast I've been getting next door.


FAIL! two days in a row.


Consolation prize. It tastes kinda like the smell of walnuts, only much sweeter. The aroma was instantly familiar even though it's probably been 20 or 30 years. I went to smell it and was surprised it barely had a scent. The aroma I had smelled was with my tastebuds. I wasn't sure if you could eat the whole nuts; I couldn't remember. You can.
If you want a flavor explosion in your mouth.

The only bread they had next door

FAIL!

Feeding the masses

We stopped in for a quick lunch at this bakery on our weekend trip. There had to be at least one hundred people in there. The place was huge, 4 cashiers - each with a small line, LCD monitors for order taking and processing everywhere, every table in the place taken, even the outdoor seating.


My sandwich came wrapped in this logo emblazoned wrapper:


with this custom logo'd bag of chips,


with this cookie in it's custom packaging,


in this appropriately marked paper bag,


with a double americano in this properly marked cup,


with it's matching coffee cozy,

from this properly advertised establishment.

I try to stay away from places like this, and would rather seek out a hole in the wall place without the corporate budget for so much advertising. So being affronted with an operation of this scale automatically put me on the defensive. I really tried to find something wrong with the place, but the service was quick and friendly, the bread was decent, jeni said the cookie was good, the coffee was good, my sandwich was good although on the meaty side; even the pickle on the side wasn't bad, and I'm almost as critical of pickles as bread.


And then it occurred to me that the future might not be so bleak. I cringe every time I have to witness another suburbian mass-produced product or service. I've not stepped foot into a charbucks for years. But then sometimes I'm reminded that the majority of our population does live in suburbia, and it can be done right. There will always be a difference between the cozy inner city bakery and the large scale chains, but as suburbian growth continues, it's comforting to know that the quality of the food we eat doesn't automatically have to suck.

Mystery Bakery

As promised I returned to the bakery on alberta armed with camera. The name of the place is clearly visible on every tag, which kinda reminded me of that Vanilla Ice song that won him some kind of record for mentioning his own name the most times in one song. I think it was 42.


But the bread was just as good as last week. I also tried a loaf of walnut and currant white, but we're starting to conclude that I only like plain bread. So I cut some up into little squares and made my own crostini, which I ate with some pate and cheese. I let skipper try one, figuring he'd like the meat paste, but he picked it up and bit down, and without crunching it like I would have, told me that it was too hard. I tried to coax him but he simply would pretend to bite down and set it back on his plate. Finally I cut it up into little half inch squares, the way you do for babies and old ladies, and he gobbled it up the way my boss' dog eats bubble gum. Poor baby, that hard crust could have scratched his tender little gums. Aw.

I know their secret!

The crust: How do they do it? For years I've tried to make bread at home have that bakery crust, but it has never been quite right. I've heard rumors that it has to do with moisture in the oven, and to put a bowl of water or a moist towel in there. But this morning I was able to glean the real secret: Spray with a fine mist while baking. Makes sense. The baker warned me to try at my own risk. I'm sure they're still leaving stuff out. Like the time we tried to get my mother to divulge how to make chicken schnitzel. My siblings and I all tried to, but we all ended up with chicken strips. Nobody told us that you had to cut across the grain of the meat. I discovered that by accident. Or the time I asked her for her rice recipe, which contains water, rice, salt, pepper, celery and onions; but somehow her rice turns out red. hmmm... I'm sure I'm breaking some sort of culinary etiquette rule by posting their secrets.

New Bakery

We have a new bakery find from this weekend. All I had to go on was that it's on Alberta. Just as I was starting to doubt the accuracy of my bradar there it was. It was an impromptu bakery scouting joyride, so I had no camera; but I assure you the display was awesome. I didn't even take note of the name of the place. As soon as I have follow up pictures I'll be sure to share. Meanwhile, this is how it tasted:

Pie; they have a new chef

"Not at all a gut bomb." That's how it was described to me. The chiffon cake had that disappearing quality that cotton candy has, surprising me now as much as it did when I was a kid. I love that feeling of eating air. And before I knew it, it had disappeared completely; down my piehole (breadhole).

Cheese & Wine

Bread and butter go about as well together as cheese and wine. They saw me put margarine on my toast yesterday and the heckling that ensued ended with me being called a poser bread guy. "What kind of real bread guy would put fake butter on his bread?" Good point. It'd be like having cheese-whiz and wine. Only the real thing from here on out, I promise!

Mr. open-face

We were discussing how europeans tend to like their sandwiches open face versus the twin breaded american versions. I had no idea what I was doing untill my coworker started laughing at my lunch and I started to pay attention. Ok the pepperoncini was added after the fact. There are no pictures of the version with onion eyebrows.

His & Hers

Jeni and I are sampling individually sliced portions of bread from a new bakery we just discovered. The bread was decent but the roast beef bun was terrible.


that's as far as i got, and even to get to this point really felt like taking one for the team.


and then I washed it down with one of these.

Indecision

I couldn't decide this morning between the asiago & pancetta bun or the mushroom & cheese bun or the ham & cheese bun, so I got all three. I enlisted my coworker's decision making skills by pawning two off, at a 50 cent profit. Oh wait, I tipped a buck so I'm actually 50 cents down. Oh well, the cause is well worth it.

Pie from next door

I'm working on growing a pie-hole. True to form, there's a bite missing before the photo.