Baking a bread every week can teach you many things.
Don’t overbook yourself. Take things slow.
This week, making cornbread for the Bread Baker’s Apprentice challenge reminded me of yet another thing that’s applicable to life in general: Get enough sleep.
It began with three women — one in New York, one in Paris, one in San Diego.
Although they lived far, far apart and had never met, they had one thing in common: a deep love for bacon.
“I was just thinking how nice a BLT would be. I only have the L & T, however,” lamented Ellise in Paris.
“And I have the B but not the L and T. Come on over-we’ll combine them … ” I, the New Yorker, said.
“You know, I already bought bacon and tomatoes and was planning on a BLT soon for lunch!” said Nicole in San Diego.
And that, folks, was how our intercontinental BLT lunchdate was hatched.
Like many good New Yorkers, I had come to regard carbs as the enemy.
I’d accepted that Asian noodles were my Delilah. But with a few exceptions — any dish of steak frites that crossed my sight being the main one — I’d been able to stick to this waistline-watching strategy. I would push around (most of my) potatoes on the plate and leave bread (mostly) untouched.
Paris, however, has ruined me.
There were the perfectly baked breads that just demanded to be devoured. The delightfully salty butters that called to you from the table, insisting on being slathered on said perfectly baked breads and then devoured.
And there was the aligot at L’Ambassade D’Auvergne, a lovely little restaurant that specializes in the super elastic dish of melted Laguiole cheese stirred together with mashed potatoes and garlic.
My breaking point came when I set eyes on the aligot.
Fighting it was futile. I admitted defeat and said, “Just take me.”
I was at a New York dinner party a few years ago when someone noted that he thought Singaporeans were "weird" because of their breakfast choices. "They eat noodles for breakfast," he said. "That's WEIRD."
I refrained from saying anything about how, when I first came to the U.S., I had thought that big hunks of steak breaded, deep-fried and served with a massive glop of fatty gravy and eggs were a rather odd choice to start one's day myself.
But hey, I'm a polite person who keeps an open mind. (And besides, having tried it, I'll now happily order chicken fried steak and eggs whenever I see it on a brunch menu.)
And so it was that I was thrilled to see Saveur's "A World of Breakfast" October issue on how different countries and cultures kick off the day. With features devoted to breakfasts filled with "the spicy tang of fresh chile sauce in Indonesia, the briny bite of
plump olives in Turkey, the sweetness of just-picked peaches on a
California farm," the issue aimed to show that "the diversity of breakfast foods prepared around the
world is proof of one thing: that the first bite of the day is also the
best."
Having long been partial to curries and noodles for breakfast myself, I suddenly felt vindicated. And I was elated to hear today that Saveur won a National Magazine Award for "Single-topic issue" for its Breakfast edition.
I've so far managed to stop myself from mailing my copy of the issue to the noodles-for-breakfast-hating friend with the note, "How do you like them apples?"