Maybe it’s the cooler weather, but every morning this week I’ve been starved.
One morning I ate waffles with blueberries and plain yogurt. It was almost perfect. Except the blueberries were frozen and after I defrosted them in the microwave, the juice turned the waffles mushy. Other than that, though, perfect.
Another morning I had a chocolate cupcake from Smith’s. The cake was moist, and the frosting thick and creamy. To top it off, literally, it had orange pumpkin and black bat sprinkles.
This morning I made Italian sausage, which in and of itself isn’t special given that I make bacon or sausage almost every morning for my meat-eating daughters. What was special, though, was that while pondering what I might eat with my sausage, I remembered a simple yet delicious breakfast item.
White bread toast with butter.
Remember how vanilla ice cream used to seem so bland once the newfangled flavors came out?
Think back to the glass counter at 31 Flavors. You ordered Rocky Road, Mint Chocolate Chip, Pistachio Almond, Jamoca Almond Fudge. Daquiri Ice with its light green-aqua color. Or Pink Bubble Gum with tiny pieces of real gum that you got to chew if you managed to store them between cheek and gum while finishing off the cone.
Maybe you ordered Blueberry Cheesecake (although you probably never made that mistake twice) or oldie-but-goodie Butter Pecan. But you never ordered vanilla.
Even French vanilla couldn’t redeem vanilla. (Did they mix egg yolks into regular vanilla? What else would account for that yellow-teeth color?)
Fast forward to the present. Just yesterday I bought Vanilla Bean ice cream from the gourmet ice cream section of my local organic grocery store. Vanilla beans have changed the face of vanilla ice cream.
Which brings me back to this morning.
What I realized while eating my chewy white bread toast (with lightly salted butter) was that peasant bread — or whatever you call that thick Italian or French country bread — is to white bread toast what the vanilla bean is to vanilla ice cream.
Peasant bread. The new Wonder Bread.
I could write all day about the pleasures of simple foods. Ever read M.F.K. Fisher’s food writing? You’d enjoy based on this post if you haven’t already.
And talk about being suggestible–your chewy white bread set me to longing…
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What did you end up eating? Any kind of sandwich on chewy white bread is yummy, too. Mmm, egg salad.
I have a book of MFK Fisher autobiographical essays on my bookshelf. I’ll have to move it to the top of the pile. But no, I haven’t read any of her many books. You know, I realized that until I read Diana Abu Jaber’s The Language of Baklava in the writing retreat QM and I did, I hadn’t read any food-themed literature that I could think of.
But like you, I can certainly write about the pleasures of food all day. In fact, if I didn’t write about toast today, I was going to write about cheese or the pork shoulder I roasted last night. Or Baby, our pet bullsnake. Which isn’t food.
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Did I ever tell you I have a Wonder T-shirt? Complete with the little red, blue, and yellow bubbles that make up the logo. If it wasn’t put away in storage, I could post a photo. I think I got it downtown at Sister Fun along with my original Jonny Quest T-shirt.
Vanilla is my favorite flavor. I order it all the time when I go with my friends to Sebastian Joe’s. It’s followed closely by chocolate and strawberry. I’m a purist at heart. I just like the simple things. Ah, the lovely vanilla bean.
Nothing like a slice of Wonder, toasted with strawberry jam. I don’t buy it much anymore. But once in a while, I sneak a few slices in. I’m getting the longing that Deborah talked about.
Hey, I’d love if you did a post about Baby, your pet bull snake sometime. There’s quite a story there waiting to be written.
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I’m suddenly hungry. Chewy white bread sounds delicious. As does the Italian sausage.
Coincidentally, I bought a carton of vanilla ice cream yesterday. No particular reason why. It just seemed like a good idea at the time. I can’t remember the last time I had vanilla ice cream. I’m looking forward to it.
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Jim and I got a replacement for our digital camera that is still at the bottom of the pond, which means we can now take pics of Baby. I even started a draft post for next week. Such a fascinating little pet, that one ; – ).
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I had Vanilla Bean ice cream last night for dessert. I love those teeny tiny brown flecks in them. Hey, was old-style vanilla ice cream made with vanilla flavoring and not beans? Is that why there were never any flecks in it? I know, I should just google it to get my answer.
UPDATE: interesting link on taste test differences between plain vanilla, French vanilla, and vanilla bean ice creams:
http://www.cooksillustrated.com/tasting.asp?tastingid=388&bdc=4656&position=3&type=homepagefeature
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Interesting link on vanilla ice cream. I like Breyer’s vanilla. I think it has the vanilla bean specs. And I like Kemp’s Low-fat Frozen Strawberry Yogurt, too. Oh, I’m so hungry for ice cream now!
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BTW, ybonesy, I remember The Language of Baklava. It had an interesting structure. And I liked some of the writing. But overall, I’m just not into food books. Remember how it seemed like we read a lot of food books for Natalie’s classes last year? She loves food and food writing! Maybe it’s just me but I’d rather eat it than read a whole book about it. 8)
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Besides Language of Baklava, what other food books did we read? I can’t recall off the top.
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Wow, your eating story is just stunning. It looks exotic to my Lithuanian kitchen. Therefore it was hard to sense the taste in full, but that didn’t matter – while reading your story I was pierced with just tangible perception of the life. It was like a sip of fresh air to me: you didn’t play with high words- there was no statement to memorize, but the purity of love that stands above all comments.
Love…we are not used to name THAT the love, but I think your eating story reveals the humility of the acceptance of the love.
I would greatly appreciate your visit and the comments on my blog. I want to start the discussion on what’s the love is – to share the sightings on that life giving -eternal theme.
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Interestingly, I bought Wonderbread the other day at the request of my children. I’m not sure I’ve ever bought it before, but I did. And I had a lovely chicken and mayonnaise sandwich on it. Very comforting. I still prefer some nice pumpernickel.
On the other hand… vanilla bean is completely yummy. Vanilla is my favourite scent, too… lemon-vanilla in fact. Makes me smell like cookies. 🙂
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[…] -related to post, White Bread Revival […]
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Jamocha almond fudge…mmmm….
Like Water For Chocolate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Como_agua_para_chocolate
I now need the story of “How the digital camera came to be at the bottom of the pond”
And the story of “How I came to name my pet bullsnake, Baby”.
And I had Jarlsberg Swiss and turkey panini’s last night for dinner, on chewy, toasty, buttery bread,
and italian sausage, pepper and onoin sandwiches are the bomb…
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I love that movie, Leslie.
I will post on the camera (perhaps–although it was nasty–ugh, stinky pond) and on Baby. Who we inherited. So there’s your answer in the mean time.
Yum…do you have a panini grill? A wonderful invention, I think, although I don’t have one.
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pmousse, I bet perfect strangers comment on your scent. It’s happened to me when I’ve worn Pear scent. Oddly.
What is it about kids that makes them naturally love Wonder Bread versus the Seven-Grain sunflower/pumpkin/other seed variety? The more basic the bread, the more my girls want it.
tomas, your Lithuanian kitchen is, I bet, extremely exotic to those of us who would find *anything* Lithuanian exotic. Anything not my own is, by its nature, exotic. And yes, I shall visit your blog soon. Thanks for stopping by.
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panini grill? did I hear panini? I inherited a panini grill from my step-dad when I was in Georgia last June. We haven’t used it yet. But it sounds like a good idea. We use the inherited pots and pans every day.
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Ybonesy – My Rumpole loves Wonder Bread and buys it whenever he does grocery shopping, because I don’t consider it bread and won’t buy it. To me, bread has to be substantial and give resistance to being ripped, pulled apart ad chewed. It needs to have texture. Rye bread is my Wonder Bread.
As to the humble vanilla – vanilla yoghurt – yum! G
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I have nothing so exotic as a panini grill. It is my humble trusty black iron frying pan, and a wide metal spatula for the ‘smooshing’ of the panini. And butter, lots of butter.
Butter is why bread was invented in the first place…
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I rarely eat toast any longer, due to a wheat allergy, but this morning I treated myself to a slice of toasted como bread with butter, and oh God, I thought I’d died and gone to Heaven. There are few more exquisite simple pleasures than good bread and butter — and that’s even more true if you have it only once a week.
Speaking of food memoirs … I cannot recommend highly enough Ruth Reichl’s memoir Garlic and Sapphires, about her stint as the New York Times restaurant critic. Much better than The Language of Baklava, though I did enjoy that, and not only because the author is from Portland. I’ve eaten many times at one of the restaurants used to test the recipes for that book.
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Damn, I’ve got to learn to remember to close my html tags. Feel free to edit that and fix it, if you like.
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OK, fixed it.
What is “como” bread? My husband is celiac (gluten allergy), and the best GF-breads we’ve found are at Whole Foods. I would hate having a gluten allergy, as I love flour tortillas almost as much as I love good bread.
Thanks for the tip on Reichl’s memoir. Speaking of Portland, I’m heading there tonight. I love the restaurants downtown and in the Pearl district. I’ve eaten at many over the years that I’ve stayed there, although I forget all their names. I always try to stay downtown so that I can also fit in some shopping if I have any extra time.
G – I have not been able to acquire a taste for rye bread. I can get authentic rye at The Alpine Sausage Kitchen in Albuquerque, which is run by a German family and frequented by Germans and other Europeans who have located to ABQ. I buy my bacon there; they slice it off whatever slab I pick out. My frankfurts, a pepperoni for snacking called “landjaeger” or something like that, Italian sausage, bologna, and salami — all made fresh there. The rye bread is sold in small packages (less than 10 slices per package), I guess because regulars stop in at least once a week.
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Como is an Italian fine-crumb white bread, quite dense, usually baked with cornmeal on the bottom. It ‘s often used for panini, or served with dishes that have a lot of sauce, because it soaks things up well.
And yes, it does suck to have a wheat intolerance. Luckily mine isn’t digestive, but it does exacerbate a chronic sinus condition I have — so if I eat wheat, I won’t die, but I will be more miserable than usual.
I’ve just given up on non-wheat breads except for really, really good sourdough rye, which is thankfully available at a weird little German bakery near my house. Most of the gluten-and-yeast-free options out there are just plan depressing.
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Hi Yb,
bread and ice-cream – you have unleashed torrents of sense-memories.
Somehow, much as I have loved ice-cream, I would take bread any day, if forced to choose. For a short while I made wood-fired oven-baked 80% flour artisan sour-dough for money ( I won’t say a living) half-way up a mountainside in Southern France – so bread and I have a particular relationship!
Ice-cream – may I speak for sorbet (water-ice)!
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Your former life with bread sounds quite lovely!
And yes, you may speak for sorbet. While we have you, is the correct pronunciation sherbet or is it sorbet (as the word looks)? Do enlighten, sorbet…
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Eddie- What were you thinking about?
Kiki -How much l want that breadstick.
Eddie- You want to eat this?
Kiki- No, l don’t eat bread. l just dream about bread.
Eddie- l’ve been doing a lot of dream analysis since l cracked up at the center. And l believe…bread represents something you want but can’t have. What do you think?
Kiki- Well, l think that when l dream about bread…that would represent….bread. Pretty much.
-American Sweethearts
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LOL.
And even though Kiki doesn’t do dream analysis, just for kicks I looked up what bread represents in dreams. Here ya go:
http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Meaning_of_Dreams_about_Bread/id/241758
(Now, off to take a nap so I can dream of chewy white-bread toast…)
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After reading your link, Kiki’s right. Bring on the breadstick dreams. 8)
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Yb,
in the anglo-saxon world, sherbet is for the hoi-poloi and sorbet for people of refinement. Or, being closer to the original language of sorbet – whatever it is – in the south of England, it comes more naturally to me than maybe to you on the American continent. When I was a kid (and continental – i.e. European ice-cream was a long way away) we said sherbet.
I love the ‘while you are with us’ in your post – top marks for the psychology of this one.
By the way, I’m putting you guys on my blogroll – long overdue, I have to say. Hope you have no problem with that!
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mmmm….dilly bars….
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mmmm….dilly bars….
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lololol
We should start a blog. Should it be called:
I CAN HAS DILLYBARZ
or
mmmm….dilly bars
???
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OK, given the age of this post and knowing that few people will see this comment, I’m going to tell you a secret, leslie.
I call them “dill-um-ies”
Say it. It rolls off your tongue. Jim calls them that, too.
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mmmm… dill-um-ies…mmmm
I can has dillybarz is hilarious…
I can haz klondikes….
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mmmm…klondikes….
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[…] to posts: haiku (one-a-day), White Bread Revival, WRITING TOPIC – BAND-AIDS® & OTHER 1920’s […]
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