Easy Saturday

Eastside Road, September 14, 2013—

SUCH A NICE SATURDAY. I told you yesterday about b.Patisserie: this morning I had a croissant from them, and then we each had one of their fabulous Kouign Amanns, or is it Kouigns Amann — my Breton is pretty shaky. (It's pronounced Queen Amonn, by the way.) It's basically a Breton morning bun, or sticky bun, made with bread dough, layered with butter and sugar, baked slowly to let the sugar caramelize, and it is utterly wonderful.

We have our favorite breakfast pastries: I myself lean toward croissants — and by the way the one from b.patisserie is as good as any I've ever had, maybe better. Lindsey used to like bear claws, and still does. Then there are the gibassiers from Pearl Bakery in Portland, and of course the sticky buns from Downtown Bakery and Creamery in Healdsburg. But these Kouign Amann beat them all.

Martinis and a friend's place in town this late afternoon, three to one, with melon and prosciutto and delicious salted almonds; and then as simple a Saturday supper as you could ask: tossed green salad with Meyer lemon vinaigrette, and cheddar garlic bread, on a baguette from b.Patisserie.

When I was a kid, garlic bread was a fairly frequent visitor to the tragic daily dinner table. Mom sliced a loaf of Franco American "French" bread, spread margarine on the surfaces, and sprinkled them with garlic salt. We ate the result with what seemed at the time like pleasure.

The evening I met Lindsey I'd been invited by one of her roommates to dinner, and I brought with me a loaf of Larraburu sourdough bread which I'd cut in half horizontally, spread with butter and garlic — probably garlic salt, I blush to confess — and then with commercial mayonnaise which I'd mixed with grated Cheddar cheese. It seemed soigné and sophisticated, but that was nearly sixty years ago.

Tonight Lindsey simply drizzled olive oil on the surfaces of the split baguette, spread crushed garlic on it, then grated Cheddar cheese onto it, and set it under the broiler. One of the marvelous things about food is its way of uniting pleasant memories in a moment of absolute presence.

Cheap Nero d'Avila