Our names are Steve and Susan and we are baquette-aholics. This is bad. Really bad. About 6 doors away from any location in Paris is a boulangerie (bakery). They bake bread at all of these. Fresh bread. Fresh baquettes. On Friday, we walked out of our door, turned left, walked past the Chinese take-away, the bar, the other apartment building, crossed the street, and walked into Paradise.
The baquettes had just come out of the oven. The lady who runs the place was wearing a dark brown sweater that was unslf-consciously dusted with flour. The baker (her husband?) was dusting flour off his stainles steel table in back.
On the shelf were standing dozens of lovely baquettes ordinaire. They were anything but ordinaire. Fresh, hot, crusty, with a golden glow about them. We were hooked. Asked for one s'il vous plait, paid the 0.85 Euros (about $1.05), thanked the proprietress, wished her a bon journee (even though we were the ones about to journee), and walked with our baquette back past the other apartment building, the bar, the Chinese take-away, and into our building. Once inside the little elevator, we we enraptured by the aroma of the baquette, and that's where the real problem started.
Once inside our apartment, we spoke little. Our mission now became the proper preparation of the baquette. The President butter came out of the refrigerator (their butter is different. we would call even their cheap stuff creamery butter. their good stuff we don't have a name for in the States - we don't have any butter this good), the sharp knife opened the baquette, the aforementioned butter was applied in a small, but appropriate amount, some nice fresh emmenthaler was quickly sliced and applied, and we ate the entire baquette at one sitting. Without a doubt, the freshest bread either of us have ever eaten. And I used to bake fresh bread all the time at home. This was different somehow. And vive la difference! Entirely captivated by the process, and satisfied for hours, this was a good day.
Luckily, we have not been back to the bakery since, and it has now been almost three days. This is a good sign. We may yet recover.
Can you 12 step Baquettes?
Posted by: Pat Royan | 05/04/2009 at 07:03 AM
I certainly hope so.....
Posted by: Steve & Susan Cross | 05/04/2009 at 07:38 AM