Bread and Cheese

I dreamt last night that we flew to Sidney, Australia for a two week vacation. A most vivid dream down to the bug spray on the airplane. I was most distressed to wake up and discover that I was still at home.

I’m trying to figure out whether this dream may have been influenced by the fact that a friend of mine is flying to Paris on Sunday. I know, not Australia, and not even close in oh so many ways. Given the choice, I’d probably pick Paris just because I know it and I miss French food sometimes so much that it’s a physical sensation. And please don’t suggest I can get it here. I can get very good food here that is reminiscent of food in France, food that is made by people from France. It helps tide me over (yeah, that’s been going on now for 10 years and counting ), but it’s not quite the same – particularly if you’re talking about basics like bread and cheese.

I don’t eat a lot of bread, so when I do, I want to make sure it’s good. I will have a reason to be eating some good bread in about two weeks, when said friend going to Paris comes back from Paris with some good, stinky, runny, raw cheese. So I am on a quest over the next two weeks to find the most authentic baguette possible in NYC. NYC has a fair amount of “crusty, artisanal” stuff, but that tends to lean heavily towards the San Francisco school of breadmaking. Don’t get me wrong, it can be great stuff, but it’s not what I’m looking for.

So I’ve hunted around a bit. That is to say, I’ve sat in my chair and typed words into the box on Google and pressed Enter. I’ve amassed quite a list. Some of these I’ve eaten before, some I’ve heard of, and some are new to me. So far, I’m going to be checking out Balthazar, Payard, also Amy’s Bread and Sullivan St. Bakery, although I think Amy’s is too San Francisco, and Sullivan St. is too Italian. Uprising Bread? Tomcat Bakery? Orwashers? Le Pain Quotidien??! A chain?