Bringing the Pain

If any of you have read The Bread Baker's Apprentice, the cover has some chick holding a huge loaf of bread. This bread is called a miche, or Pain Poilane, named after the dude who makes it - and it's one of the most "famous" breads out there. Yes, apparently there are famous breads.

The baker is Parisian and you can only get this bread by either going there or ordering it shipped from the bakery. It's not cheap, and I've always wanted to get it but never really felt like laying out the dough for it.

Heh.

Anyway, a few months ago I was in NYC (I don't think I've told this story, so if there's another post on this somewhere, please let me know) and after a work dinner (the LAST work dinner) I met up with T down in LES, at this little bar called "Clandestine". We're chilling, and I notice a sign above the bar saying "Tartes Poilane" with a bunch of things like cheese and meat listed with prices and such. I look over, and there's a big basket with a huge loaf in it, and I'm like "Holy crap, is that really pain poilane?" to the bartender, who assures me that it is, and that the owners have it shipped in. Now, I'm not very hungry at this point, so I don't particularly want to get a tartes, but after a while I decide I have to try the bread, so I'm trying to pick what to order and the bartender says "Dude, if you want a piece of bread, Ill give you a piece of bread". Which he did.

It was actually what I expected, hearty, very sour (to get the right flavor I would have to culture some crazy starter with wheat and rye for 3 weeks), complex, and a little dry. After the bartender made the mistake of asking me what exactly the big deal was and I explained it to him ("There are famous breads?", he remarked), he mentioned that recently a customer had complained about the bread and we had a good laugh about it.

About 10 minutes later I got sick (from the dinner, not the bread) and went back to my hotel.

So...the point of all of this is that this morning, I stopped off at the supermarket to pick up some cold cuts for a sandwich (I had some wheat bread in my bag that I'd made the night before) and as I'm wandering the store, I see this sign. So at least I know that if I ever have a craving, I don't need to order a 4.5lb loaf of bread from France, I can just get a 1.1lb loaf for 7 bucks.

If I ever get to that point, I'll probably just suck it up and make one.

Hey, Dancing with the Stars is on.

What, it's after 7:30...