This past weekend, I went up to SF…with one goal in mind: go to Tartine Bakery. The mission was a success. After some joyful waiting in line during which I ogled/admired the menu, I came away with two loaves of freshly-baked bread (one olive and one whole wheat)…at a very reasonable $7.50 per loaf.
Tartine has these huge ovens that are almost as large as the second bedroom in my house that they bake the bread in daily and the bread comes out just after 5pm every day. Which is late for bread to come out, except when you consider that Tartine is run by a bread baking husband and a pastry chef wife. If they worked their usual hours, they’d never see each other, so this seems like an ideal compromise. And their fans don’t seem to mind.
The bread is super crisp on top and so perfectly soft on the inside that it’s hard to not want to devour the entire loaf in one sitting with a little olive oil or bread or creamy cheese. I recommend Epoisses or a creamy brie.
Above is a photo of the whole wheat loaf before I hacked it into bits so that I could make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I’m getting a little weary of those, though, so maybe I’ll have a fig, prosciutto, and goat cheese sandwich tomorrow instead.
More pics and details about my culinary explorations from the SF trip later…