From Seattle writer and consultant Matt Rosenberg...: Seattle Is Bread City

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Seattle Is Bread City

January 05, 2006

The putdown "white bread" is applied aptly to many things besides bread itself. It's not so much about whiteness, as indistinctness, blandness.

You want crusty, tangy, flavorful bread; likewise with other things: people, music, buildings, cities.

My home, Seattle, is the place for amazing bread.

Now, I love the ethnic restaurants and markets of the little town from which I hail, Chicago.

One day, when the stars and my schedule are properly aligned, you're gonna get a whole lotta travel blogging from this here Chicago boy's old hometown.

I can tell you right now, if you want some great Afghan bread - not to mention scrumptious take-out spreads and appetizers and olives and salads and desserts - you want to go to the Middle Eastern deli on Foster Ave. (5200 N.) right smack between Clark St. and Ashland Ave. (1600 W.) in the Andersonville (Swedish) neighborhood. (Funny how that works, huh?)

Polish bakeries on the Northwest and Southwest sides of Chicago also have fine breads, especially sour ryes, and probably there are some excellent artisinal bakeries in neighborhoods such as Wicker Park; where effete, pierced, now-30- and 40-somethings walk their designer dogs, planning what poetry slams and tapas haunts to frequent that night.

Finally, the bagels at New York Bagels and Bialys, in the close-by Chicago suburb of Lincolnwood, are seriously to get-stuck-in-traffic for.

But the real baked-dough test is the large neighborhood grocery store. Does it, as a matter of course, have serious, fresh-daily, locally-made artisinal breads, or not? The term "artisinal" gets tossed around loosely now with respect to bread, but your teeth and tongue can tell.

Fact is, I couldn't score a decent loaf of bread in the main supermarket of my Chicago neighborhood of origin, Hyde Park, on my last visit. A real quality-of-life comedown, it was.

And flyover country is one vast bread wastland, face it. Yeah, biscuits and gravy are groovy, cornbread too. But a sesame and poppy seed-studded, chewy fresh baguette can't be beaten.

In contrast, my large neighborhood grocery in Seattle - which bewilderingly proffers gummy Butoni product in the cooler rather than the great local artisinal pasta, and which has the unmitigated gall to offer green peppers on "special" 2 for 3$ - nonetheless does have a great selection of local breads, reasonably priced to boot.

This Seattle Post-Intelligencer article from 2000 has more on some of the great local bakeries, including Tall Grass, in Seattle's Ballard district. This Seattle Weekly piece from 2005 has more still on Seattle's bread culture.

Really good bread is a part of daily life that matters, if you're trying to live right. Of course, that pre-supposes dinner at home is a priority. Perhaps we're throwbacks in that respect.

Along with Tall Grass and Essential Bakeries, Macrina is one of my favorite local providers.

They have a wide range of fresh-baked, toothsome and crusty offerings. And their salted rosemary cracker bread is timeless. I tend to buy them out of it, when I'm in their Western Ave. bakery/cafe. If someone else already hasn't. But what ends up on the table most often, here at Chez Rosenblog, is their Rustic Potato Bread (pictured above left, along with a few bread lovers I know).

That requires not even butter. But dip your baguette or olive bread, or rosemary-garlic bread slices in a traditional Italian bread dip, or gremolata, made from: olive oil, fresh chopped garlic and parsely, fine-grated lemon rind, sea salt and red pepper flakes. Mmm hmmm!