A Short Letter Home

Right to loaf?

There has also been another entry in the saga of the pig bread in these past weeks. As you may recall, it all started with our neighbor Joan's attempt to have whole wheat bread baked for her. As each batch of bread is consumed, it seems like we have to face another quest to find a baker. Our latest batch ran out last month, rather inconveniently. Because of the imminent Thailand excursion, we didn't rush out to get some more bread, but rather waited until after the holiday.

Anyway, a couple weeks ago now, we attempted to seek out yet another supplier for our pig bread. We first went to the bakery that baked up a batch back in October. They had told us, back in January, that they were too busy at the time and that we should come back later. "About March" they said. Well, we suspected that they were just saying "no" in that polite, non-confrontational Chinese way. Since we were not entirely sure, and since we are stubborn Americans, we went back to see how busy they were in February. This time they were a bit more direct. No way, José. Dejected, we decided that we needed to once again involve Thad. We asked him if he knew of another bakery we could try. He came up with an idea and one day we all piled in his car to continue our quest.

The place he wanted to try wasn't a retail bakery, but rather one that served a local cafeteria. Where this cafeteria was, I don't know. The one here at the college is closed for the season, so we couldn't ask them. Anyway, we walk up to this rather plain looking building, a typical concrete building with a big metal garage door. A metal table stretched most of the way across the entrance. There wasn't much to be seen behind it--a work table and some boxes. What seemed to be the oven was off to the side. On the front table were some bags of rolls. Thad talked to the woman behind the table and she called the person he wanted to speak with. Soon another woman came out and they began the discussion.

Even without translation, it was obvious that she was not eager to be our baker. At one point she even offered each of us a roll in an attempt to get us to settle for their regular fare. The rolls were tasty, but sweet, as are the typical Chinese breads. We politely explained that it wouldn't satisfy our Western tastebuds. We were quite ready to thank her for her time and leave, but Thad wasn't ready to give upthe fight. He continued to badger her until she agreed to bake us up two batches of bread according to our recipe--enough to tide us until the college cafeteria reopened. It was a bit awkward, but we accepted her offer.

A couple of days later, we went over to pick up the bread. (Thad was busy, so we were had to walk.) Our benefactor was nowhere to be found, but we had three bags of bread awaiting us. The loaves were quite flat and looked somewhat unappetizing. (But I had a sneaking hunch that the bread would taste just fine.) They only charged us 30 kwai, which was much cheaper than the cafeteria had charged. Still, we were less than happy with the transaction. The bread didn't look so good and they had been baked under duress. As we walked home, we talked about the possibility of giving up on the bread thing or maybe breaking down and buying a little oven. The problem with the latter course is that an oven is only part of the equation. We'd also need to buy baking pans and all the ingrediants needed to bake something.

As we turned the corner on the road outside campus, Thad pulled up on his motorcycle. (He had picked up his son from middle school.)(My folks never picked me up from school on a motorcycle--though I did get picked up from kindergarten in a hippie car.) He asked if we had fetched the bread and we said that we had. He then offered to buy us an oven, so that we could bake our own bread. Obviously he, too, was tiring of the eternel bread quest. We declined his offer, pointing out the drawbacks we had been discussing. Even if we had an oven, we'd still need to go hunting for yeast, flour, etc. We might as well keep on hunting for a local baker. Anyway, Thad kind of took our "no", at least for the moment. Past experience, however, would indicate that we hadn't heard the last of it.

So, to end this installment, we got home, tried the bread, and proved my sneaking hunch correct. The bread is quite good, kind of a cross between a croissant and a hunk of french bread. As such, it won't last forever and, even if we try and get that second baking, we'll still be facing a decision of what to do next. The oven can be tempting, but our cafeteria should be opening next week. (I would hope, anyway.) Guess we'll just have to stick around and see what happens next.

posted by John @ 6:36 AM