The two duck legs [cuisses de canard] are seasoned with Five Spices, braised, set on a bed of sauteed onions and garlic, and put in a slow oven for two hours, so I have some time. Here is a mystery that continues to stump me: All over Paris [and, I assume, the rest of France] I can get simply wonderful bread. At the moment, I am eating a piece of baguette de froment from a Keyser outlet on rue Monge, but there are many other places where I can get crusty, light baguettes every day. I have never found anyplace in the United States that makes a good baguette. The bread at WholeFoods is godawful, as is the bread at the very upscale elegant A Southern Season in Chapel Hill. The only really good bread I have found anywhere in the United States is made by a group of young artisans on State Street in Northampton, Mass at a place called The Hungry Ghost. Their French batard is in fact the best bread I have had anywhere in the world.
Now, why is this? Is it the wheat? The oven? The water? Does anyone know? If I could reproduce a standard French baguette in America I think I could make a fortune.
If it's not just a matter of technique, it's probably the wheat and possibly the yeast. Unfortunately, much modern industrialised food favours consistency over character (or flavour). Wheat is blended to always taste the same, and most bakers use a premix, so what you get from one place to another is essentially the same product.
ReplyDeleteIf you get the chance, look for a copy of the old Louis de Funès film L'aile ou la cuisse, which says some interesting things about French attitudes to the 'scientific' American diet.