- Yema
- brioche
- flauta y salvado
- salvado
- ciabatta (3 varieties)
- frances
Some are sweet. Some have herbs or sesame. Some are savory. All are fresh, baked daily: twice a day in many cases, morning and afternoon.
The four major grocery chains, Metro, Vivanda, Totus, and Plaza Vea, all have bread made on the premises. Each with the bread ovens in plain sight. The aroma when the bread is baking is enticing. In these chains, customers select their breads from bins using tongs. As baking trays are wheeled to the bins the bread is then slid directly into the bins. Those with the tongs in hand, and a paper bag in the other, have the upper edge: getting the fresh warm bread as it arrives. Once collected the customer takes their bagged bread to the counter to be weighed for pricing: usually about S/. 5 a kilo (about 81 cents US a pound).
In the panaderias the breads are behind glass display cases. Here you call out your orders as an employee bags up the bread. My experience has been that the panaderias sell the bread per piece averaging 15 to 30 centimos (7 to 11 cents US) per bread. Some have a caja (cashier) where you pay in advance. Others have you pay after you select the bread.
The bread street merchants, dressed in white bakers clothes, invade the residential parts of town. On the street in the morning and afternoon you will find bread carts: white covered boxes measuring 2 meters by 1 meter by 1 1/2 meters on wheels, attached to the front of a bicycle or pushed manually like an old New York push cart. The cost for the bread from the carts is similar to the panaderias.
What you get in convenience from the bread carts, having the bread on your corner, you give up in quality. I think it is the humidity the bread is exposed to outdoors. While it doesn't make the bread taste stale, it loses its freshness. I prefer to walk an extra block to the panderia for fresher bread.
The smell of bread is throughout the city. I remember 2 Sundays ago being on a combi. I had my eyes closed and the windows on the combi were slightly open. As we drove I was aware of the fresh smell of bread along the way twice: each time opening my eyes to see a panaderia.
The smell of bread seams to provide some therapy for me as well. Whenever I smell the warm, yeasty scent of fresh bread I feel a sense of home, calm, and security. Bread is an aroma that allows you to close your eyes and instantly taste it in your mouth.
My preference has been (shown to the left) ciabattas of various varieties, plain, herbs, sesame, or whole wheat, and yema. The ciabattas have a hard crust with a soft center and the yema is soft thoughout with sesame seeds and a slight sweetness. Slicing them in half with a spread of butter it is such comfort food. I am not sure if I am eating for taste, which is wonderful, or for the calm comfort it brings.
I have been eating too much bread lately. I tend to buy more than I should eat in a day. It looks so good when I select it that my eyes want more than my body should have. Then I end up eating it all because day old bread doesn't provide the comfort that same day bread does.
One delightful feature about the bread here is that if you buy too much you can make budin: a sweet bread pudding with cinnamon, clove, sugar, and sometimes raisins, nuts, or both. The panaderias all sell budin. This delectable dessert ensures that there is plenty of fresh bread for sale daily. If the panaderia's sales for the day leave left over bread it can made in the budin: eliminating waste and loss for the panaderia. However, adding to my waistline because I love the budin.
When you come to Peru be prepared to smell and eat bread. Fresh, warm, personal breads that you can choose daily. It is part of the experience of Peru: an experience I am going to leave you for now. The bread I bought to make the pictures in the blog is calling me and it would be a sin to have it turn into day old bread. Mmmmm could you pass the butter, this is manna from heaven.
No comments:
Post a Comment