The Only Journey Is The One Within

(-Rainer Maria Rilke)

Or, perhaps more appropriately in this case, the only journey is the one within my mouth and belly. Though that's not really apt either, as I am also journeying around Chicago itself on my bike. Anyways...

Sunday morning I got up nice and early (OK, 8:45am...) after a late night of (occasionally) dominating in StarCraftII with my roommate, and set out towards Artopolis in Greektown. (Sorry Pete. Pierrot Gourmet is still on my list, but I was short for time.)

(note: i need to stop using my cell phone, and start using my actual camera to take pictures...)

After last week, I was quite excited upon my arrival to see that it looked like an actual bakery. Big glass cases of pastries, racks of bread behind that, etc. Of course, they also have a café and a few other things in there as well, but I was pretty focused on the bakery section.

Though at first a bit excited and unsure what to get, before long I spied the pain au chocolat and, as that's what I got last time, knew it was what I needed right then as well. However, given that it was a pretty impressive bakery (at least, compared to last week's trip), I felt like getting a loaf of bread. After last week's disappointment, what better to get than a loaf of sourdough bread?

I didn't see any sourdough on the rack of bread loaves behind the counter, however, so I asked the young woman if they had any. She gestured to a basket labeled 'Levain Sour Dough' (or pain au levain in fancy terms) and said that was all they had. Not really knowing what pain au levain was at the time, and focusing on the word 'sourdough' with laser-like precision, I asked for a loaf.

Due to time constraints (which ended up not mattering, due to my roommate's ability to never wake up before noon), I rode back home before digging in to either of these exciting new treats.

Oh man, what a classy bag! "A rise above and beyond"? Much catchier slogan than last week's trip.

Awesome! Maybe it has to do with how fresh this was, compared to the previous one, or maybe it really was just superior in every way, but it looked great: flaky, crusty, a little sheen, and look at those chocolate sprinkles!

Oh yeah, look at that. Not one, but two beautiful dark chocolate veins running through the middle. Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout.

There was basically nothing disappointing about this pain au chocolat. It was fluffy, it was flaky, it was buttery, it was chocolaty, and perhaps best of all it didn't have that industrial (or stale) tang to it that a lot of store bought croissants (as well as the one I got at Caffè Baci...) so often have. I don't know what causes it, maybe something to do with the yeast, or the détrempe (that's the flour+water mix), or something else. I'm not really sure, to be honest, but whatever causes it, it wasn't there in this delicious treat.

A bit later in the day Sunday (but before I descended into fevered dreams of depleted uranium ballistae protecting my siege tanks from onslaughts of zerglings), I decided to have some toast. I was eager to try out my new pain au levain of course!

Hmmmm.... doesn't look quite how I expected (I was a little blind while actually at the bakery) but maybe it is a whole wheat sourdough?

Interesting. While technically a sourdough, certainly, it doesn't really have any of the features that are conjured in my mind when I hear the word. It had none of the delicate, complex, sharp tang with I was so desiring. It didn't have the strong, chewy texture that I am used to. Granted, most sourdough plays in a different league than San Francisco's, but this loaf seemed to be playing an entirely different sport.

Turns out, that wasn't too far off. Some quick web searching revealed that pain au levain is a type of sourdough made with (at least some portion of) rye flour. As anyone who has ever eaten rye bread knows, that has a pretty distinct flavor, and some of that flavor comes through in this particular bread. It does have a hint of sour, but it's really subtle, almost nonexistent. Mostly it's a somewhat sweet, very nutty tasting bread. Taking a stab at some new (to me) baking lingo, I would probably describe it as a solidly 'closed crumb' bread, compared to the very 'open crumb' of most sourdoughs.

So, the pain au levain was good, but not really my thing. On the plus side, its denseness and nuttiness means it makes great peanut butter toast!

A Slow And Lack-Luster Start

So, in a meager attempt to keep up with my aspiration of regularly visiting bakeries and eating their baked goods, I did a quick Google search Saturday afternoon and turned up something that got me really excited. According to Google, there was a Boudin Sourdough on Michigan Ave, less than a mile from my apartment!

I put on my coat, hat, and gloves, and, with high hopes, set off to investigate the veracity of this.

The disappointment was a little overwhelming as I was unable to find this place supposedly there. Instead there was a Jamba Juice and a Caffè Baci laughing at me mockingly through their storefront windows.

Feeling sufficiently vanquished and deflated, I locked my bike up and went inside Caffè Baci to see what manner of breads or pastries they might offer. Given that it was at this point 3pm, the pickings were understandably (a) slim and (b) stale. On the plus side, after 3pm all pastries were half-off which seemed like a decent incentive to just see it through at that point.

Looking at the meager remains of the bagel/muffin/pastry cabinet on the counter, I decided to go with the lone pain au chocolat* sitting up on top. It looked so sad and lonely, and I really wasn't in the mood for a muffin. I mean, seriously? A muffin? What kind of person do you think I am? Alright, don't answer that...

A few minutes later I was sitting at a table with my pain au chocolat and a bottle of IBC root beer, looking suspiciously through the window at every pedestrian who walked past my locked up bike. Yeah, it was gonna be one of those meals.

 What a classy looking baggie. "Eat Italian, Dream Italian." Such an inspirational slogan, on which to ponder the meaning of the universe while eating slightly stale, cold pastry. Alas, time to get started.

 There it is! Sorry for the low-quality picture, I took it with my piece-of-junk phone camera. Overall, it looks about as one would expect a slightly stale pastry to look. It was a little shiny but not really glossy. It was a little crumbly and flaky but had a lot of flex and give to it. Seemed very standard, potentially industrially-produced style pastry.

And there's a shot of the innards, about half-way through. It was, as expected, a bit stale, which meant it was a little tougher and chewier than it would have been fresh, it was (of course) a little below room temperature, and the chocolate inside was pretty solid. Speaking of the chocolate, it was pretty disappointing -- not very flavorful, a but waxy and crumbly... again, possibly a side-effect of it being a little stale, with the chocolate potentially melted and then re-solidified. Still seems to poor quality to me though.

In all, it was a decent, though lack-luster, pain au chocolat. I suspect that it would have been better had I eaten it earlier in the morning, but it still had that industrially-produced je ne sais quoi which left an unpleasant sensation with me for the rest of the afternoon.

On the plus side, this (disappointing) expedition did serve as motivation to get my off the couch and out on my bike, which was good! Leaving Caffè Baci after my pastry and root beer were done, I saddled up and went on a ride around downtown. I rode down Michigan to Van Buren, and from there over to Halsted. Riding north along Halsted I got to look around at part of Greektown which was nice, and verified with my eyes the location of another bakery/restaurant I found online (and hope to visit soon), Artopolis. I stayed on Halsted up to Ohio, thought I might be lost, and then spotted what I refer to as "Pete's Jewel", being the Jewel at Des Plaines and Kinzie. East on Grand until it became one-way, then a block south via Wells St (does anyone know where on Wells St Wells St Popcorn is?) on to Illinois, which I took to Columbus, and from there went home. Certainly not the grandest of rides at a little over 5 miles, but given how cold it was (and how lazy and out of shape I am) I was quite pleased.

*nota benne: in an effort to sound more knowledgeable and baker-y, I'm going to try to use more technical (i.e. french) terms for things. maybe it will work!

A Journey of a Thousand Miles...

...must begin with a single step. Or, more appropriately, a journey of a thousand bakeries must begin with a single bite.

Its the end of a year, and the beginning of a new one. What better time to begin a journey than at the beginning of a new year?

As most people who are likely to read this know, at this point, I've become very interested (you could even say 'passionate') about baking. Maybe its just a passing fling; maybe its the beginning of a beautiful new relationship. Only time, and quite a bit of (metaphorical and literal) travel will tell.

I've never been much good at journeys, in particular at the staying-committed-to-it part, so I'm hoping that this chronicling of my adventure will help keep me honest and on task (if only the same would happen for my actual job...). I honestly feel like I've already started the journey, just from a couple different trail heads all at once. I've looked at schools (online) and (more or less) chosen one already; I even have a rough date in mind. I've started baking a bit in my home kitchen (much to the excitement of my roommates).

It still feels to me like something is missing though -- there's an avenue of approach not yet addressed. So, my resolution, to start off the new year, is to visit at least one (distinct) bakery every week. A quick google maps search for "bakery" centered on Chicago returns this. [edit: the google map embed wasn't working, so for now its just a link] So it seems I have plenty to choose from. I'm sure several of those are Jewel/Dominicks/Whole Foods, but hey, even visiting those might be a good idea.

What I would like to do, at a minimum, at each bakery is try 2 things:
1) something that I can standardize (or, at least, get close to) across all bakeries (maybe some kind of bread, or croissant, or something)
2) whatever the owner(s)/baker(s) consider to be their personal specialty (if that overlaps with #1, well.... shoot)

I'm not much of a writer, or journalist, so this may be a bit painful to read for those of you better educated in the linguistic arts, but I'll try to make up for it with gratuitous food porn whenever possible.

This blog will probably include bakery reviews (which will undoubtedly become more competent as I progress (if I progress...)), pictures/details of things I work on at home, as well as no shortage of anxiety-ridden angst and dismay over, well, just about anything at all (as well as no small amount of nothing).