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From the heat of India to the buzz of downtown Brooklyn, an award-winning journalist shares her adventures in the bread trade on a culinary and cultural odyssey. Whether it’s a crusty baguette, a round of pitta or a flat of matzo, Susan Seligson just can’t get enough of the stuff. She stalks pillowy round loaves on their way to the communal bakeries of Morocco’s ancient city of Fes, witnesses the ritualistic creation of what may be the world’s most expensive pain au levain, and gapes at the coiled stainless steel innards of a mammoth American Wonder Bread factory. Seligson’s adventures are leavened by her wit in a journey that is personal, historical and best expressed in the Arabic, aysh: the word for bread, and also for life.

No Samples Today On n’arrete pas le murmure Du peuple quand il dit: ‘J’ai faim, Car c’est le cri de la nature: Il faut du pain. Il faut du pain.’ – Chanson of Pierre Dupont, Bohemian Poet My husband invited a new acquaintance and his wife to dinner at our house. ‘We heard you’re writing a book about bread!’ they exclaimed. Their eyes darted around our kitchen; their hands patted their bellies. ‘We were hoping for some samples!’ Alas, the only ‘samples’ I was equipped to offer were writing samples. It’s happened time and again in the last two years – folks expecting to sink their teeth into some stupendous bread, courtesy of the lady penning a ‘bread book’. In truth, I’m no baker. I don’t even make cakes or pies, though if my craving is strong enough I’ll bake cookies. The only bread I make at home is challah, a nod to my Jewish heritage. Challah is easy. The dough is crammed with so many eggs it rises as predictably as the tide and is nearly impossible to ruin. Also it makes a wicked French toast.

 

People who write about bread – and there are many doing a terrific job of it – tend to be professional bakers or seasoned food writers. I am neither. My lifelong love affair with bread has less to do with crust, crumb, and the vagaries of sourdough cultures and more to do with bread as a reflection of people’s varied beliefs, daily lives, and blood memories. Bread captivates me for many reasons. But most of all I love bread because I never tire of travelling to new places to learn how people nourish their bodies and spirits, how they rejoice, mourn, and manage in the face of adversity. Native bread can teach us these things, and more. Visit a village bakery or a matron tending a clay hearth to feed her family. Watch, listen, inhale – the bread tells the most essential human stories. And because a person’s desire for that homespun bread doesn’t diminish when he or she emigrates from Delhi to Astoria or Amman to Atlantic Avenue, in the middle of New York City I can close my eyes and take a bite, and the bread, like a tune or a scent or a face in the crowd, carries me far away. That’s how it is with bread and me. So you’ll forgive me if I don’t bake the stuff. No samples today. Bread is personal. Without leaving New York City an enthusiast may partake of Silesian potato bread, South Indian dosa, Finnish rieska, Ethiopian injera, and Italian grissini. But witness the disgust, even outrage, on the face of a resident foreigner biting into some feeble imitation of his native bread. An Iranian acquaintance travels from upstate New York to Brooklyn to buy flat breads the size of welcome mats in which to wrap kebabs. Long after his family migrated to Florida, my friend Peter makes annual treks to his Long Island birthplace to buy out Bambi’s onion rye, with which he stocks his freezer for a year. Cashing in on a tidal wave of transplanted New Yorkers, an enterprising Cape Codder flies in fresh bagels from the mother church, H & H, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The first time after many years that I sank my teeth into the eggy flesh of a genuine onion roll I felt as if I were reunited with a cherished old friend. For baby boomers of my vintage even a slice of Wonder Bread delivers fond childhood memories.

 

Introduction – No Samples Today 9 1 – The Bread Mystery: Fès, Morocco 17 2 – Bread Is My Path: Saratoga Springs, New York 41 3 – The Bedouin Way: Jordan 67 4 – The World’s Largest Bakery: Biddeford, Maine 111 5 – Simple Gifts: Shanagarry, Ireland 129 6 – Bread of Affliction: Brooklyn, New York 159 7 – No Trespassing: Pueblo Country, New Mexico 180 8 – Rajinder’s Kitchen: 209 9 – An Army’s Greatest Ally – The Bread Project: Natick, Massachusetts 252 10 – The Biscuit Lady: Huntsville, Alabama 269 11 – La Fête du Pain: Paris, France 288 Bibliography 312

'A funny and informative travelogue with recipes.'

 

'I didn’t know that anyone could write a good zippy book about bread, but I was wrong. Full salute to Susan Seligson.'

 

'In this sumptuous new memoir, Susan Seligson takes us on a lip-smacking tour of the world’s finest bakeries. Determined to find (and sample) the perfect loaf, she makes her way through a number of countries, including France, India, and Jordan, salivating as freshly baked bread is placed before her. Unlike some authors who tend to ignore or dismiss the significance of such moments, Seligson displays a sensitive side by explaining the cultural and religious import of each morsel. In Morocco, for example, we learn that bread is not simply something that accompanies a meal; it is practically a cornerstone of the Islamic faith. Perceptive, too, in the politics of the industry, she also tackles giant companies such as Wonder Bread, and shows no fear of reprisal by highlighting the falsehoods in their marketing campaigns. In time, Going with the Grain will surely be as vital to bread-lovers, as Joanne Harris’s Chocolat is to chocoholics. Be warned, however: it clearly has the potential to turn you into something of a bread snob. Do not be surprised if you find yourself frowning at the mass-produced loaves in the local supermarket, questioning the nutrients in breads claiming to be beneficial to your health, or wishing you were strolling through the boulengeries of Paris. Such is the provocative nature of this book. In the world of travel literature, it may well turn out to be the best thing since sliced bread. '

 

Susan Seligson is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in such notable publications as The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Redbook, Health, Outside and Allure. She is the author of several children’s books written with her husband, cartoonist Howie Schneider.

 

Going with the Grain by Susan Seligson
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