The East Bakery Project: Bunning the bun

- When we first got funding to put on seminars a couple of years back, I proposed we blow our budget on a ninety dollar rum cake from Crixa. I've still yet to try that cake, but I finally managed to get Crixa into the department, bringing a bunch of pastries to the last meeting of the class I'm helping to teach. The Fatima's Thighs ("tender, flaky pastry filled with almonds, currants, rose and orange-blossom water") were pretty good. But the revelation was the bulochki. It seems so simple -- after all, it's just a bun -- but it was SO FLUFFY~! SO MILKY~! The kids took all the rugelach before I got to it, so I need to go back. Bonus points: the cashier complimented on my Sleater-Kinney t-shirt. The first time that occurred in the U.S. was on my orientation day in 2003, and I then thought it would happen all the time. Crixa was the second time.

- Thanks to a couple of people's successful advancement to Ph.D. candidacy, I've had more of Masse's pastries. They're beautiful creamy things, and they do taste good, but I think I get a bigger kick out of more robust flavours (like Crixa's).

- Freshness matters: picked up a loaf of Acme levain at Andronico's. Not quite as good as the kalamata straight from La Farine. Will visit Acme HQ soon. I also tried a loaf of Vital Vittles 9-grain from the farmers' market. It's not in the same league tastewise, but it might have the best tastiness-healthiness product I've ever encounters: it's whole wheat, organic, even kosher, and it actually tastes like bread.

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In Stylus's Non-Definitive Guide to Character Actors, I get a blurb on my current man-crush, Chiwetel Ejiofor.