Bread and Butter

I dont remember now when I switched from margarine to butter. We were brought up on margarine when butter and saturated fat were the big evil. As an adult, I encountered butter in fine dining restaurants and then finally decided that life was too short to not have butter at home. Now we have bread and butter for breakfast almost every day. Nothing better than fresh, chewy bread with just the right thickness of butter. We also learned we could leave the butter out, in the butter keeper, unrefrigerated, without it getting too stale. We probably go thru 2/3 of a stick a week. And now I know that I don’t have cholesterol build up in my arteries! – another story for another time. So I am good to go for butter, lol.

In California there are many butter brands at the supermarket but we quickly gravitated to Kerrygold. We started with Plugra but over time found Kerrygold to have more flavor. Costco also carries it in convenient 3 packs!

Just yesterday I noticed Les Pres Sales Camargue Butter (from Belgium) at Vons. This is a wonderfully salty butter full of natural sea salt. It’s delicious on bread and would be great on veggies.

Truly great bread is not easy to find in SoCal either – we tend to get Bread & Cie Sourdough and Rosemary/Olive Oil at the grocery store (but it’s often stale – that is, more than a day old). Vons in-store baked breads are good (love the sourdough). Boudin sourdough is also good when I can get to one of their stores. I have been known to get Panera sourdough at the drive thru; it’s good but not great. Lastly we always have Costco baugettes in the freezer. They freeze well and have great flavor. Of course bread is always better fresh but in San Diego bread will mold in a few days. Only sourdough can withstand being left out. And then before I forget, the Japanese square toast bread is outstanding when you need white bread. Especially thick cut if you can find it. It toasts extremely well. We usually find ours at Mitsuwa or 85C.

We have also enjoyed Persian breads from the Persian supermarkets. We love the huge sesame seeded Sangak bread from Balboa International Market, baked the traditional way over hot pebbles.