My visit to Wild Flour Bread last month changed not only the way that I think about bread, but also the way that I think about my schedule. It’s only open Fri-Mon. If I plan on being in LA for two weekends in one month, my first thought is “That’s two weekends I can’t go to Wild Flour Bread.” (Though my next thought, which cheers me up some, is “That’s two weekends I can go to The City Bakery.“) I also think about every Friday and Monday coming up, and whether I can get there to try its pizza, which is served only on those days. I haven’t managed it so far. (6/5/06 Edit: I finally did manage it, but it turns out that they no longer make pizzas)
Anyway, with a lot of excitement and a slight fear that it might not live up to our first visit, Chad and I drove an hour and fifteen minutes on Sunday solely to eat Wild Flour Bread.

We were not let down. We were just as amazed by the bread as we were during our first visit.

The newest revelation that we had, which I think even trumps their sticky bun, was the Egyptian.

Its simple description of “pear, fig, ginger, walnuts” doesn’t prepare you for the fact that it’s an orange-tinged cousin of the sticky bun. Gooey, full of flavor, still warm, chock full of sliced pear and candied ginger and dried figs and whole wheat, about the size of a hardcover book, it was delicious. A thick kind of orange-colored syrup or jam also swirled through some of the pastry, much like the cinnamon swirl in a sticky bun, but this had the added effect of caramelizing into a chewiness on the edges, which was as prized as anything I can think of.

And sure, it was sweet, but it’s not as sweet as its appearance or ingredients would suggest. It’s just sweet enough. I think that the whole wheat helps to mitigate the sweetness of the sugar from the fruits. It looks like this inside.

We also tried the ladder-shaped Goat Flat, full of goat cheese, herbs, and onion. Perfectly flavored, with a satisfying crisp crust and a chewy crumb.

Oddly enough, the cheese inside was orange… I should have asked just what kind of goat cheese they use.

Their orange and white chocolate scone was also great (I wish I had also tried their almond currant scone with rosewater icing). There were a lot of relatively large pieces of chopped orange peel, the orange flavor was mellow enough so that the white chocolate fit in well to complete the flavor of the scone.

It looks like this inside. It had a light texture, and was just buttery enough.

I think that their fougasse changes rather frequently, so this time it was a shitaake mushroom, cheddar, jack cheese, and onion. We took a loaf home (um, plus another goat flat).

The shitaake mushroom imbued a flavor that approached bacon, and the chunks of cheese and mushroom were satisfying in the dough. It was yet another amazing loaf from Wild Flour.

And so begins my scheming to schedule my next visit there…

Once I was finally home from bread making on Saturday at 1pm and had grand plans to clean my apt and sleep, I discovered a voicemail from a friend asking, would you want to go to Berkeley right now? Of course!

So, we sat in traffic on the 80 until we landed in town, and I promptly ate a hot dog at Top Dog. There were so many dogs to choose from, but since we were going out for pizza in a few hours, I opted for the Bird Dog - low fat turkey hot dog with cilantro. It was fantastic. Served in a soft sesame hot dog bun, it had the perfect snappy outside and meaty inside. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was also spicy (the meat was quite red) and juicy–which is admirable for a low fat dog. Oh, and when I’m tired (a good tired), dazed, and sporting chef’s hat head, this is how I look while eating a Bird Dog (special thanks to L, my guest photographer).

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And so concludes my 18 part expose of a single Saturday in Marin and Sonoma Counties.

All I want to do now is go to Wild Flour Bread to celebrate. Friday is one of their pizza days….

Since it was almost 5pm, California Carnivores, in the rural southern part of Sebastopol, turned out to be our last stop. And it seemed fitting — why not watch another species eat for a while? It’s purported to be the world leader in quality carnivorous plants. I was looking forward to seeing Venus Fly Traps and expanding my ready knowledge of other carnivorous botanicals.

Oh. They close at 4pm. Most stores and wineries close around 4pm or 5pm, so I wasn’t very surprised.

But I still looked inside…. and could make out two skeletons amidst some plants.

I think that even carnivorous plants are in their winter phase this time of year. Their plants outside looked pretty recently pruned… but given my lack of teaching, these may or may not be carnivorous.

On the way back down through Sebastopol, we stopped at the Village Bakery, which is known for its Scandinavian specialties amongst its breads and pastries. They had a lovely long pastry case full of cakes and tarts and pastries. Like Mom’s Apple Pie, this was a rather traditional establishement, smelling faintly of butter and flour. We ordered the lemon roll cake and mocha biskvie.

I think I’ve stumped Google on what biskvies are. They possibly derive from a form of biscuit, as it was a cookie-like bottom with apricot preserves and icing on top. A lot of icing–see that ridged structure on top of the cookie? Solid icing. Apricot preserves is kind of another one of my pastry pet peeves…. Why does it pop up so much? It always tastes the same, and is just kind of there and usually comes in huge plastic tubs. The lemon roll cake was rather dry and bland; only a hint of lemon flavor came out of it. Neither of us ate much of either pastry.

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