Chad Roberson's Tartine Bakery doesn't do chocolate sourdough (if they do, I haven't had the fortune of tasting it). We did Pane Cioccolata (chocolate bread) at Artisan III, SFBI, and it was very good. Everybody loved it but at the time I was thinking to myself if I were to make it at home I would make some changes for the following reasons:
Have you ever seen a photo of very stiff starter wrapped up tightly in cloth then tied up in string (as if making absolutely sure that the little beasties have no way of escaping)? I never understood the purpose of the tight string until the other day when I was writing about Chad Robertson. [i]A Day in the Life at the Bay Village Bakery[/i] in [i]The Bread Builders[/i] says Chad "uses a brief two-hour final stage of leaven expansion before he mixes up his dough" (page 221).
I came back to Brisbane to the first day of spring (1st September). I had neglected my back yard garden for over a month. There had been very good rain going into winter after a prolonged drought and no name flowers are sprouting every where. Even my one and only lemon tree is loaded with clusters of dainty little pink and white flowers. Any my wisteria! It welcomes me back with such vivid purple (or blue):
It was Tony Bennett who first sang "I left my heart in San Francisco" at the Venetian Room of Fairmont Hotel in 1962. He is now in his 80s. Many people in Asia who have not been to San Francisco or do not know much about San Francisco (like me) know it through this song (and the post card fog covered Golden Gate Bridge).
[b]Didier Rosada[/b] is our instructor at Artisan III course at the San Francisco Baking Institute. The course is intensive in technical knowledge as in baking schedule. Didier is an incredible instructor with amazing energy; he "trained and led the Bread Bakers Guild Team USA to first place victory in the bread category at the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie in Paris in 1996."
Day one of Artisan II course at the San Francisco Baking Institute, Frank our instructor touched on a buzz word for me - Freedom. This was by no means any where in the manual or was there any hint on his part of an emphasis when he mentioned it; it was a casual passing comment. He said the best bread for him is a bread with a pre-ferment (poolish or sponge where there is a small amount of commercial yeast) and a levain (in the final dough which is then retarded), and that this combination gives you a lot of "freedom."
1973, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The Taiwan Provincial Symphony Orchestra was coming into town. I was in my first year of high school. My father was given free tickets because of his position at the ruling KMT Party. He pulled me out of the school that day; in my school uniform, I sat on the front roll of the concert hall, listening to the Western symphonic music for the first time ever in my life. I had never heard anything like it; I was so moved, I had joyous tears in my eyes that to this day I still don't know where they came from.
[color=blue]A thousand years, a thousand more[/color]
[color=blue]A thousand times a million doors to eternity[/color]
[color=blue]I may have lived a thousand lives, a thousand times[/color]
[color=blue]An endless turning stairway climbs to a tower of souls[/color]
[color=blue]If it takes another thousand years, a thousand [b]wars[/b][/color]
[color=blue]The towers rise to numberless floors in space[/color]
[color=blue]I could shed another million tears, a million breaths[/color]
Many years ago I became interested in Suzuki Daisetsu's (or known in the West as Daisetz T. Susuki, 1870 - 1966)'s Japanese Zen Buddhism. He was accredited in bringing interest in Zen and Buddhism to the West in the early 20th century. Before I realised it years later, the stuff I was reading was actually Zen aestheticism, rather than Zen per se.
I found a small piece of Paris in Brisbane this morning. Today is Saturday and a usual sports day for our household. After dropping my daughter at hockey and my son at soccer, I gave myself a treat - I went to Chouquette Boulangerie Patisserie for coffee and ... whatever I could find there this morning. It was a year ago when it has just been open that I last went there ... on the recommendation of my gay friend, the seamster. He has not been well, and I have not been able to see him.
