india is waking up (finally) to good-ish bread. bakeries actually bake now, rather than heap layers of cream and icing on generic sponge base. I have finally - after more than a year of trial and error and bayesian updating - found a source of daily bread that is not priced to somehow mimic import costs. most of last year I flitted between rare self treats of expensive sourdough loaves from L'opera outlets in VK malls and tastes-like-sand (and lacks character) factory made (i refuse to call that 'baked') bread from popular brands. despite the trashy quality these brands are oligopolies in this market. but slowly a renaissance is occurring. erstwhile cake shops are selling daily baked bread. my preferred one is Angels in the Kitchen. plain simple bread baked with flour, multigrains, salt, sugar, water, yeast, and sometimes some nuts and raisins. breakfast is a delight again. lathered with 5-seconds warmed butter in the microwave that smoothens and melts over the slices of bread, and is therefore re-lathered so it shows after absorbing in. dairy-fat on simple bread: that's my wake-up caffeine.

and by the way, sourdough is not supposed to be fancy and expensive, because it is not some special kind of bread but the oldest simplest method of turning wheat into easy to digest food with some shelf-life.

coming back to breakfast though, the perfect one cannot end there with buttered toast. is followed by a fistful of mixed nuts and raisins (and/or dried berries) with cold yogurt. yogurt is one thing you can count on anywhere in this country. thick lumpy fresh yogurt without the heaviness and creaminess of greek yogurt. but the mixed nuts must include some salted roasted cashews, without which nuts are boring. now I have had multiple conversations with people in india trying to rid them of their misconceived bias against cashews, without any success. someone has whispered into ears in this country, especially that of middle aged or retired parents - who anyway wear the mantle of authority on public knowledge - that cashews make you fat and are bad for your cholesterol levels. my personal dig into this claim has revealed it to be not just false but harmful, in that cashews are actually good for our cholesterol levels, and (just like most other nuts) release energy slowly such that they in fact reduce hunger pangs and snacking, and therefore possibly helping control overeating and obesity issues. but they won't listen to reason or scientific evidence. good for me though, I usually end up receiving a somewhat regular supply of roasted salted cashews from either set of parents in them trying to keep those gifts out of sight and out of their mouths.

and yeah, have you seen cashew shells? or probably they were a second layer of casings that cashews wear when in their natural habitat inside their shells. you can eat this layer in fact with the nut, and it gives a slight bitter tinge that kinda complements the cashew's plain-ish taste for which I eat it. thinking about it, it somewhat resembles the plain-ish-lack-of-taste kinda taste of avocados and also coconuts.

Joan Didion used to have (maybe still does) fridge-cold coca-cola and nuts (that her mom regularly sent her) for breakfast. maybe we should exchange notes.