Baguettes as junk food.

I’m craving a warm, somewhat crusty (but not too much), baguette. Alas, it’s almost midnight and all the boulangeries in Paris closed long ago. Baguettes have become my new junk food since I moved here. (What about croissants, you ask? Nice, but not as versatile.) In my opinion, the only thing that can possibly make me salivate as much as a warm baguette, that can also be enjoyed morning, noon, or night, and that pairs equally well with cheese, meat, or chocolate, is fresh, warm pita bread.

I just discovered that the french word copain comes from the Latin
cum pane; literally “with bread”. So, a true friend, according to the french, is therefore a person with whom you’d share your bread. (In Canada, a friend might perhaps be someone you’d let have the last beer.) That’s a big hint to the importance of bread to the collective psyche here. There have even been strikes in the past demanding the price of a baguette be capped and regulated by the government; though no mention of that (yet?) in the street demonstrations of late decrying the decline in “purchasing power”. One could be forgiven for thinking that the French invented bread, but it was probably the ancient Egyptians. However, few people have heard of aish baladi (the traditional pita bread), but everyone around the world knows what a baguette is!