Well bread

(Ok, so I am being lazy. Again, a just-published piece...)

A long time ago, I decided I no longer wanted to eat packaged white bread. Perhaps it came after an encounter with the famed Wonder Bread, that marvel of American culinary engineering – a whole large loaf can easily be compressed into a think slice of not-too-dense dough, with lots of additives, preservatives and goodness knows what else added to give it the texture, taste and never-say-die character it has. And while the resilience and immortality of the stuff made it manna from bakery heaven for the average college student living in a dorm, it did not appeal to me. Then gradually exploring and learning my own city of Mumbai, I found lots of small family-run bakeries that produced bread that was, to say the least, interesting. Some of them I still drop in to sniff today, the fragrance of cinnamon and candied peel blending nicely with the aroma of fresh-rising dough and the hot metal of the pans the bread and cakes are baked in.

A few days ago I went to Yazdani, in a small lane behind Flora Fountain. My goal was their well-known seven-grain bread, something that has an ever-evolving taste and texture and, in its round-loaf form, looks astonishingly like a large cow pat. It is not seven-grain any more, the chap in charge told me, as I waited for my order to be packed up. It now has nine grains. And he proceeded to list them – dalia, sunflower seeds, ulsi, bajri, jowar….I lost count and may even have got some wrong. The bread also comes in smaller buns and regular sliced loaves and is lauded even by the nutritionists at Bombay Hospital, my friend told me proudly. It tastes best fresh and toasted crisp around the edges, with lashings of salted butter melting into its grain – all nine of them.

Comparable but about twice the cost is the multi-grain ‘jumbo’ bread at the delicatessen at the Oberoi hotel (now the Trident?). It is enormous and sliced not too thin, ideal for a sandwich with the fairly mild flavours of celery-spiked chicken salad or just cream cheese and a few leaves. It has a solid bite, with a nutty chuck as punctuation, refrigerates well and makes good French toast when it gets older. There is a more-ish-ness to it and, I am told, the fibre content and the proteins from the various seeds and grains making it as healthy as it is delicious.

The multi-grain loaf at Banyan Tree in Worli is dark and earthy. While most of the grains – at least the seeds – seem to be on the outside and tend to fall off when you slice through the uncut loaf, it tastes of good health and freshness, with an odd oiliness to the outside which makes for nicely crunchy toast. Eaten with unsalted butter, it is perfect, but made into a sandwich with gentle flavoured fillings, it makes you look forward to lunch.

A number of bakeries big and small are now producing wonderful multi-grain breads. The shop at the Orchid does it pretty well, while chains like Bread Talk and Oven Fresh are not bad. It is not difficult to make at home either, easiest by just adding various whole or cracked grains and seeds to the basic whole wheat bread mix. And it is a delicious way to keep your body – and your conscience – in great shape!


Great fillings for multi-grain bread:
Smoked salmon
Chicken salad with mild mustard and chopped celery
Cream cheese
Unsalted butter with a tangy mango chutney
A slice of grilled tofu with a little balsamic vinegar