Bread celebration: seeking British breads [And naan...]

When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.
-Chinese proverb

My very good friend Sandie is giving some friends of hers potted bulbs and bread for holiday presents and including words that turn around this proverb. To give the gift a twist, she's giving the friends breads from their ethnic backgrounds. Three of the friends are of Italian, Polish, and Serbian heritage. I've got that covered for her [and within two miles of my house, lucky me!]. The other four friends are of English, Scottish, Irish and Indian [Kerala] extraction. So, my questions:

Is there a bakery [preferably on the north side convenient to Addison & Western] that will cover all of my Anglo-Scots-Irish needs? I'm thinking that scones, an oat bread, and soda bread will cover this part. If not one, then 2 close together?

From what I've read, Kerala area people frequently eat flat breads: naan, chapatti, and so forth. Is there a bakery that would feature these, or is the best plan to visit a take-out place and order some naan to go?

My friend Sandie is a wonderful person, and although she doesn't cook she loves to eat good food, so you'd all like her . Thanks from her, and me, in advance.

Giovanna

I'd think that, for Kerala, the individuals might get a bigger kick out of idli than naan, because while they do eat naan, naan is essentially a northern bread, made in a tandoor oven, while idli (a fluffy little bread made from a blend of rice and lentil flours, and then steamed) is pretty much only eaten in Kerala. I don't know about bakeries, but every Indian store sells idli mix -- and India House out here serves idli all the time, so perhaps the India House in the city could be convinced to part with a bag of them. (They're only a couple of inches across.) Just a thought. Of course, you may find some bakeries that sell them, too.

Is there a bakery [preferably on the north side convenient to Addison & Western] that will cover all of my Anglo-Scots-Irish needs? I'm thinking that scones, an oat bread, and soda bread will cover this part. If not one, then 2 close together?

Giovanna[/quote]

Not exactly convenient to Addison and Western but not that far is Gaelic Imports. Give them a call and see what they have.

Gaelic Imports
Mary Ann Jones, Suzanne Dunne
4736 N. Austin
Chicago, IL 60630
Phone: 773-545-6515
Fax: 773-545-4819
Email: mapmccjo@aol.com

Hi,

Galway Bakery is Irish, they could at least cover the scones and soda bread. I don't quite know about the oat cakes, though I would ask anyway. If you're lucky they do it, otherwise they may have a referal.

Good luck and report back!

Regards,

Naan should be available on Devon. Idli is a common S. Indian food - eaten in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (states; possibly most in the last). Somewhat related thread here. As Cynthia notes these are steamed and rice based - not exactly 'bread'-y. Idli flours are available on Devon (preferable to instant 'mixes'). A Kerala specific food is appam (again rice based). A bready Kerala 'paratha' is available - frozen if you want to get that. It differs from the more common N. Indian paratha in that is rolled, flattened, coiled (spiralled) and then flattened and rolled out. Geetha Foods in Skokie (and other Kerala grocers) will have it. The frozen product is quite decent.

Geetha Foods
4035 Main St
Skokie, IL 60076
(847) 677-4848

The breads typically found in my Keralan household growing up were often puri and parathas/chappathi. Puris are fried puffy rounds of bread made from atta flour, an Indian whole wheat flour (pics/recipe here - b/c of the frying, they were not an everyday bread and my mom usually made them for dinner parties where they were perfect for sopping up her delicious chicken curry. Parathas and chappathi were more often made because the dough is relatively easy to make and cook. I don't think I ever even had naan unless we were out at a restaurant.

On a recent trip to Kerala, I fell in love with the Kerala style porotta - they are made as sazerac describes and absolutely delicious - the outside is a crackly golden brown where it was fried on the tava and you can pull apart the bread because of the layers created by the spiraling and inside it is wonderfully soft and flaky. Here is a link to a recipe showing pictures of the technique and final product - scroll down to see the pics.

I have found a wonderful frozen product at Patel Bros that seems a bit similar to the dough used for porottas (the package name is Kawan - see here). They are not like the pre-made Indian breads that you simply reheat. Instead, the packages contain pieces of thinly rolled dough and each one is separated by sheets of plastic layering. You just peel the dough from the sheet and lay it down on some kind of heated griddle - it only takes a few minutes on each side to cook up. I use a tava, but any flat frying pan will do. At Patel Bros., you can purchase a small package with 5 parathas or a large package containing 5 of the small packages. Both were very reasonable, as I recall. It's not exactly the same as the Kerala style porottas, but so far, they have been similar enough that I haven't yet attempted the recipe I linked to above .

shyne

Thank you all so much for your help, especially those of you who clued me in better on the breads of Kerala. Sandie said that her present was the hit of the party, and her friends were pleased with her gift and amazed that she went to the effort to find the diverse foods. Sandie, of course, gave us the credit. [And given that I ended up doing all of the bread procuring, I certainly deserve a chunk of it. With your abundant help.]

So, in addition to the crusty Italian bread and an all-rye bread for the Polish contingent, I ended up buying:

Fresh, warm-out-of-the oven soda bread from Gaelic Imports on Austin. Had no idea that they sold food there, too. In fact, they have a fair number of meats from Winston's. And dough-wrapped meat items aplenty. [I have to confess that I still have unpleasant memories of buying a number of dough-wrapped meat items at the Irish Cultural Center festival last summer and biting into one after another hoping for some flavor....]

Also purchased oat cakes at Gaelic Imports for a woman of Scots extraction. She looked at them and muttered, I am told, "but I don't like oat cakes". Sad. I'll cite this anecdote next time somebody asks me why I stick closer to my Sicilian heritage than the Scots-Irish part .

Idli and aloo paratha from Anapurna for Harry [Hari?] from Kerala. He was very pleased, it seems, with the thought/effort/attention that went into his breads. Again: thanks! couldn't have done this without you....
Both breads were provided with something that looked like a dip [yogurt based?] and a legume soup. I can't say for sure since I tasted none of it.

Whole-wheat scones from Cafe Selmarie for the English person.

Burek for the person of Serbian background. I purchased this at Beograd Cafe on Irving Park Rd. The recipient was extremely happy with her bread and said she was looking forward to having it for breakfast. [I should mention here that I had originally tried to stop at Fontana on Irving to procure something Serbian, but they appear to be out of business. Door's locked, no food to be seen inside, eviction notice taped to the door....]

And a happy Solstice to all, with more thanks!

Giovanna