bread election party at gail's

voting for bread

oh dear, i really meant to write about gail's artisan bakery's 'bread election party' much earlier. after all it took place on thirty first march and it has been quite some time since. but in my defense i got caught up with work and then i flew to pakistan on april seventh for my wedding. and before i knew it the wedding was over and i was back in london and totally consumed by life administration and the never ending emails in my work inbox. this sunday has been about bringing comeconella up to seed with former food adventures and gail's 'bread election party' was one of them.

i found out about the 'bread election party' whilst walking to angel from exmouth market. the little red and white square card was quite intriguing and i wrote to rsvp my interest. essentially, gail's was asking for people to come along and vote for one of five new breads. the winner would be a new addition to gail's. the candidates were a german rye, an oat and bran, a caramelised garlic, an old fashioned classic white tin and an apricot and hazelnut sourdough bread. all we had to do was turn up, try the bread and then cast a vote. it was perfect for a bread lover like me. and since o is as much a lover of bread as i am he was the perfect partner to take along. 

we turned up at gail's around seven and the bread voting was in full swing. the bakery was packed with people. o got himself a beer and i picked up a glass of red wine. i am sad to say that o and i aren't full democratic as we didn't sample all five candidates. we left out the old fashioned classic white tin simply because neither of us like white bread much. out of the remaining four it was very easy for me to settle on the caramelised garlic. this bread is a meal in it's own right. i could imagine myself eating a toasted slice of it with a glass of red wine and perhaps a light spread of cream cheese. the whole cloves of garlic had mellowed completely as they were baked. o instantly took to the german rye which would team perfectly with some smoked salmon, cream cheese and lemon. 

bread galore

venturing inside after the voting, we managed to sample the beetroot salad with red onion sambal dressing and the hummus with toasted coconut and sambal. i absolutely loved the beetroot salad which had toasted feta in it. both of the salads were an interesting mix of texture and sweetness that was mellowed with a chili that was more heat than spice. neither o or i managed to get our hands on the paxton and whitfield cheeses. it appears that everyone was busy crowding around the cheese platter but were more interested in commenting on the smell of the stinking bishop. meanwhile, the more serious cheese eaters had taken up station in front and stood and sampled without moving. o decided that he wasn't willing to wait around and vie for a space. 

a lovely salad of beetroots

canapes

it turns out that o's candidate (the german rye) won. gail's announced the winner on its website. it declared that it counted six hundred ballot forms with the german rye getting the most votes. i still secretly wish it had been the caramelised garlic bread that had won!

empty spoons