Calif Bill wrote:
wrote in message
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Calif Bill wrote:
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Calif Bill wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
wrote:
Harry Krause wrote:
Doug Kanter wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
...is ok, I suppose, if it is a fresh cheese Danish from New
York
City,
although I'd prefer a Napoleon or an eclair.
What? You don't like the typical "Danish" made famous by
supermarkets,
highway rest area cafeterias and coffee trucks? Day-glo fillings,
and
hideous white glaze?
Uh, no. There are very few places outside of NYC where you can get
decent danish or, for that matter, decent fresh bread. When I
first
moved to Jacksonville and went to the supermarket, I was appalled
by
what the stores there were passing off as "bread." It all
resembled
Wonder Bread, no matter what its shape or size. Imagine an Italian
sub
roll whose crust and insides were the same mushy consistency, and
tasting like Wonder Bread.
A former neighbor of mine used to get the "real deal" danish and
bread
shipped in from New York. His dad ran a Chinese restaurant
adjacent
to
Grand Central station, and at least once a month, he'd put
together a
care package for us.
The situation is a little better in the DC area, although it isn't
easy
to find a good rye or pumpernickel or really authentic bagels.
Good
bread is supposed to have real crust.
We do have an Irish inn restaurant not too far from us that bakes
its
own bread, and, according to my Irish-American wife and her
father,
it
is "authentic." Good stuff. Sadly, we don't have any authentic,
New
York-type Jewish delis in this area. Thus, no good deli bread or
pastry.
My wife, being from the S.F. Bay Area, loves sourdough, and not
just
any sourdough. She likes the original, which is Boudin. They claim
that
the foggy atmosphere helps in the sourdough process. Whatever, it
IS
good. http://www.boudinbakery.com/
I have to agree that some of the breads, including sourdough, that
I've
had in SF have been very good. I like crusty sourdough dinner rolls.
Panera Bread, a bakery-restaurant chain, make decent breads and
rolls.
We actually have lots of good breads in California. a bunch of
specialty
bakeries supplying the stores. As to Danish, head to Solvang, Calif,
A
town of danes decended from immigrants. The town survives on mostly
the
tourist trade and the bakeries are very good.
My wife also has a "need" for a Casper's hotdog fix once inwhile.
But Kasper's is gone. Only Casper's is left and they are not as good.
Still good, but not as much as the Original. Kasper's was the Original
and
Casper's was started by a relative. I was friends with Harry the
Son-in-law
who took over Kasper's when the FIL retired. Unfortunately Harry has now
passed also. But Harry would be about a 95 now if he was still steaming
dogs.
Look, the orginal Kasper's IS still going, since 1929::
http://www.originalkaspers.com/home.html
If you notice the page was last edited on 2004. The building, and small
triangular store has been shuttered the last few times I went by. My mom
lives in the area and I still go down the street. What high school did wife
attend? I grew up in El Cerrito.
Interesting. I thought that I had heard somewhere, sometime, perhaps
when I was in CA, that Kasper's had been out of business for years.
Wife's family left Richmond and moved to Pleasant Hill just prior to
high school. She went to College Park High in Pleasant Hill. When I was
there we lived in Martinez. I didn't have a boat, so I did a lot of
fishing off of the pier there. I've seen people catch sturgeon right
there, but I never had the pleasure.