Last night I went out to a restaurant that served a vegetable disc with no claim to taste, on an aging bun that looked like a whole wheat tinted seed studded, well sprayed hair do. Bread should never be an after thought.
When you have really good bread, it is almost a guarantee that good food will show up as well. It’s hard to eat cheap burgers and doritos with a side of Reese Cups when on the table you have a ciabiatta or baguette good enough to work your heart strings. Hunt down a loaf to be proud of until you find it. It could be a tortilla, or nan or a crepe–it doesn’t matter–just be sure that whatever it is it’s good enough to make you wish you could have it every day for the rest of your life. (if you’re close, bolt to the Blue Ribbon Bakery in the West Village, and buy anything they have.)
For anything soft on the outside and crusty on the outside, roast some yellow and red peppers with a spill of olive oil and salt, toss a salad of endive with a little red vinegar, and olive oil and a pinch of salt, pepper, sugar, dijon and finely chopped parsley and then for dipping, make a pesto out of wilted swiss chard. Slice up a little cold roasted chicken.
If a crepe is what you find, fold it around a beautiful ham and gruyere cheese and serve it with a green apple and chive salad with toasted walnuts and homemade mayonnaise.
Buy a little skirt steak, season it with salt and sear it on the grill or in a hot and heavy frying pan. Stack up those tortillas, and make a salad of grape tomatoes, chunks of ripe avocado, cilantro leaves and hunks of a small, tight red onion.