Sourdough I have known and loved

I'm a bread hound. If I could live on (good) bread and water, I would definitely give it a try. While out here in the San Francisco Bay Area (home of the wild yeast Lactobacillus sanfrancisco), I have eaten nearly a loaf of sourdough bread a day.

I started my visit with a stop by Safeway. Unfortunately, at the time of night that my plane landed all they had was Semifreddi's. While their rustic is good, what was still soft was the sour batard and it doesn't have the tang I was craving. It is a nice, dense, chewy bread, though, so I mainly used it for sandwiches.

At Arizmendi's on Lakeshore, I tried the city sour batard. Very good flavor, although the crust was darker and thicker than expected, making it tough to get through to the bread inside. I finally ended up tunneling my way through the loaf and dipping the quite delicious center into lightly salted and peppered olive oil.

So far my favorite (of this trip) has been Raymond's. Made in South San Francisco, it had a wonderful sour bite and was chewy, with a great crust. 

At the Grand Lake Farmer's Market, I picked up a baguette of rustic olive bread from Phoenix Pastafico. It was filled with large black and green olives for lovely, well balanced olive flavor. It made the best tomato sandwiches!