The Sublime at the Ridiculous
Stocking up for Morning Toast at Marshall's (plus Artopolis and Fox & Obel)

Thanks to Chez Pim, I am now fully hooked on morning toast. I always liked morning toast, but Pim gave me an excuse to really like it. Now, I spend my waking hours shopping, scouting, thinking about and otherwise preparing for the next round (or shall I say slice). It's a good hobby because it can be fulfilled pretty easily. Whether I am oohing and ahing at the selection at Fox & Obel or killing time while a chowhoundita is at a birthday time at Marshall's with the Condiment Queen, I am likely to find basis for next morning's toast.

Like most Chowhounds, I mostly go to Marshall's, the close-out specialist and discount clothing store, for the food. Some of the Belgium chocolates have probably seen better days, but the jams, Marshall's does a fine job. I just keep close eye on the expiration date, for a product that has an awfully long shelf-life, these jars can get pretty close to D-day. From the other day, I got a pear with dried apricot and honey from Le Temps des Mets, a small producer in Provence; grapefruit marmalade from European Provender Company and an organic raspberry from Crabtree and Evelyn. I've only opened the last, as we have a rule in the house about having too many open jars--in fact there is usually a rush to finish one JUST so we can open another. This raspberry is quite intense, with almost the texture and flavor of dried fruit.

Bread, that's one thing I splurge on, because the price per quality for great bread is so small. The other day, I picked up a whole country bread from the Greek cafe and bakery, Artopolis. A little too much decorative flour marred this bread but only slightly. A course crumb, very nutty it definitely tasted different than the French style breads I mostly have been toasting. Still, I have nothing against those French style loaves, and no one in Chicago bakes a better bread than Fox & Obel's large round sour-dough "peasant" bread. I swear I remember the crumb of this bread to be slightly finer, more cake like, yet it remains sublimest of sublime. Both moist and crusty as the force-field crust engages and holds tight all the moisture used to form the dough. My desire to reduce my mid-section keeps me from eating as much as I want each time.

Marshall's - Various locations

Artopolis - 306 S. Halsted, Chicago, IL - (312) 559-9000

Fox and Obel - 401 E. Illinois Street, Chicago - 312.410.7301