Pain Perdu - but all is not lost

Not surprisingly, the French do not call it "French toast," but rather 'lost bread' or "pain perdu." Bread can go stale in any country, but the Milton's whole grain bread from Costco can last a week or two if stored in the refrigerator - at least for me. In France, I'm pleasantly surprised if the bread I purchased the evening before is still edible the next morning. Like rice in China and corn tortillas in Mexico, bread is a part of daily life and integral ingredient of 'la cuisine francaise' and incorporated into most meals.

And it's cheap at about one euro per baguette. Then again, it's not cheap. Just think, if you were to spend one euro per day on bread - that's 30 euros, or nearly $50 dollars a month on bread. Wow! However, Europeans are very resourceful and less wasteful. Having read about Schwarzenegger's drought declaration on Yahoo! this morning, it seems to me that Californians can learn something from a basic plumbing feature in France. Toilets have two buttons - one for a big flush and one for a little flush. California could probably save hundreds of millions of gallons of water per day with this one simple little innovation. But, I digress...

France is not the only country with 'lost bread.' Antonio, my artist friend from Mexico via Spain, suggested a recipe. So, this morning I cut the stale poppy-seed baguette into slices and dipped them into egg (no milk). In a pan, I drizzled a little olive oil and salt (apparently a Mexican cleaning woman once told him that adding salt to olive oil keeps it from splattering when heated,) and added the bread. Sprinkle with a little fresh ground pepper and "voila!" - a tasty and savory Spanish version of pain perdu.

So, to all of "mes amis" and "mi amigos" in California, please save a loaf and try this recipe when you want a tasty little breakfast. And please, only flush when necessary.

[Yeah, you're probably thinking, "leave it to Rick to write a story that goes full cycle... from eating bread to disposing of it at the end of the line. C'est moi.]