something sweet and salty

i'm supposed to be watching what i eat.

and for the most part, i have. but on a recent lazy weekend, i found myself craving something sweet. like pastry sweet. and i realized how long it's been since i indulged in a true dessert.

considering the abundance of italian bakeries in my neighborhood, i figured i'd take a leisurely stroll down court street and peek my head into the shops and see if anything hit my fancy. around 11:30 a.m. (and it took all my willpower to wait that long), i rolled out onto the sidewalk on my mission for dessert.

first i rolled past Union Market. apparently 12 pm is too early for the market to be set up. none of the free samples had been set out (i love trying out their cheeses) and the displays for each food section hadn't been set up yet. it was a little like peeking behind the curtain while a performer's getting ready.

so i moved on to Court Pastry Shop. except 12 pm is too early for this bakery as well. i always thought bakeries were open at ungodly hours of the day, but it turns out i was wrong. when i walked into this small bakery, only 2 trays of pastries were displayed, and a bunch of cookies. the pastries didn't appear very enticing, and cookies, while delicious, is no pastry substitute. so i politely smiled and meandered on my way.

almost directly across the street was Caputo's Bake Shop. would they answer my pastry prayer? alas, not. they too suffered from the late-bakery-riser-symptom. i had just exited the shop to return home, a failure when i noticed a constant and fast-moving line of people purchasing bread. so i consulted with my trusty yelp app and discovered that Caputo's is well known for their lard bread and decided to take a leap.

and what a leap it was.

although i grew up in an italian suburb of New Jersey (Sopranos was filled 1 town over from me-that's how italian it was), i'd never heard of lard bread. clearly i was missing out.

the loaf given me was still warm and slightly crispy on the outside but soft and doughy on the inside. the pieces of ham (?), bacon (?), whatever it was, gave it a perfectly salty seasoned taste to it making it great to eat on its own, or with the burrata and tomatoes i later ate it with. the whole loaf cost $4.75 and lasted me the entire weekend (well, Saturday afternoon and Sunday brunch at least).