HUNGRY GERALD

A very useful bread is Pepperidge Farm Thin Sliced White Bread. HG does not like standard sliced bread or thick slices of whole loaves. Whatever the use, most sliced bread is simply too much for HG: Too much bread for a sandwich and too much for cheese (HG prefers an English water biscuit with a runny brie or camembert); however, the thin, inoffensive Pepperidge product creates the perfect ratio of carbs-to-veggies-to-proteins for the type of BLT that HG desires. Lightly toasted Pepperidge Thins, smeared with organic peanut butter and good jam, make for a worthy companion to breakfast coffee. At lunchtime, HG uses it for a sardine sandwich: Portuguese sardines (sourced from the great Portugalia store in Fall River, Mass.). Thinly sliced onion. Lemon juice, Mayonnaise, All the lusty flavors come through. Here’s some nostalgia. In the 50’s and 60’s, a number of New York stores (Caviarteria, etc.) sold great caviar at modest prices. HG and pals would gently warm Pepperidge Farm thins, butter them and heap the slices with abundant Beluga caviar. The beverage was Polish vodka, Wyborowa. HG eyes go misty at the memory.