My husband is Mexican. With his family far away it’s difficult to keep traditions alive. Living in Mexico for two years, I learned and took part in many traditions. For our family’s and our own connectedness to ourselves and where we come from, I wish we followed more of our traditions. The easiest would be cooking. I wish I knew how to cook different Mexican dishes, but I’m afraid that our waist lines will grow if I start. We have beans, salsa, and avocado on hand almost daily. When we lived in Mexico, we loved pan de muerto (literally meaning bread of the dead), a typical sweet bread sold this time of year to celebrate the Day of the Dead on November 2.
I decided that this year I would make pan de muerto myself. I pinterested and I googled, and though it didn’t seem so complicated, it does involve having the dough rise. For some reason when I see baked recipes that ask for yeast, I tend to back away. So that’s when plan b came into play. Knowing that I wasn’t going to find any pan de muerto in London where we live, I realized that on Thursday I’d be in Toronto and would have two hours free to myself. My google search landed me on Pancho’s Bakery in Kensington Market. I called to make sure they’d have bread available on Thursday between 11:00-1:00pm, and the attendant said that on Thursday’s they have a truck parked out front of the Sony Center from 11am on. This was much closer and easier for me to get to.
So Thursday I found the Pancho’s bakery truck, bought 5 loaves of pan de muerto. Last night the first loaf disappeared in less than 10 minutes; another we’ll give to our Mexican neighbour, the third is for my mom, which leaves us with two more loaves. I’m dying to try to use it for french toast (my favourite breakfast food), but my husband says I shouldn’t ‘cheapen’ the pan de muerto by using it ‘inappropriately’. So I guess there’ll be no french toast for me. Good news for my diet.
Twenty & Thirty 