I Didn’t Pray For These Baguettes
As a single woman living alone in New York City, I often find myself with extra baguettes. I’m not sure where or when exactly this started happening, but for some reason it’s become a problem for me. I know that if I don’t eat them fast enough, they’ll go bad and then have to be thrown out—but at the same time, tossing food into the trash can is hard because of my poverty-stricken upbringing.
So here’s what I decided to do: take one half of my usual purchase and put it aside before eating the other half right away. And then when that second half goes stale (and trust me), throw it in the trash with no regrets!
I live alone, so often in the past I would buy myself a baguette and eat it in one sitting.
But then I started to feel guilty about eating the entire baguette by myself, and so I tried to make up for it by eating less for the rest of the day. This resulted in me getting hungrier faster, which then made me want to eat more food later on. Eventually it became this vicious cycle.
The guilt also made me feel bad about myself because I was contributing to food waste—which is one of my biggest pet peeves (I actually wrote a whole article about how much I hate food waste). If I’d eaten only half of that baguette, at least someone else could have enjoyed the other half!
Eventually I became aware of my lack of self-control.
Eventually I became aware of my lack of self-control.
I ate the same thing every day. Baguettes. Too many baguettes! And you can’t just have one, because they’re so good and so fresh, and they go well with so many things like cheese, butter or jam… I was eating too much bread!
I was eating too fast – it was a race against time to get through all those lovely baguettes before they went stale or mouldy (which they always did eventually).
I wasn’t chewing properly either – I had no time for that when there were more baguettes waiting for me at home!
The problem is I’m also not good at tossing food out—I grew up poor, with a garbage pail full of things like half-eaten rolls and crusts that would be rewarmed for another meal.
The problem is I’m also not good at tossing food out—I grew up poor, with a garbage pail full of things like half-eaten rolls and crusts that would be rewarmed for another meal. My first apartment looked like a thrift store, even though I had bought all my furniture from Ikea. In college, my roommates were horrified when they discovered my “collection” of chipped dishes that had been rescued from the trash bin outside our building’s apartment recycling room (the one where everyone threw their broken plates and such).
When I got married, part of me was excited to finally have enough money to buy brand new dishes instead of getting them from thrift stores or Craigslist freebies; the other part was terrified of wasting any food at all on something as frivolous as fancy dishware or flatware.
A few months ago, the solution came to me in a dream.
A few months ago, the solution came to me in a dream. I was at home, and there was a baguette on my kitchen table that had gone stale. This should have been an obvious sign for me to throw it away, but instead I decided to try and revive it by putting it in the oven with some butter. After the baguette came out of the oven, however, it was still stone cold—and now covered in melted butter!
I woke up feeling confused and frustrated: why hadn’t I just thrown out this ridiculous loaf?
And then there’s the added bonus of having that delicious smell all through my apartment, which is sometimes very small comfort in a world that doesn’t always seem to make sense.
And then there’s the added bonus of having that delicious smell all through my apartment, which is sometimes very small comfort in a world that doesn’t always seem to make sense. It makes me feel like life can be measured by the distance between one loaf of bread and another, or even just by the time between when it’s fresh from the oven and when it goes stale. I’m not sure if this is true but at least it lets me pretend.
My heartless solution to this problem was to buy only half as many baguettes as before, and then toss out the second one when it got stale.
My heartless solution to this problem was to buy only half as many baguettes as before, and then toss out the second one when it got stale. This saved me a lot of time and money, but I don’t recommend it unless you are truly miserable with your life and will be happier living in a cold-water apartment without fresh bread. To me, that seemed like an unacceptable trade-off; however, if you prefer eating stale baguettes over having enough money for rent or heating oil during winter months, then by all means go ahead!
I have found a solution to my problem, and it has worked so far. I don’t know what will happen next time I run out of bread, but for now I am happy with this new routine.