Anadama Bread? We all know the story! A frustrated fisherman from Rockport, Massachusetts, comes home hungry and tired and finds, once again, corn mush awaiting him, prepared by his beloved Ana. Exhausted, frustrated and angry at his daily fare of corn mush, he grabs whatever flour is readily at hand -- rye, wheat, barley, oats -- and throws these flours into the corn mush, kneads the dough and throws it into the oven, cursing, "Ana! Damn her!" And that, dear readers, is how this delicious bread came into being . . .
However, in West Newton, the story differs. At the local Trader Joe's, Karoun was excited to find a loaf of bread made of whole grains labeled "multigrain anadama"-- as if anadama bread is anything but multigrain -- she brought it home. That night at supper, Marash Boy read aloud the legend printed on the front of the bread's packaging -- here's the direct quote: "Legend has it that a New England Woman, Anna, had the ability to bake fine bread with the sweetness of molasses and heartiness of mixed grains and cornmeal."
"And here in print," said Marash Boy, somewhat annoyed, "is history in the making!"
"And here in print," said Marash Boy, somewhat annoyed, "is history in the making!"
Hi. This is not a comment but a question. I've just found Allan Halpern's obituary on the internet, and wonder if this is the same Allan that I knew in 1963-64. My Allan was a Brown graduate, had served two years in the Army (but not overseas) and was working as a math teacher in a private school in Brooklyn, where he shared an apartment with Julia Ludmer. He took violin lessons and I took viola lessons because he asked me to, so we could play in a string quartet together. His parents died when he was in his teens and he lived with relatives for a while. I met some of his young cousins — one was named Gary.
ReplyDeleteAllan was very dear to me, and I have been wondering how he fared through life. Please let me know if
Thought I was going to be able to help out with this one, but I was wrong. Strangely, when my Dad passed away back in 2007, we found in his belongings a print plate for Anadama Bread. I looked up and got into contact with someone who turned out to be the granddaughter to see if she would be interested in having it and ended up sending it to her. It looked like it would be a plate to print boxes, but she said it was definitely for bags. It had the story printed right on it, but when I try to blow up the pictures I had taken of it at the time, it's too blurry to read. Sorry. I apparently didn't write it down. Have no idea how that came to be in my Dad's stuff????
ReplyDelete