Of Hairy Loaves & Lenten Buns

When out walking the hairy loaf in a leash today I got this special feeling that very much reminded me of something I managed to capture in writing a couple of years ago. The difference is that it was cold, dark and lots of snow back then - now it's just clammy and dark. I thought I might republish that little episode again, but when I looked through all those pages of this and that I couldn't find that particular one. And the ones I did find didn't exactly fill me with pride. Being a *slight* case of too pretentious in a nerdy over elaborated way. But, I suppose that was just something I had to get out of the system back then.

So this entry will, as usual, be in the Anglia lingua. And no I won't even try to capture that feeling, those thoughts, I had while walking the doggie, in English. Instead I will just admit that today I did something that might actually be consider something like a slight dash of mortal sin - eating this year's first semla (Lenten bun) before Fat Tuesday... Since I am a weak-minded goose I of course completely blame this lapse from the narrow path on the company of not so strong-principled ones I keep. Although it was a rather palatable lapse...

As I wrote last year every year it's the same procedure as the year before; the newspapers have different lists and choices as to where you'll find "the best semla". And for many years now Bakery Bananza has, if not always won, but at least been on the top five-list in almost every noteworthy paper in Stockholm - yes, this is obviously a really very important issue! - and they even get orders from the US. Can't help but wonder how the buns will look and taste when they finally get there though...

It's far from the cosiest bakery/café, but they do make great bread, at nice prices, and it is rather a perfect place to either start off a weekend walk in the city or have a well-deserved rest afterwards. Especially on a bleak January day like today. A day which made me consider this lapse of semla to be very condign indeed.