what you should know

Of all the qualities that define a baguette -- the firm, cylindrical shape; the incised surface of the crackling crust; the chewy, moist interior known in France as la mie -- what's most fundamental is its role as a daily bread.

feel le pain The baguette is the anti-loaf, a fast-fading thing whose best moment is right now. Philippe Gosselin, the Parisian baker whose baguette was recently named the city's best, told Travel + Leisure that the baguette "has a life span of just six hours." And in one of her truer hyperboles, Elizabeth David wrote that a good baguette will go "stale within an hour of emerging from the oven."

the mie generation Steam ovens enable the baguette's combination of moist crumb and crusty shell. The rise of the ovens coincided with a need, in the post-WWI 1920s, for a faster, less labor intensive bread. Thus, the rise of the baguette.

idée fixe Everyone has his own ideal baguette against which he judges all others. (Maybe it was the first one or the last one or the one most charged with memory.) Is it possible to find in the U.S. something close to the Parisian ideal? Opinions abound.

knead not If a good baguette is out of range, try the no-knead approach Bittman wrote about last fall. It mimics the steam-oven effect and comes closer to that semi-charred exterior than the average bakery loaf. Plus, it's really, really easy.

what you need

• Several years ago, Chip interviewed the members of the Bread Bakers Guild Team USA. They were on their way to compete in the World Cup of Baking in Paris. One of the few books they all cited as an essential one for home breadmakers was Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice.
• For the ne plus ultra take on French bread, get Steven Kaplan's Good Bread is Back. (For more on Kaplan, the premier American baguette scholar, read the New York magazine profile of him from last fall.)
• A good bread knife, like this Wusthof 9-inch, can double as a utility blade whenever you're in need of a serrated knife.

  what you do

• For a couple of of happy months, Chip ate bánh mì for lunch almost every day at Saigon Sandwich, on Larkin Street in San Francisco (plus a side of boiled peanuts). With its contrasting blend of nuts and carrots and meat, the "Vietnamese hoagie" may be the world's best sandwich.
• With a ripe Hass and several slices of grilled baguette, avocado crostini may be the world's best simplest unsandwich.
• Never toss a day(s)-old baguette. Cubed, it forms the base of a refreshing but substantial Italian bread salad.
  
• Brys' friend Lacy worked in Malaga for a couple of years. Ever since, she's missed two things: the sardines and the ajo blanco, a chilled garlic and almond soup.