Bergey's Breadbasket Bakery and More

I’ve decided it’s time to resume the restaurant adventuring I did back in Okinawa. New locale, new adventures. So bring it on South Hampton Road…surprise me with your hidden culinary and food-oriented delights.

Friday the search began and my boy Gabe and I and set off down Chesapeake’s backcountry roads trusty Garmin leading the way. Our goal? “Bergey’s Breadbasket Bakery & More”, which I’d found, unsurprisingly, on the internet.

Bergey’s stood out to me for a couple of reasons. For one thing, I’d read that it was a mom and pop shop. Not a chain. Hooray! Further, the word “bread” was featured in the name and I’m a sucker for all things baked goods. And finally, it was on a FARM!

When I turned into Bergey’s dirt parking lot, happiness filled my heart. This place was decidedly unstripmallish. In fact, it couldn’t have looked farmier, housed as it was in a wooden barn, silos towering above, and creek running alongside. A man riding around front on a huge tractor-like lawnmower smiled and waved.

I met my friend and her son outside. When we finally made it through the doors (our kids made that a process as they just wanted to run after the tractor and race around the grass) a young man greeted us warmly. I love it when people greet you with sincerity. And this was the second person here to do so—a good sign.

A quick glance around reveals good things. Most of the space was devoted to assorted natural grocery products: preserves, granolas, fresh bottled milk, different kinds of breads. To the left there was a deli/bakery counter with gigantic cinnamon rolls and great big delicious looking biscuits. And cupcakes! Straight ahead, an abundance of fruitcakes. Okay, not such a big fruitcake fan, but I do appreciate a place that dares to offer them so prominently. To the right were a handful of dining tables. At one of them, where a white haired couple sat, there were balloons. They were celebrating…a birthday? An anniversary?

At Bergey' you order at the counter deli-style. Their menu is short and sweet. For breakfast there are various biscuits, quiche, cinnamon rolls, etc. (Most about $2) For lunch/dinner--deli sandwiches, pulled pork sandwich, veggie, BLT, PBJ, and soup. (Most about $7 whole/$4.20 half.) Also featured are “Dinners to Go”, chicken potpie w/ mini loaf of bread; pork BBQ w/ coleslaw, rolls and cookies, and chicken salad with the same. These serve four and are about $20.

Oh, and there are pies. Think chocolate velvet pie, pecan, coconut custard, shoofly and more. Also, homemade ice creams, fresh baked breads and sweets. I haven’t had the pies or the ice cream. I’d say that warrants a “research” trip back.

I decided on a pulled pork sandwich ordered my son a PBJ. He seemed to enjoy it!

And here is a blurry picture (taken while restraining wiggly child) of my BBQ sandwich.

It’s simple, unadorned with side items, leaving you with room for desert later. The roll was fluffy, fresh and light, as was the bread on my boy’s PBJ. Sorry BBQ lovers, the meat I don’t really remember how the meat tasted, except that it was good. My friend got a PBJ for her son too and the soup of the day, potato, for herself. She was very enthusiastic about. (I got an email from her later saying she should have gotten some to go!)

I could have lingered chit-chatting and munching on baked goods for some time, but of course it didn’t take long for the kids (okay, my kid) to get restless. Fortunately, as we were on a farm, there was plenty of room for them to run around and burn off steam outside in the grass. I got to enjoy the coffee I purchased (It was delicious. Larry’s Beans—a fair trade coffee.); shoot the breeze with my friend; and consider when I was going to eat the large red velvet cupcake I had purchased to go.

I have no doubt that I will be back to Bergey’s Breadbasket. While I enjoyed my lunch, what won me over was its warmth. It was just a friendly, positive place to be. It felt like family. That couple with the balloons? We got to chatting with them for a spell (it’s that kind of place). Turns out it was Grandma and Grandpa Bergey celebrating their 60^th anniversary!

HOURS & INFO**(These are listed as December hours.)

Monday-Saturday 9AM-6PM Closed Sunday

http://www.bergeysbreadbasket.com

Day One. Pancakes and Penne Vodka

I watched the Olympics today.

I went to the Pancake House. Again. The third time this week. But no pancakes eaten this time around. Only yogurt, so the proprietresses were confused.

Joe went spearfishing while I hung w/ Nikki and Gabe. After awhile I got resentful, as usual, and tried to fight the resentfulness, as usual. It sorta worked. We went to eat at Mintama's and that always makes a girl feel good, even though it was hot and sticky.

My pasta was perfect al dente and the sauce a perfect balance -- chunky/saucey/creamy/tomato-ey.

Gabe got sorta fussy, but I still had chocolate cake to eat. I'm liking that chocolate cake they have there more and more. It tastes like chocolate. Not butter or sugar. That's good too, of course, but its dense bitter chocolate, with Japan's real whipped cream.

Why don't they do real whipped cream in the States? It adds so much and its not hard. Whipped cream is the way to go.

To make whipped cream do the following:

Buy heavy whipping cream. Put it in a bowl. Whisk the hell out of it till it's not liquid anymore and looks like whipped cream...Yummmmm....

Well, the internet recipes say add confectioners sugar and vanilla. I only add a bit of sugar, but that stuff sounds nice too. Here are some other variations:

http://hubpages.com/hub/Extraordinary_Homemade_Whipped_Cream_Recipe

Year of the Rat

It's a new dawn. It's a new day. It's a new year.

2008. The year of the rat. Or is it the mouse? My Japanese friends keep saying mouse, and that does, I admit, carry much cuter, more appealing ring to it.

But I think it's the rat. And my son will be a rat. It's his year. According to Wikipedia, the rat person is clever, cunning, highly organized, a natural leader http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_(zodiac) In short, the complete opposite of me.

***

A couple of days after New Years, I decided to visit a couple local temples to check out the New Years scene. The first one was the Futenma Shrine, near Camp Foster. The place was packed. I video-taped the pandemonium, but I don't think it really does the experience justice. There wasn't much to actually do there, or really all that much to see. Still being "in it", amongst the crowd, one of the few Americans there, participating in this thing - this tradition - this piece of culture, that was cool. That is what gives me joy. That is why I live in other countries. That newness, that immediate in-your-face, "I'm smack dab in the middle of a learning experience", that it what I love and treasure. I'm glad that I got to go there, baby in belly and live that with him. I picked up a couple of temple souvenirs for the baby room - a good luck rat arrow and a carved cedar rat - to remember the experience, and for luck of course.

***

Last night, we had another great moment of living in Japan. We being me, Joe, Kay, her boyfriend Chad, and little G in utero. We were at a bar actually, well, a yakitori house right here in our lovely little village of Yomitan. I love this town. Love it. Anyway, we sat at the bar on stools made of tree trunks and proceeded to meet practically everyone in the joint. First, this man who to me looked like a Japanese Floyd Mayweather, who was drunk off his booty and who I thought could well be homeless or a fisherman living on his boat or something, but who turned out to be a baker, who walked to his bakery and brought us back two plastic grocery bags stuffed full with his cookies and who offered to give us Okinawan cookie baking lessons. Baking lessons! Yes. Yes. Yes. I'm in.

Funny, meeting people in a foreign country local bar. People are so open and friendly and when you are sober, as I was, you often start out with suspicion or just lack of enthusiasm. Like, "Am I gonna be stuck with this fellow all night 'practicing my English'". It's selfish, really. And why? What am I protecting? My predictable evening talking with the people I always talk to? When I could at the very least be annoyed, but have met somebody new, possibly crazy, almost certainly eccentric, and maybe even a good hearted and kind potential friend?

Another guy we met there was this businessman originally from Tokyo, just off from work, still dressed in suit and tie. He didn't look Okinawan, what with the suit and it turns out he runs this big sweet potato product tourist place down the road. And he likes to "playfully" punch people on the arm. And to practice his English. Here's an example of the English he practiced on us last night:

Man: "Why are you drinking water?"
Joe: "She's pregnant."
Man: "Oooohhhh.....I...thought...she just fat!....haa...haa..haaa!..."
Me, Joe, Kay, and Chad: "HHHHHHAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!"
Me: "HHHHHAAAAAA....(but slightly ticked off/embarrassed) HHHHHHHHHHAAAAAA!)
Man: "I thought....fat....I going to....recommend....walking..."

(More laughter.)

Pretty good stuff, huh. I mean, now there's a conversation you just can't take away from us.

Okay, I'm off. Time to go for a walk...

Or eat some Okinawan cookies.