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| A loaf of sourdough, baked from my own starter named Doughlilah |
Having lived on the East Coast my whole life, all I knew of San Francisco was what I saw on Full House reruns as a young child. I knew that there were cable cars, steep hills, and a park where the whole Tanner clan ate picnics every week. And I wanted to join them. It wouldn't be another 20 years until I would actually set foot in SF. I was completely enamored by the city, its neighborhoods, the people, and the food. In fact, one of my favorite food experiences was sharing some sourdough bread, cheese, and prosciutto with my partner on a picnic in Alamo Square (the park from Full House!). I've since visited the city numerous times, and I love it more and more each time. That's why I was so excited to read Robin Sloan's Sourdough, a story set amongst the San Francisco of foodies, tech, and startups.
Sourdough is really the story of Lois, who is lured to San Francisco by a representative of the company General Dexterity. She's so pleased at being headhunted, saying "Here's the thing I believe about people my age: we are the children of Hogwarts, and more than anything, we just want to be sorted" (pg.5). General Dexterity is solely focused on robot arms - developing them to be able to perform all kinds of repetitive gestures, in place of humans. The company is headquartered on a sprawling compound, and staffed primarily by tech bros, who drink tetra pak meal replacement smoothies, called Slurry. In fact, it's not too much of a stretch to imagine these bros being interested in these robot arms with something more *pleasurable* in mind...
It's part of the General Dexterity culture that people come to work late, work long into the night, and even sleep overnight in the office. Lois, although she is able to afford a nice apartment in the city, ends up following in her coworkers' footsteps and practically living at the office. On those nights that she spends in her apartment, she orders from a restaurant called Clement Street Soup and Sourdough. She always orders the double spicy - a spicy sandwich and a cup of the spicy soup, with an extra hunk of sourdough bread to soak up the remaining soup.
Clement Street Soup and Sourdough is run by two brothers, Beoreg and Chaiman. Beoreg is the cook and takes the orders, while Chaiman delivers them. They had been in business just over a year when Lois places her first order with them. She loves their double spicy so much that she orders it from them almost daily, so much so that they lovingly nickname her their Number One Eater. It was the soup, and especially the bread, that seemed to revive her when she was stressed out at work. That special sourdough bread was baked daily, and had the most incredible flavor.
Lois was happily enjoying this delicious manna until one day, they announced that it would be the last time they would be able to deliver to their Number One Eater. There were problems with their visas, and Clement Street Soup and Sourdough would have to close down. Because she had been such a loyal customer, the brothers decided to entrust her with the cultured starter that they fed and baked from to make their amazing sourdough bread. However, it wasn't like any normal starter, it was high maintenance. Yes, there were regular feedings with flour and water, but it also had to be played a CD of very specific music. Lois also had to bake bread from it regularly, and she found that loaves emerged from the oven with distinguishable faces on them. If Lois didn't remember to feed the starter for a few days, when she baked from it the faces would look sad or upset. However, when the starter was regularly fed, the resulting loaves would have faces with clear smiles on them. The contented starter would sometimes even sing or glow. The flavor was so good, that Lois started sharing loaves with neighbors and coworkers, including Kate, the chef at General Dexterity's cafeteria.
It was Chef Kate who recommended that Lois apply for a spot at a farmer's market. But because San Francisco takes its locavore food very seriously, this wasn't as easy as it might seem. Potential vendors were allowed to "audition" before a farmer's market governing board once every season, and depending on how your product was rated, you were offered a spot at one of the various SF-area markets. Lois' sourdough was good, but not good enough for any of the markets in San Francisco. Instead, she was invited to attend an underground, alt-farmers market on Alameda Island, that seeks to meld food and technology. The location is a decommissioned nuclear weapon storage hangar, and the vendors operate stalls in its main area. In addition to Lois' oven and bake stand, there's a lemon grove, a seller of honey harvested from Chernobyl, a coffee bar, a cricket flour baker, and many more. There was even a herd of goats grazing on nearby fields whose milk was used to make interesting cheeses. Funded by the mysterious Mr. Marrow, the market was in the development stages and would be opening to the public in the near future.
As Lois continued to bake, she began to discover that she enjoyed it more than the robot arms. She felt healthier and more relaxed, still challenged to solve problems like in her day job, but without the intense stress. Prior to discovering the power of sourdough, she lived an isolated and solitary existence. Afterward, she finds more connections between herself and the world around her. Lois has to make a decision - stay with the high-paying but unduly stressful job, or strike out on a bread-baking adventure.
Sourdough reads like a love letter to San Francisco, and playfully poked fun at some of its most well-known icons. General Dexterity is a stand-in for any of the major tech companies located in the SF area, but I suspect it most closely resembles Apple. The rise of "California Cuisine" as a food philosophy, including locavorism and an obsession with organic/free range/non-GMO/etc. was pioneered by a Berkeley restaurant called Chez Panisse and its founder, Alice Waters. She appears in the form of a thinly-veiled character, and plays a significant role in all of the later action of the story.
All of this makes for a completely delightful reading experience. There's nothing horribly triggering at all in this book, and it's a surprisingly quick read; I finished it in two sittings. I'm a long-time sourdough feeder/baker, and I thoroughly enjoyed a novel that so heavily explored the art and science of bread baking. I expect that, the more people read this book, the more may be inspired to try their hand at baking some of their own. If you like San Francisco, kooky characters, food, and technology, then Sourdough should be at the top of your TBR.
Librorum annis,
