By Bread Alone

Man cannot live by bread alone. Butter is also required.

Vancouver is a pretty good bread-town; so bread and butter can make a pretty decent repast. Still, today we went overboard. This morning’s breakfast consisted of Terra Bread’s fig & anise sourdough, toasted with butter. Dinner was a loaf of Transylvania Bakery’s sprouted wheat bread, still warm from the brick oven, also slathered with butter.

Terra Breads is an ever-expanding Vancouver institution, making dozens of excellent loaves, focaccias, breakfasty pastries, and cookies. The bread line at Terra’s Granville Island Public Market location is perhaps the most romantic venue at which any of my now-married friends ever met. (Janet Capewell and Chris Knudsen hooked-up over Terra’s famous grape bread.)

Transylvania Bakery is decidedly smaller operation. A one-man show, actually. Florin Moldovan is closed on Tuesdays, but every other day of the week he features two ovenloads of fabulous, rustic bread. Peasant bread — a whole wheat sourdough levain — emerges from the wood-fired oven at noon; a light rye and a sprouted wheat hit the shelves at 5 pm on alternate days. Arrive within the hour if you want one of these excellent, crusty loaves. They sell-out fast.