Yazdan Boulangerie

Fort: near Horniman Circle. Apple pie: 25/-, seven grain bread: 25/- [5/05]

Unknown to the city's night crowd, an unobtrusive back-lane in Fort hides the most remarkable bakery in town. No decor, no fuss. It lives by its bread. From the street you see some chalked signs which change from day to day: sometimes advertising their apple pie, sometimes their ginger biscuits, and occassionally their seven grain bread.

The inside is like a factory: no one's heard of ambience here. They are good at baking and that's what they do. There are a few laminated tables with the ubiquitious two-seater benches at which you can sit and have fresh baked brun and maska. If you insist, and someone is free, they will get you a cutting chai from outside. But once you dig in, you forget everything but the bread.

They know they are good. The apple pie comes out of the oven at 3 PM; never earlier. And they make only a small bunch. You may not get it an hour later. But this apple pie is worth waiting for; a crisp brown crust, not flaky pastry, stuffed with apple and raisins. I usually get two.

Take your time here, look around. They try out experiments now and then. The seven grain bread is good. The mawa cake, ginger biscuits and pao do very well. They have dark breads now and then. These days they are into putting cumin into things. There's an onion bread sometimes. And there was a bread with nuts baked into it. I've liked all of these.

But why the French word thrown into the name?