Unlike most, who bought Chad Robertson’s Tartine Bread book as a last-minute Christmas gift for a “foodie” friend who probably hasn’t opened it since, Mr. Eric Sir actually tried baking the country sourdough recipe in his undoubtably tiny Mission kitchen, with some degree of success.

Here’s a snip:

For those not in the know, Tartine’s bread recipe is old-fashioned naturally leavened bread. That means you basically put some flour and water out on the shelf and let it go “bad,” and that’s your yeast. That’s right, no little packet of yeast; it just comes magically from the air. (Cool, huh?) So the only ingredients you need to buy are flour, water, and salt.

Flour, water, and salt? Sounds easy! Not so much. Apparently it takes an all day to do the prep and baking work, which is only slightly faster than actually waiting in line for the real thing. He’s on his 3rd try and still working it out.

Read on and follow his progress over at Mr. Eric Sir.

KevMo at Uptown Almanac hipped us to this beautiful video of the making of Tartine Bakery’s delicious loaves. It goes on to show two other folks following the Tartine recipes and baking on their own at a small cafe and in the home. The latter featured baker is non other than the delightful Marié Abe, accordion babe!

Mission swing dance promoter Christopher Lee posted this great video of the local Gypsy Jazz group Gaucho playing at Tartine Bakery last night. Bet you didn’t know they have live music, right? Gaucho has been playing there 1st and 3rd Thursdays from 6-8pm for years. In the evening, the line isn’t so bad when people aren’t fighting over that morning bun.

In this video they are joined by a visiting NYC singer, Tamar Korn. She does that awesome 30s “operatic jazz singer” thing that is so rare these days. The tune is Honeysuckle Rose by Fats Waller. Have you listened to the lyrics to this song? It’s filthy.