bread

it's unclear how we got onto the subject of bread.

at dinner last night at lagnaa in little india, when the subject of consubstantion and transubstantiation arose, su-lin related the fabled incident in which a piece of the sacrament was transformed into an actual slice of human heart when placed in the mouth of an unsuspecting parishioner. (is it polite to spit out from your mouth the body of christ?this slightly terrifying transformation appears to be a not-uncommon occurrence.) around this time, it also transpired that far from using for the Host bread baked only from the purest ingredients, worthy of being the essential (or, depending on your religious inclination, actual) body of christ, su-lin's church uses slices of gardenia bread* instead, so that the ceremonial fraction or breaking of the bread is more a limp tearing and compression.

also, am i the only one who remembers the bread man in threadbare shorts and shirt who would come around on his bicycle with a large zinc box on the back, filled with bread in plastic bags?

* gardenia bread has so many softeners and preservatives in it that looking at the ingredient list is a mildly unpleasant experience. the best thing you can say about it is that it is easy to tessellate.