The Balance: Bakeries
We check out the best bread in London and Tehran
Albion Bakery, London
It might bring to mind a public school refectory, with its wood panelling and pots of HP Sauce, yet there’s nothing retrograde about the Albion (2-4 Boundary Street, E2).
The informal food store, bakery and café – or ‘caff’ as their website puts it – has been set up by Sir Terence Conran, the London design magnate who modernised Britain’s interiors 30 years ago with his Habitat chain. Sir Terence went on to make his name as a restaurateur in the 1990s, and this multipurpose venture pairs his usual smart design flourishes with some seriously unfussy foodstuffs.
The bakery opens at 8am, offering everything from bloomers and traditional bridge rolls through to biscuits and pastries, and keeps its oven hot until midnight. So, you can drop by in the evening to enjoy late-night treats like Welsh rarebit or hot chocolate with shortbread. Prices aren’t cheap; a cheese sandwich costs £4.25. However, Albion has managed to bring some distinctly 21st-century elements into the ancient craft of breadmaking; their bakers have a Twitter feed (twitter.com/albionsoven). If your focaccia turns up underdone, you’ll know who to tweet. www.albioncaff.co.uk
Tehran bakeries
High quality baked goods are easy to come by in this city, so follow the waft from the ovens or look out for the queues. There are four types of popular loaves: taftoon, a flatbread; barbari, light and chewy bread, served at breakfast; lavash, which is crispy and thin; and sangak, which is cooked on hot stones and best eaten fresh. Whichever loaf you choose, it won’t cost too much. Expect to pay no more than 100-500 rials (less than 10p).
