In Constance, I loved a bakery and a lake. The bakery was tucked into one of the shopping streets that wind through the old town: the window display of flours with the winning old-fashioned packaging caught my eye on my first afternoon there. On the shelves within were pillowy Quark pretzels and braided meter-long Mohnstollen and Nußstollen, which the women behind the counter would slice to order, revealing melting layers of poppy seeds or coarse walnuts embedded in succulent marzipan. Small packets of dry goods included a grain risotto of barley, lentils, rye and wild rice. Sheets of A4 paper were pinned to the wall and printed in Times Roman 12 type, explaining in plain poetry that their bread was bread: flour, water, salt and nothing else. 

I returned there the next morning after I walked around the lake. The tiny cafe in the front was full. Resisting the urge to buy kilograms of spaetzle flour, I took home a cotton bag emblazoned with their royal blue logo and a slice of still-warm chocolate cake for the train ride home.

Kutmühle Villingen, old-fashioned bakery with a small cafe, Wessenbergstr. 23, Konstanz-Altstadt (map). The bakery is one of a tiny chain in Baden-Württemberg.

Comments

[Luisa]

Quark pretzels!!!

[Sylee]

Luisa, right? So puffy, so ethereal, dusted with powdered sugar.