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baked in a large brick oven right on the
premises. Special steam humidifiers in the
ovens create the characteristic crust for
Acme's hallmark breads, the pain au levain
(a hearty large-crumbed bread from a
long-fermented dough) and the walnut
pain au levain, as well as a perfectly chewy
white bread, pumpernickel rye, tangy olive
bread, cinnamon currant loaf, baguettes,
and croissants (chocolate, plain, and
ham-and-cheese). The flours used are all
organic, and there are no preservatives—
though very few customers can resist eat-
ing their purchases long before they'd go
stale. Bread is baked three times a day,
but get here early to score a flaky apple
turnover (regulars insist that the pumpkin
rolls and cheese rolls make up for it just
fine). Take your purchases next door to
Café Fanny to enjoy them right away with
an appropriate cup of café au lait.
Thankfully, Acme has resisted the temp-
tation to open dozens of branches or to
raise its prices sky-high (though the Ferry
Plaza outpost does command slightly
higher prices, no doubt to offset the rent
for this posh address). Is it the best bread
in San Francisco? That's your call. San
Francisco has been a bread-baker's capital
ever since the Gold Rush, when miners
zealously hoarded their sourdough start-
ers. The standard-bearer for San Francisco
sourdoughs for years has been Boudin
Bakery, founded in 1849 (their breads are
still widely available around the Bay Area).
While the rest of the United States was
seduced by spongy factory-made white
breads in the 1950s and 1960s, artisanal
breads survived here in the Bay Area,
ready for the culinary revolution to come.
You may want to sample several different
brands while you're here—all in the name
of research, of course.
1601 San Pablo Ave. ( & 510/524-1327;
www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com).
( San Francisco International (14 miles/
23km).
L $$$ Hotel Adagio, 550 Geary St.
( & 800/228-8830 or 415/775-5000; www.
thehoteladagion.com). $ Hotel des Arts,
447 Bush St. ( & 800/956-4322 or 415/956-
3232; www.sfhoteldesarts.com).
Street Eats
32
Doner Kebab
Shawarma Crawl
Berlin, Germany
The Turkish vendors call it doner kebab,
while others—Lebanese, Syrian, or Arabs—
call it shawarma. No matter; shawarma
and doner are virtually the same thing,
and they've become the iconic cheap eats
of Berlin, found at hundreds of imbisse, or
takeout stands, all over town.
Oddly enough, this fast food—a com-
pounded mix of seasoned meats roasted
on a vertical spit, then shaved off in thin
strips and served in pita bread with shred-
ded lettuce and tangy white sauce—may
be based on Middle Eastern kebabs and
Greek gyros, but its present form devel-
oped in Berlin's Turkish immigrant neigh-
borhood, Kreuzberg, in the 1970s. While
its popularity has boomed all over Ger-
many, Berlin remains the center of the
doner kebab universe, with an estimated
1,500 doner outlets.
The man who claims to have “invented”
doner kebab operates a small chain of
casual sit-down restaurants called Hasir
(try the one in Kreuzberg at Adalbertstr. 10;
& 49/30/614 2373; www.hasir.de). It's a
little pricier than the typical street doner,
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