Midnight Sneak Attack...

I used to work at a deli/wine shop in Iowa - that offered excellent Kosher-produced corned beef and pastrami. They also got this beyond delicious Challah Bread from a local bakery - that ended up re-locating and re-focusing on sandwiches instead of bread. They stopped making their Challah and broke my heart. It's hard to find good Challah.

Low and behold - right after we land here in Arizona, I ran across this Great looking Challah bread in a grocery store!!! A grocery store of all places... made by Chompie's Bakery - Down South in The Arid Wasteland and their bread (and bagels) are delivered to all the major grocery stores here in town. Except - not their Challah bread - I've only been able to find their Challah at that one grocery store, which isn't the one we normally go to. I used to stop by, every once in awhile, to see if I could land a Challah and never did manage to after the first two.

More recently we discovered they were also one of the few stores in town to carry another of Chompie's best breads - their MultiGrain. I also recently discovered this wonderful grocery store is open till Midnight!!! Which is important - cause that's when I do my shopping...

last week - on my way home from the gym, after work, at 11:30 pm I thought I might stop by to pick up some MultiGrain. The place was deserted of customers and full of their stocking folks putting out new deliveries for the next day - and I found several loaves of Raisin Challah hidden in the stacks of Chompie's bread. While I don't like raisins, I still bought a loaf.

Last night - I thought maybe there was something special to the whole, going at nighttime thing. As I'd previously tried early in the morning, mid-day, late afternoon - and never managed to see a Challah, and then I'd gone at night and found the Raisin!!! So I stopped again on my way home and what was sitting their but two golden loaves of my lovely Challah bread.

I bought them both.

It's the best Challah bread I've had since The Heart of the Prairie Bakery on E.P. True Parkway in West Des Moines, Iowa closed it's doors (if the owners are still out there - I want your Challah recipe!!!)... of course, with the exception of the Challah roll I got at a little corner bakery in Manhattan when visiting my sissy over a year ago... and then - it was only equal to Chompie's, not better, and not better than Heart of the Prairie's either...