AIDS Walk started out misty and cold on Sunday and bundled up in 2 sweatshirts (one courtesy of Team Williams-Sonoma) we weren’t exactly chipper about walking 6.5 miles in the lounge-around-the-house-in-sweats weather. But we knew that the walk wasn’t about us, it was about fighting AIDS, and so we got over it and pressed on.
Lucky for us AIDS Walk takes place in Golden Gate Park because from our place it was a quick stroll to registration and the opening ceremony. Also lucky for us, we had enough sense to stop at Arizmendi Bakery on our way and enjoyed a warm piece of white peach coffee cake and nursed a medium cup of coffee in between shivers.
Arizmendi Bakery is great for so many reasons—worker-owned bakery, everything is made from scratch, they serve thin crust sourdough pizza with daily toppings changes—but the reason we really like Arizmendi is because they plainly list every ingredient in all of their baked goods.
For those who suffer from food allergies this is huge. We didn’t have to worry that the yummy looking (and yummy tasting) coffee crumble on top of the generous slice of coffee cake might contain almond shavings and therefore kill us before we even got to collect our complimentary AIDS Walk 2008 pin. There are so few ingredients in freshly baked goods and we think that writing down the 4 or 5 items involved is a triple win situation:
It isn’t terribly taxing for Arizmendi to write down a few things, it’s good for our health because who needs more than the required ingredients when eating anything? and it’s really great for food allergists because it means enjoying a new treat doesn’t have to be a near death experience.
Thank you, Arizmendi. You make things so lovely. Oh, and coffee cake with warm peaches: Brilliant.
Arizmendi Bakery [MenuPages]
Arizmendi Bakery [Official Site]
[Photo via infomofo/Flickr]
