BREADWATCHING. When it comes to gluten-free bread, my current favorite is Genuine Bavarian's Gluten-Free Whole Grain Bread, a thin-sliced brown bread that is utterly authentic in taste and texture--after it's been toasted, of course. It is nearly identical to bread packaged under the Glutano and Drei Pauly brand names, but it's considerably less expensive in the United States. In Manhattan, I've found it at $2.99 at Westerly Health Foods and even $2.29 at Healthy Pleasures. But lately the price seems to have been going up. It's now being sold at Fairway and Healthy Pleasures for about $3.99--a dollar more than those stores charge for the other, gluten-containing, breads produced under the Genuine Bavarian brand name.

I'm concerned that I might be at fault for this, as the price increase came on the heels of my contacting the bread's manufacturer and distributor and telling them how much I enjoy it.