Peach Bread — The Loaf I Baked While Waiting for Bác Huong

Huong arrived on Saturday, June 8, 2024, at 4:17 PM. Flight from Da Nang to Hanoi to Tokyo to Houston. Twenty-two hours of travel. She walked through the international arrivals gate at George Bush Intercontinental Airport looking small and tired and alert, wearing a blue áo dài and carrying a single bag, and she looked around the arrivals hall with the expression of a woman who is seeing everything for the first time and recognizing nothing but refusing to show fear.

Linh saw her first. She said, "There." I looked. And there she was: Mai's sister. Eighty years old, smaller than Mai, with the same eyes — the Tran eyes, sharp and dark and missing nothing. I held up the sign that said HUONG in Vietnamese and English. She saw it. She walked toward us. Linh said, "Welcome to Houston." Huong said, "Thank you." Her English was careful and accented and she was trembling slightly and I wanted to hug her but Vietnamese customs around first meetings are not hug-forward, so I bowed my head and said, in Vietnamese, "Welcome, Bác Huong. We've been waiting for you." She looked at me and said, "You are Bobby." I said, "I am Bobby." She said, "You look like Huy." And then she was crying and I was holding her bag and Linh was guiding her toward the car and the airport disappeared and all that existed was a woman who had traveled ten thousand miles to see her sister.

We drove to Mai's house. Huong looked out the window the entire drive — the highways, the strip malls, the sprawl, the specific flatness of Houston. She said very little. When we turned onto Mai's street, she sat up straighter. When we pulled into the driveway, she put her hand on the door handle. When the front door opened and Mai was standing there — Mai, eighty-four now, standing in the doorway of her house in Alief, Texas — Huong got out of the car and walked toward her sister and they held each other on the front porch for five minutes without speaking.

I stood in the driveway with Linh and we looked at each other and we cried. Everyone cried. Mr. Washington, who was watering his lawn next door, looked over the fence and didn't say anything. He just turned off the hose and went inside and gave them their moment.

The feast. I cooked for three hours before Huong arrived and everything was ready when they finally sat down. Mì quảng, brisket, spring rolls, and a pot of Bobby's pho. Huong ate the mì quảng first. She took one bite and closed her eyes and said, "This is home." I had to leave the room.

The mì quảng and the pho got all the tears that day — and they earned every one — but this peach bread was the first thing I put in the oven, early that Saturday morning while the house was still quiet and I was trying to keep my hands busy before the drive to the airport. I needed something that would make the house smell like welcome. Something soft and sweet sitting on the counter when we all finally walked back through that door. Bác Huong didn’t eat a slice until the next morning, but she held the plate with both hands and said it smelled like the mangoes at home, and that was enough for me.

Peach Bread

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 60 min | Total Time: 1 hr 15 min | Servings: 10 slices

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup neutral oil (vegetable or canola)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups fresh or canned peaches, peeled and finely diced (about 2 medium peaches)
• 1/2 cup plain whole-milk yogurt or sour cream

Instructions

1. Preheat oven. Heat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan with butter or nonstick spray and lightly dust with flour, tapping out the excess.
2. Mix dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.
3. Mix wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the granulated sugar and brown sugar until the mixture is slightly pale, about 1 minute. Whisk in the oil and vanilla extract until combined.
4. Combine. Add the yogurt to the wet ingredients and stir until smooth. Gently fold in the dry ingredients until just combined — do not overmix. A few streaks of flour are fine at this stage.
5. Fold in peaches. Add the diced peaches and fold gently until evenly distributed throughout the batter.
6. Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top. Bake for 55–65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs. If the top begins to brown too quickly after 40 minutes, tent loosely with foil.
7. Cool. Let the bread cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then turn it out and allow it to cool completely before slicing. The bread slices cleanest when fully cooled.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 210 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 8g | Carbs: 31g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 210mg