Nah, I don't like bread with stuff in.

QUOTE:
The common theme here is I like a bit of texture on the way out as well.

The last thing I think about is the stool-binding property of baked goods.

The Germans would be in with a good chance of winning a Bread World Cup. As with cheese, the Americans wouldn't even qualify.

Why is bread in the US so bloody awful?

Disco Sea Shanties wrote:

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The Germans would be in with a good chance of winning a Bread World Cup. As with cheese, the Americans wouldn't even qualify.

Why is bread in the US so bloody awful?

I don't know. The exception is San Francisco, mind you, where the local sourdough bread is every bit as good as some pain au levain you'd buy from a grizzled Gauloise-puffing French market trader. But mostly it's dire as you say, and in Canada, if anything, even worse.

Their chocolate is appalling too.

Yeah. Especially Hershey which is just weird. It tastes salty.

Hershey's is solidified sick.

Tea rounds off the "stuff the US does unaccountably badly" list.

Wyatt Earp wrote:

QUOTE:
But mostly it's dire as you say, and in Canada, if anything, even worse.

??? Maybe in Scarborough. But shit-mass-produced bread is shit mass-produced bread regardless of where you are. Let me take you on a decent bakery tour when you're here.

Antonio Gramsci wrote:

QUOTE:
Wyatt Earp wrote:

QUOTE:
But mostly it's dire as you say, and in Canada, if anything, even worse.

??? Maybe in Scarborough. But shit-mass-produced bread is shit mass-produced bread regardless of where you are. Let me take you on a decent bakery tour when you're here.

Seriously, I'd love that. I did find some good stuff in St Lawrence Market, but (a) not that good and (b) a long way from most places people live.

Canada, I should say, is insanely much better at tea than its southern neighbo(u)r.

Sure. The good bakeries are almost all ethinc, so they are mostly downtown or in North York. E.g. the Riviera around the corner from me (allegedly Italian, but I only ever see Potugeezers in there), Nino D'Avversa (definitely Italian) - there's a couple of good ones out in the Polish zones...and of course there are the montreal-style bagels, which are heavenly (and which we've done on another thread, so I won't indulge here).

Tea and chocolate and cheese are absolutely not a problem, we can import the good stuff (assuming one lives in a decent town, though boutique grocers have greatly extended their reach over the last 10-20 years). Bread is much more problematic since it really needs to be baked on location. There's fuck all good bread. the best breadstuffs I'll have had in a given year we'll have made ourselves.

Well, decent bagels are somewhat easier to come by. Good sized Jewish population where I am.

Yes, bagels are the exception. A good bagel is fairly easy to come by in any major US city. Getting a decent bagel in the UK is more of a challenge.