America's Daily Bread (beer, ingredients, barbeque, donut)

[stepka]

OK, twice yesterday I felt the need to apologize to people from other countries for our gawdawful bread here. Yes, I know you can go to a bakery and get decent bread, but the same loaf that you can get at Whole Food for $4 a loaf is something you can get at any supermarket around the world for a reasonable price. The cheap stuff at the supermarket here is truly abominable. And if you don't live near a Whole Food or a Panera you probably don't have access to good bread at all, since bakeries are so rare here.

What I want to know is why we put up with such crappy bread? Is it b/c we don't know any better? How did we get to this point in the first place? I"m lucky enough to have done quite a lot of traveling and even countries like Oz and NZ have much better bread, on average, than we do. (I don't mean that as an insult to Oz and NZ--only that they don't have a long bread history either.)

[rainroosty]

We have, here in the U.S., much of the best breads in the world, available to most everybody.

[SXMGirl]

Philly has Amoroso rolls, which are great for sandwiches and you will find that the local delis in the area use them. We call them hard rolls. Funny story: a friend from SC was visiting, and when eating at a local diner, he was asked if he wanted a hard roll. He told the server that he preferred a fresh roll. Anyway, I think the taste has to do with the water. Same thing for NYC bagels. For loaf bread, I'll take a honey wheat such as Home Pride or Strohmanns. However, I have found that most areas have a good local place that makes their own breads and they are very good.

[nan5623]

Panera's asiago cheese bread ~~ warm with REAL butter. MMMmmm

[tilli]

And if you don't live near a Whole Food or a Panera you probably don't have access to good bread at all, since bakeries are so rare here.

Rare in St. Louis perhaps, but real bakeries are quite common in the Tampa Bay area and they put places like Panera to shame.

[Fontucky]

Originally Posted by stepka

The cheap stuff at the supermarket here is truly abominable.

Key words: cheap stuff.

Originally Posted by stepka

And if you don't live near a Whole Food or a Panera you probably don't have access to good bread at all, since bakeries are so rare here.

I've never been to a Whole Foods or Panera, but my area is liberally salted with panaderias (Mexican bakeries) that are both affordable and able to put out good products.

I also have a local warehouse grocer that carries some of the best sourdough French bread I've ever had, and that includes home baked.

[stepka]

Guess I'll have to move then, b/c we really don't have that many bakeries around here--donut places are plentiful, but not so much on bakeries. I guess I was lamenting that we have such awful stuff in the supermarkets though--I can get halfway decent bread at Trader Joe's, but not the regular places. Even the SM's with bakeries don't turn out good bread--it has so many artificial ing.

[Fontucky]

I just checked the cellophane bag that sour dough loaf came in. The label is "Old Country", and the ingredients list doesn't mention HFCS. That's always good to know. I try to avoid that stuff.

[MAK802]

Well, the bread in the US does come in a bag, enough said! I can't believe people actually buy shelf-stable bread!

That said, we have never had issues finding a bakery. When we lived on the East Coast, we had Polish bakeries everywhere. My mom always bought freshly baked bread from them and I followed in her steps. Now, we have many others here in San Diego and have access to fresh bread all the time.

But, fresh bread and bagged bread are totally different. Try handing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to an American kid on a pice of say French or rye bread! They'll throw it back at you because it's not square! I remember those days all too well!

[Bulldogdad]

St. Louis has a ton of bakeries. I just google mapped it. Should find lots of options. A great beer and barbeque city such as St. Louis has a ton of them get out and explore usually in the older neighborhoods.