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It IS a shame. My aunt by marriage was from New Zealand. She used to drive my mother crazy because she would "continental" shop - every day. Sometimes more than once or twice a day. I think it's better. Way better.
American bread is generally sub-par because of plastic bags and preservatives. A true baguette in Paris, with its crusty (not soft) exterior, is stale within hours. Americans want their products to last days because most people don't shop daily, even for perishables. Quel dommage !
We used to shop for bread daily, until corporate food took over; and put local economies in the form of bakeries out of business.
So, I bake my own.
I used to bake bread at least twice a week. But my family (husband and three "kids" now ages 17, 19, 22) doesn't eat much bread any more. They will have a slice of bread with cheese and salami now and then, or a piece of avocado toast. When they do want a sandwich, they want a deli sandwich from a shop. So I stopped making bread.
Bread every day as part of every meal is not part of our life. I remember my daughter came back from visiting relatives in Germany and said that they were always pushing bread on her, and acting surprised and disappointed that she didn't want more bread, but she didn't. She was only 11 at the time. All the bread is great for Europeans, but I don't think the average American craves bread every day any more than they crave rice every day like the Japanese.
So all this to say that while it's definitely possible to buy good bread in the US, one major reason it is not readily available everywhere because there just isn't the demand for it that there is in Europe. As a whole we don't care all that much about bread, and it's not a character flaw.
Is it still true that most Europeans shop every few days? I would imagine that would be a huge factor, as most Americans don't have that sort of lifestyle. We can't, or won't, pop by a bakery every few days for fresh bread.
Not to mention the word bakery here most often means cakes and pastries. I don't even know where there is a shop that bakes bread in my area, the closest thing is the grocery store delis. Maybe an occasional special trip to Aldi's where I sometimes find what I assume to be European style breads.
It really depends on the person and the country. When I lived in Paris, I would stop by different stores on different days because they were on my way home from work. As you probably already know, many Europeans buy their groceries at smaller shops because the quality is better. I would buy my cheese at a cheese shop, meat came from a butcher, bread came from a bakery. The only things I would get at the supermarket would be produce and pre-packaged items like cans.
But nowadays larger supermarkets are more popular all over France, so they might only shop once a week.
I think most Americans only shop once per week and it's usually on Saturday or Sunday mornings. I don't understand why this is a thing. That's the busiest time to shop and the checkout lines are horrible. I normally stop by the store after work. Sometimes I do Costco runs during my lunch break and eat lunch at the Costco lunch counter.
It's amusing to me that many Americans won't stop by the bakery for fresh bread but many will hit up a Starbucks drive-thru every single morning.
Why is it so hard to find good bread in the U.S......kinda like asking why is it so hard to find spicy food in Norway or top notch BBQ in Paris.
Americans view bread as vehicle to deliver meat and cheese. Sure we like "good" bread but it's just not as much of a thing here as it is in Europe. No country does everything well.
But it's not the same, right? My sister had one of those machines, but the bread she made did not seem to hold together. It was tasty, but it fell apart. Not easy to spread butter on it.
Maybe she wasn't doing it right.
yup, she wasn't doing it right--probably using low-protein flour.
It's not the machine, that's just a mechanical device. It's the recipe and ingredients that make bread wonderful.
But I don't recommend baking in the machine; I hate the crust it makes. Much nicer to shape by hand and bake in the oven.
When I was in San Francisco they had a lot of good bakeries.
I know we have one in town, and I guess we don't go because it is an extra stop. Plus they don't have nutrition labels and I try to buy only breads with a good ratio of fiber to carbs.
Otherwise Elina's pics are total food porn for me. I love an uber dark, grainy bread.
Otherwise I use Dave's Killer Breads. When camping and such I love a meat, mayo, mustard on white bread. The ONLY time that is something I like. For that I buy Keto white. Which is like a fluffy cardboard.... but it fills that weird craving.
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