5 ms·

I think a lot of America will argue with this.

thawaway1837 7y ago
The majority of Americans get their bread from the grocery store, and by the time they eat it it’s probably several days if not weeks old. It is true that you can get extremely high quality fresh bread from a bakery (or even bakeries inside grocery stores) but that isn’t really part of the culture and good quality bread is usually considered an occasional treat.
- lazyasciiart 7y ago
  “People don’t usually buy it” is a different claim to “it is totally unavailable”.
  - shantly 7y ago
    A baguette in my Midwestern city close to as good as a standard Parisian corner store baguette is like $6. You can get some that are "good" but in fact way worse than the real deal for $4-5. Approach the 2 Euro baguette in price and we're talking something that's so much worse it's unrecognizable. Pastries have a similar ~2x markup and are still usually not quite as good as the norm there even at the high end of the price range. IDK what it is that makes decent baked goods so expensive here. We grow all the wheat, FFS. Apparently kinda halfway knowing how to produce a plain-ass croissant that is somewhat reminiscent of an actual croissant is rare and expensive knowledge around here. We flat-out cannot produce affordable baked goods & bread that aren't fairly bad, it seems—simply not-bad is luxury priced here, and you may have to drive a ways to get it. [EDIT] and this bleeds over into anything requiring bread, like a sandwich. If you buy one out and it's not quite expensive, it will for sure be using pretty bad bread and there'll be a fairly low cap on how good it might be. [EDIT EDIT] toss in the fact that decent or better cheese is more expensive here, and the sandwich situation is downright dire.
- com2kid 7y ago
  > The majority of Americans get their bread from the grocery store, and by the time they eat it it’s probably several days if not weeks old. Every grocery store near me has giant signs advertising fresh baked bread. Buying bread in plastic bags isn't necessary. Heck when I was a poor college student I'd buy fresh baked 6 inch sandwich rolls, IIRC they were 6 for $2 or $3.
  - Moru 7y ago
    Is it bake-off or real bread baked at the store?
    - chipotle_coyote 7y ago
      While I'm sure that depends on the store, many supermarkets I'm aware of -- including Safeway out here in Silicon Valley and Publix in Florida, where I grew up -- have in-store bakeries.
      - reaperducer 7y ago
        One of the chain supermarkets I go to has a big sign announcing the time the next batch of fresh bread will come out of the oven. So, yes, in spite of the typical HN US-bashing, fresh bread is available in America.
        com2kid 7y ago
        This isn't even mentioning: 1. The chain of Brazilian bakeries around me 2. The fresh bread loaves baked at multiple larger Asian grocery stores. 3. The awesome Vietnamese bakery that sends out fresh baguettes daily. 4. The multiple dedicated Japanese bakeries making fresh bread. 5. The multiple dedicated Chinese bakeries making fresh loaves of bread. 6. The multiple local American bakeries that deliver fresh bread to area grocery stores every day. Actually, after making that list, I am kind of shocked at how large the market is for fresh baked bread...
        7y ago
lotsofpulp 7y ago
The bread in America is garbage compared to Europe.
- shawnlower2 7y ago
  Best not to conflate all bread in America with Wonder Bread. We have bakeries that actually choose to make a quality product, and it's available in (edit: grocery stores in) most cities. Many Americans simply choose to optimize for cost. The bread in Copenhagen was fantastic, though.
  - naravara 7y ago
    Having to go to speciality bakeries to get good bread is a different thing than just having it available in every corner market and whatever the bodega equivalent is.
    - chipotle_coyote 7y ago
      But you don't have to go to a specialty bakery to get good fresh bread. I can get Acme Bread at nearly any grocery store in the San Francisco Bay Area -- and lest someone (fairly) say, "Yes, but that's the Bay Area," anyone who grew up in the southern US probably knows Publix, the biggest grocery store in that region, is justifiably famous for their in-store baked breads. I think there's sometimes a tendency among Europeans in particular to write off all American food as being essentially the same as the most iconically awful brands we have over here: Wonder bread, Velveeta cheese, Hershey's milk chocolate, Bud Light beer. And that's just not true. I'm sort of inspired by Vox's article on the "boring lunch" here to start packing simple sandwiches again, which I haven't done in years. If I do, I'm probably going to be able to get pretty good bread, butter, cheese, and meats -- they're just not that hard to get here.
      - naravara 7y ago
        The difference is that when I lived in Florida I was going grocery shopping at Publix once a week or so. I tended to buy in bulk and prioritized shelf life. I now live in the downtown part of a walkable city and I tend to buy staples every other day or every 3 days because I can just drop in on my way home from work. Having the good stuff suffusing your daily life rather than being a specific thing you need to go get makes a difference in your relationship to the food. It’s just easier. It’s not a decision you make, it becomes a default thing you get.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
atombender 7y ago
Norwegian living the U.S. here. It's pretty different when you consider the average supermarket. The breads you get in your average American supermarket (Giant, Safeway, Shoprite and so on) are either the pre-sliced, packaged kind, which are largely flavourless and full of preservatives and sugar, or the stuff in the bakery section, which tend to be Italian-style white bread rolls, bagels and so on. You can find better bread — and sometimes very, very good bread — in many bakeries, or in high-end grocery stores like Whole Food, at farmer's markets, and so on. But it's not the norm. Scandinavian supermarkets generally don't have separate bread and bakery sections. There's just a bread section [1], where you'll find all freshly made bread. The whole grain content is very high, and the breads feel rustic and wholesome overall. You'll be able to find plain wheat bread and French baguettes, but these are the exception. You'll also find some pre-packaged breads, but they are typically sold specifically for their longevity. While I can get great bread in the U.S. if I seek it out, I still miss the easy availability of good bread, and I feel bad for all those who think that pre-sliced package bread is all there is. [1] https://bdn-norge.no/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/grovhet.png https://bdn-norge.no/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/grovhet.png [2] https://www.polarbrod.se/no/vare-brod/havre/ https://www.polarbrod.se/no/vare-brod/havre/
- tallanvor 7y ago
  I just want to point out that you can get very horrible bread in Norway as well. In the image you link to, you have Loff at the bottom left of the screen. That stuff is even more tasteless than the average American bread. It also gets more prominent placement, at least from what I've seen in Oslo grocery stores.
  - kristofferR 7y ago
    To be fair, the point of loaf is exactly that, to be unhealthy, white and tasteless. It's great for pan-fried toast with cheese and kids who only want to taste the jam.
  - atombender 7y ago
    "Loff" is terrible! I didn't even like it as a kid. To be sure, not all Norwegian bread is great, I was really speaking about the general difference in the availability of good bread.

The majority of Americans get their bread from the grocery store, and by the time they eat it it’s probably several days if not weeks old. It is true that you can get extremely high quality fresh bread from a bakery (or even bakeries inside grocery stores) but that isn’t really part of the culture and good quality bread is usually considered an occasional treat.

lazyasciiart 7y ago
“People don’t usually buy it” is a different claim to “it is totally unavailable”.
- shantly 7y ago
  A baguette in my Midwestern city close to as good as a standard Parisian corner store baguette is like $6. You can get some that are "good" but in fact way worse than the real deal for $4-5. Approach the 2 Euro baguette in price and we're talking something that's so much worse it's unrecognizable. Pastries have a similar ~2x markup and are still usually not quite as good as the norm there even at the high end of the price range. IDK what it is that makes decent baked goods so expensive here. We grow all the wheat, FFS. Apparently kinda halfway knowing how to produce a plain-ass croissant that is somewhat reminiscent of an actual croissant is rare and expensive knowledge around here. We flat-out cannot produce affordable baked goods & bread that aren't fairly bad, it seems—simply not-bad is luxury priced here, and you may have to drive a ways to get it. [EDIT] and this bleeds over into anything requiring bread, like a sandwich. If you buy one out and it's not quite expensive, it will for sure be using pretty bad bread and there'll be a fairly low cap on how good it might be. [EDIT EDIT] toss in the fact that decent or better cheese is more expensive here, and the sandwich situation is downright dire.
com2kid 7y ago
> The majority of Americans get their bread from the grocery store, and by the time they eat it it’s probably several days if not weeks old. Every grocery store near me has giant signs advertising fresh baked bread. Buying bread in plastic bags isn't necessary. Heck when I was a poor college student I'd buy fresh baked 6 inch sandwich rolls, IIRC they were 6 for $2 or $3.
- Moru 7y ago
  Is it bake-off or real bread baked at the store?
  - chipotle_coyote 7y ago
    While I'm sure that depends on the store, many supermarkets I'm aware of -- including Safeway out here in Silicon Valley and Publix in Florida, where I grew up -- have in-store bakeries.
    - reaperducer 7y ago
      One of the chain supermarkets I go to has a big sign announcing the time the next batch of fresh bread will come out of the oven. So, yes, in spite of the typical HN US-bashing, fresh bread is available in America.
      - com2kid 7y ago
        This isn't even mentioning: 1. The chain of Brazilian bakeries around me 2. The fresh bread loaves baked at multiple larger Asian grocery stores. 3. The awesome Vietnamese bakery that sends out fresh baguettes daily. 4. The multiple dedicated Japanese bakeries making fresh bread. 5. The multiple dedicated Chinese bakeries making fresh loaves of bread. 6. The multiple local American bakeries that deliver fresh bread to area grocery stores every day. Actually, after making that list, I am kind of shocked at how large the market is for fresh baked bread...
        7y ago

lotsofpulp 7y ago

The bread in America is garbage compared to Europe.

shawnlower2 7y ago
Best not to conflate all bread in America with Wonder Bread. We have bakeries that actually choose to make a quality product, and it's available in (edit: grocery stores in) most cities. Many Americans simply choose to optimize for cost. The bread in Copenhagen was fantastic, though.
- naravara 7y ago
  Having to go to speciality bakeries to get good bread is a different thing than just having it available in every corner market and whatever the bodega equivalent is.
  - chipotle_coyote 7y ago
    But you don't have to go to a specialty bakery to get good fresh bread. I can get Acme Bread at nearly any grocery store in the San Francisco Bay Area -- and lest someone (fairly) say, "Yes, but that's the Bay Area," anyone who grew up in the southern US probably knows Publix, the biggest grocery store in that region, is justifiably famous for their in-store baked breads. I think there's sometimes a tendency among Europeans in particular to write off all American food as being essentially the same as the most iconically awful brands we have over here: Wonder bread, Velveeta cheese, Hershey's milk chocolate, Bud Light beer. And that's just not true. I'm sort of inspired by Vox's article on the "boring lunch" here to start packing simple sandwiches again, which I haven't done in years. If I do, I'm probably going to be able to get pretty good bread, butter, cheese, and meats -- they're just not that hard to get here.
    - naravara 7y ago
      The difference is that when I lived in Florida I was going grocery shopping at Publix once a week or so. I tended to buy in bulk and prioritized shelf life. I now live in the downtown part of a walkable city and I tend to buy staples every other day or every 3 days because I can just drop in on my way home from work. Having the good stuff suffusing your daily life rather than being a specific thing you need to go get makes a difference in your relationship to the food. It’s just easier. It’s not a decision you make, it becomes a default thing you get.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

atombender 7y ago

Norwegian living the U.S. here. It's pretty different when you consider the average supermarket. The breads you get in your average American supermarket (Giant, Safeway, Shoprite and so on) are either the pre-sliced, packaged kind, which are largely flavourless and full of preservatives and sugar, or the stuff in the bakery section, which tend to be Italian-style white bread rolls, bagels and so on. You can find better bread — and sometimes very, very good bread — in many bakeries, or in high-end grocery stores like Whole Food, at farmer's markets, and so on. But it's not the norm. Scandinavian supermarkets generally don't have separate bread and bakery sections. There's just a bread section [1], where you'll find all freshly made bread. The whole grain content is very high, and the breads feel rustic and wholesome overall. You'll be able to find plain wheat bread and French baguettes, but these are the exception. You'll also find some pre-packaged breads, but they are typically sold specifically for their longevity. While I can get great bread in the U.S. if I seek it out, I still miss the easy availability of good bread, and I feel bad for all those who think that pre-sliced package bread is all there is. [1] https://bdn-norge.no/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/grovhet.png https://bdn-norge.no/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/grovhet.png [2] https://www.polarbrod.se/no/vare-brod/havre/ https://www.polarbrod.se/no/vare-brod/havre/

tallanvor 7y ago
I just want to point out that you can get very horrible bread in Norway as well. In the image you link to, you have Loff at the bottom left of the screen. That stuff is even more tasteless than the average American bread. It also gets more prominent placement, at least from what I've seen in Oslo grocery stores.
- kristofferR 7y ago
  To be fair, the point of loaf is exactly that, to be unhealthy, white and tasteless. It's great for pan-fried toast with cheese and kids who only want to taste the jam.
- atombender 7y ago
  "Loff" is terrible! I didn't even like it as a kid. To be sure, not all Norwegian bread is great, I was really speaking about the general difference in the availability of good bread.