3 ms·

You're right, I forgot about the cheese shops, because in France I wouldn't have to go out of my way to find good cheese. But, "Bread is indistinguishable"? WA

You're right, I forgot about the cheese shops, because in France I wouldn't have to go out of my way to find good cheese. But, "Bread is indistinguishable"? WAT? Really? I guess we have different tastes. Other than some sourdough there is no bread I've had that I like in SF. That definitely varies by country in Europe. Hard to find good bread in Germany and some of those northern countries have their interesting breads that are an acquired taste I have yet to acquire. My impression of fish in SF, LA, Seattle, NYC, Baltimore, is it's not close to France and Japan. The selection is small, the quality mediocre. Maybe like cheese there's some speciality shops I'm forgetting.

MrJohz 4y ago
> Hard to find good bread in Germany This sounds like a wild claim to me - the Germans must be the most passionate people about bread that I've ever met. Every time I talk to Germans who've lived abroad, they bring up the poor quality of bread that they experienced. Sometimes just a visit will do - Germans who've visited the US usually have a horror story or two about the sweet brioche-like loaves. Our neighbours visited recently and it must have been the second or third thing they mentioned about their visit...
hef19898 4y ago
>> Hard to find good bread in Germany Well, that can o ly be because our bakers are opening shop in the UK and tge US then. Arguably bread quality decreased considerably in Germany so. Mostly due to the fact that big chains dominate the bakery market. Same goes for local butcher shops. German bread still beats, say, Italian bread on average. And don't get me started on what passes as bread in the UK or Scandinavia, even if those countries improved a lot.
enos-ape 4y ago
> Hard to find good bread in Germany Must be a different Germany in a different Universe.. Back in Germany anybody who (realy) cares about bread wouldn't even think about buying those mass-baked chemicals from the stores. For bread you go to a craft bakery which you can find everywhere - if you don't just look for around the neighborhood of the big Supermarkets. And in those magical craft bakeries you'll find it hard not to buy anything at once, but at least a good dark, handmade in the night before, bread. I've been around quite a bit, it's hard to find something comparable to a German or Central European dark bread enywhere else.
- Leherenn 4y ago
  I feel there are two schools of bread in (Western) Europe: the French and German one. The French love bread with a thick, crunchy crust, whereas the classic German dark bread rarely have such a crust.
  - ginko 4y ago
    ??? Of course German bread has a thick crispy crust. If anything it's the Anglo box shaped bread which is soft and doesn't have a proper crust.
cycomanic 4y ago
> Hard to find good bread in Germany and some of those northern countries have their interesting breads that are an acquired taste I have yet to acquire. As others have said that's the most hilarious claim I've read in a long time. Unless you like "toast bread", i.e. white, sliced bread in plastic bags that typically taste like card board, Germany is probably the place with the widest variety of bread types and with the people who feel the most strongly about bread. Also if you search for high quality bread in any other country, you almost always find that the bakery is run by some German immigrant (my experience in NZ, OZ, Sweden).
jandrewrogers 4y ago
The fish in Japan is excellent but much of it isn't native. It comes from somewhere else, frequently the Gulf of Alaska, the product of which is available fresh in Seattle without sitting on a boat for a trans-Pacific journey. Asia pays top dollar for it though, so they get a lot of it. But here? It is where they got it from, it is big business. The quality of sushi in Seattle is somewhat famous, not only the myriad local sources but its direct access to the entire Pacific Rim. I wouldn't have to go out of my way to find good cheese in many parts of the US. It isn't the 1980s, the median availability is similar to the median availability in most of Europe, here in 2022. You seem to be fencing with stereotypes instead of reality. I don't have a dog in this fight but (1) I spend a lot of time, and have spent a lot of time, all over the world and (2) I eat absolutely everything everywhere and in particular investigate their food markets. I'm not guessing about what is and isn't available to the average person in various places, I actually shop in those markets. Every place has their local specialties, and some places in Europe really do go above and beyond, like northern Spain. But the quality and availability has radically converged in my lifetime for everyone. Americans are not benighted or some such, their markets are quite good this days. The fact that ordinary suburban US supermarkets routinely carry hundreds of cheeses from all over the world is quite a change from decades ago. The actual cheese shops just specialize in obscure cheeses that minimally intersect with the ones the supermarkets carry. All that aside, Americans have amazing produce. That and beef are two things they do exceptionally well by any standard. I've never been able to get anything comparable in Europe.

MrJohz 4y ago

> Hard to find good bread in Germany This sounds like a wild claim to me - the Germans must be the most passionate people about bread that I've ever met. Every time I talk to Germans who've lived abroad, they bring up the poor quality of bread that they experienced. Sometimes just a visit will do - Germans who've visited the US usually have a horror story or two about the sweet brioche-like loaves. Our neighbours visited recently and it must have been the second or third thing they mentioned about their visit...

hef19898 4y ago

>> Hard to find good bread in Germany Well, that can o ly be because our bakers are opening shop in the UK and tge US then. Arguably bread quality decreased considerably in Germany so. Mostly due to the fact that big chains dominate the bakery market. Same goes for local butcher shops. German bread still beats, say, Italian bread on average. And don't get me started on what passes as bread in the UK or Scandinavia, even if those countries improved a lot.

enos-ape 4y ago

> Hard to find good bread in Germany Must be a different Germany in a different Universe.. Back in Germany anybody who (realy) cares about bread wouldn't even think about buying those mass-baked chemicals from the stores. For bread you go to a craft bakery which you can find everywhere - if you don't just look for around the neighborhood of the big Supermarkets. And in those magical craft bakeries you'll find it hard not to buy anything at once, but at least a good dark, handmade in the night before, bread. I've been around quite a bit, it's hard to find something comparable to a German or Central European dark bread enywhere else.

Leherenn 4y ago
I feel there are two schools of bread in (Western) Europe: the French and German one. The French love bread with a thick, crunchy crust, whereas the classic German dark bread rarely have such a crust.
- ginko 4y ago
  ??? Of course German bread has a thick crispy crust. If anything it's the Anglo box shaped bread which is soft and doesn't have a proper crust.

cycomanic 4y ago

> Hard to find good bread in Germany and some of those northern countries have their interesting breads that are an acquired taste I have yet to acquire. As others have said that's the most hilarious claim I've read in a long time. Unless you like "toast bread", i.e. white, sliced bread in plastic bags that typically taste like card board, Germany is probably the place with the widest variety of bread types and with the people who feel the most strongly about bread. Also if you search for high quality bread in any other country, you almost always find that the bakery is run by some German immigrant (my experience in NZ, OZ, Sweden).

jandrewrogers 4y ago

The fish in Japan is excellent but much of it isn't native. It comes from somewhere else, frequently the Gulf of Alaska, the product of which is available fresh in Seattle without sitting on a boat for a trans-Pacific journey. Asia pays top dollar for it though, so they get a lot of it. But here? It is where they got it from, it is big business. The quality of sushi in Seattle is somewhat famous, not only the myriad local sources but its direct access to the entire Pacific Rim. I wouldn't have to go out of my way to find good cheese in many parts of the US. It isn't the 1980s, the median availability is similar to the median availability in most of Europe, here in 2022. You seem to be fencing with stereotypes instead of reality. I don't have a dog in this fight but (1) I spend a lot of time, and have spent a lot of time, all over the world and (2) I eat absolutely everything everywhere and in particular investigate their food markets. I'm not guessing about what is and isn't available to the average person in various places, I actually shop in those markets. Every place has their local specialties, and some places in Europe really do go above and beyond, like northern Spain. But the quality and availability has radically converged in my lifetime for everyone. Americans are not benighted or some such, their markets are quite good this days. The fact that ordinary suburban US supermarkets routinely carry hundreds of cheeses from all over the world is quite a change from decades ago. The actual cheese shops just specialize in obscure cheeses that minimally intersect with the ones the supermarkets carry. All that aside, Americans have amazing produce. That and beef are two things they do exceptionally well by any standard. I've never been able to get anything comparable in Europe.