The Quest For Good Bread

I survived a week of camping and being away from the Internet so I thought I would make a triumphant return to blogging by writing about one of my favorite topics: Bread. I really like bread. There is obviously something good about it if it's referred to as "the staff of life".

When I was 9 years old, I lived in Vienna for six months and every morning for breakfast I'd have warm rolls that I think were called semmeln with jam and hot chocolate. The bread was so much better than anything I had ever eaten before and I never got tired of it. Before I start giving too much credit to the Europeans you have to remember that they also came up with the abomination know as blutbrot (blood bread). When we came back to the States, I returned to eating the usual slices of boring plain white bread.

My Dad has always been into healthy food. When he would buy bread he would always get dense wheat breads that were so heavy they required burly bag boys to carry them out to the car for him. He was also into more exotic breads like pumpernickel and rye, but I never cared for their strong after taste.

I lived in Chile for a while and despite the lower standard of living I often encountered, they sure knew what they were doing when it came to making bread. It seemed like there was a panaderia on every street which sold several varieties of fresh bread. I spent many meals reveling in the simple yet perfect trio of bread, butter, and jam.

My wife makes homemade bread and it always smells good, tastes better, and is more filling than a loaf of bread from the store. The only draw back is that it's hard to slice very thin. I'd still rather have a sandwich made of thick bread that I have to stretch my jaws to eat like a snake, rather than eat regular flavorless store bought bread.

Some days I crave good bread and I can't believe how lame most of the bread you find in the grocery store is. Especially the cheap white stuff like Wonder bread. It is more like a hollow counterfeit version of bread that mocks me. It reminds me of the scene in The Little Mermaid when Ursula takes on the image of a brunette Ariel. She looks beautiful and sounds like her until she reveals her true ugly self. That may not be the best analogy but I have felt deceived with the plain white bread much like Prince Eric must have felt when he realized he wasn't getting what he had expected.

I have learned the hard way that if you want good bread you have to pay the price and fork out the extra money or make it yourself.