America...your bread sucks.

[jojo_gee 8]

I like your words. I really try to buy local fresh food when I can. If I ate meat, I can assure you I would NEVER buy my meat in the supermarket. I really hope the way the world mass produces food in the worst possible way will change. If everyone made an effort to go out of their way to shop at their local butcher, fishmonger, bakery, fruit n veg shop...we'd all be healthier and supermarkets wouldn't be so super anymore.

Edited March 24, 2010 by jojo_gee

[woki1986 1]

It can be hard to shop locally sometimes. Partly because of availability of what you want and also the increased cost of the products that you're looking for - they sometimes have to increase their markup to compete with supermarkets.

(I know that they can also drive prices down, but that doesn't always work.)

[Vivi6 12]

I knowwww I'm Italian so I am in SERIOUS trouble with this bread #######! I'm gonna start making my own...the sugar is everywhere and I have the feeling that sooner or later it will alter my taste buds! anyways have you noticed how sweet pizza dough is too? I don't get it how they seriously don't understand how bad all those preservatives and HFCS are...

And about shopping locally in small places...oh, how I miss my farmer's markets, bakeries, butcher and fishmongers...It's definitely a little expensive to eat healthy here--but to me it's totally worth it so I'm trying to do everything I can(even if it means becoming obsessed with reading labels of everything I buy!!! )

[woki1986 1]

Label watching might be the way forward. You learn a lot more about what you're eating when you see what's in something. (It's a bit hypocritical of me to say this, as I don't check either.) In terms of calories and everything that's not too bad. I have been paying a little bit more attention to that lately but I think I'll have to look even more so because of the extra content in the food there.

[Gemmie 142]

Last night we went to the local Stop&Shop and in their bakery they had European Crusty Rolls... for just 65 cents per roll!

HAPPY!!

[Amyyduck 20]

Blame the government! (generally my go-to place to lay blame) But seriously, the US government subsidizes corn farmers making corn the most prevalent crop in America. They had to come up with some way to use it all so they started putting it in EVERYTHING! Almost all non-perishables contain HFCS or some other corn byproduct. Think you can escape it by cutting into a nice juicy steak? Try again, the livestock here is all corn-fed as well. It's inescapable and there is substantial proof that as corn production has increased, so has the nation's waistline.

This is a pretty good article if you're interested in reading more. http://st4tic.wordpress.com/2008/04/25/corn-subsidies-how-congress-is-shortchanging-our-health-and-sweetening-things-for-the-food-industry/

[K and L 27]

Dude, I went to the Safeway here, and everywhere I turned, it was "contains now HFCS" this and "contains no HFCS" that. Including the bread! We'll see how it tastes ...

[tmma 467]

Haven't read the whole thread--but the bread here is horrid; I buy the High Fructose Corn Syrup free bread. It still kind of sucks but not as bad. Getting a bread machine too!

[4lovewelive 0]

We just discovered Earth Fare organic stores. They are amazing. Everything is HFCS free and the bread is delicious. Yes, it is more expensive than regular stores but it is worth it. Plus, they have sales on certain things every now and then so you can find stuff cheaper than Walmart. A jar of peanut butter with no hydrogenated oil is 3.29. A box of cereals HFCS free is about the same price. You can find thousands of products and they are all so fresh and taste so good. They got cooked food, they got their own bakery, plus you can taste most of the products.

And one more thing. They got this thing right now, called pantry make-over. You have to download the coupon on their website and bring unhealthy stuff that you got home (if you got any). They will take cereals, soda, jelly, salad dressing (or barbecue sauce or ketchup) with HFCS and peanut butter with hydrogenated oils and give you healthy options in return. All free. You gotta try it!

[Bernie C 24]

Blame the government! (generally my go-to place to lay blame) But seriously, the US government subsidizes corn farmers making corn the most prevalent crop in America. They had to come up with some way to use it all so they started putting it in EVERYTHING! Almost all non-perishables contain HFCS or some other corn byproduct. Think you can escape it by cutting into a nice juicy steak? Try again, the livestock here is all corn-fed as well. It's inescapable and there is substantial proof that as corn production has increased, so has the nation's waistline.

This is a pretty good article if you're interested in reading more. http://st4tic.wordpress.com/2008/04/25/corn-subsidies-how-congress-is-shortchanging-our-health-and-sweetening-things-for-the-food-industry/

But there is nothing better than nice fresh juicy sweet corn, pit roasted and dipped in melted butter hehe. I ate 18 ears at last summers corn roast party and think I'll go for 22 this summer

[jimnlena 8]

Go the bread machine route!! It will take a month or so of experiments, but bread makes it worth it!!

[Gemmie 142]

My bread smelled of paint this morning.

[FrostyMist 1]

I learned during my previous trip to America in September 08 that the bread is nasty.

I've been here on my K1 since April 12th, and like most people in this topic, I've come to accept that I'm just not going to find good tasting store brought bread.

Luckily for me (I guess) I wasn't a massive bread eater to begin with, so the loss hasn't been too big a blow. But I do miss decent sandwiches. My fiance and I tend to buy hamburger and hot dogs buns, which seems to make things tolerable.

Of course, you know how it is: the minute you can't have something, you want it! So I've had a bit of a craving for bread since I got here!

Once I get settled, I'll probably dedicate more effort to finding some sort of solution to my bread problem. At the moment, there just isn't the time. My fiance told me yesterday that there's a local bakery, so we'll aim to give them a try at some point. I might also try finding somewhere online to order from.

Edited May 24, 2010 by FrostyMist

[ghanagal 2]

Quit complaining and bake your own,

Quit complaining and bake your own,

Quit complaining and bake your own,

[KaiserD 12]

Brits love to complain

It's true though, I'm a cr!p cook and I make pizza bases and bread all the time. I love making bread twists it reminds me of harvest festival in my village.

Like other people said you can control what goes in it, which is really important in salt content! I use considerably less than the recipe calls for and it comes out fine. You can use the quick rise or the natural yeast depending on how long you're gonna be at home and with American cup measurements you don't spend long messing around with scales. Just make sure you use bread (strong) flour.

There are a million recipes on the internet