I had a bit of a discussion with someone on Reddit a while ago about American bread. They claimed decent bread was available in almost every bakery section of every grocery store. All American bread I remember was full of sugar and preservatives, not just the wonder bread type, but also everything else. Since my memory could be wrong, or one-sided, or perhaps things have changed, I left it at that.
Now I’ve been in the U.S. for over a week and visited at least one grocery store per day (we don’t have reliable access to a fridge so we buy fresh stuff daily). I just cannot find anything close to the fresh bakery section in a Dutch supermarket. And compared to other European countries that isn’t even a particularly high bar.
What I find is either to way too sweet and fluffy/cakey, and nothing even close to the mediocre pre-sliced bread back home. What am I doing wrong?
I’ve tried Aldi, Walmart and a few local(?) chains.
That’s because you’re going to Aldi and Walmart, which cater to the low end and are cheap above all else. Try a regular mid range grocery store like Safeway/Albertsons/Vons and you’ll find a bakery section. But like the other commenter said if you want higher quality you’ll have to go to a higher end grocery store like Whole Foods. Also depending on which part of the country you’re visiting you’ll find huge differences in food quality standards.
I have visited a few other chains as well. Not really the cheap kind either. I’ll see if I can find a whole foods before the end of the trip.
I’m I’ve visited mostly Northeast states so far.
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I only tried that sandwich bread as toast this time around. I know to avoid that already from previous trips.
The thing is that the deli bread didn’t really have anything that was particularly good. It was the same fluffy stuff. Even rolls labeled “kaiser rolls” only looked somewhat like kaiser rolls, but weren’t at all what you’d buy in Germany. No hard crust and I suspect a lot of preservatives because they didn’t go stale that quickly.
The bread I buy at home goes stale within 24 hours if not frozen.
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