I have found that Bread is a distinctly European obsession. My American partner just doesn’t get it, nor do my Asian and African friends.
It’s so satisfying to have a giant sandwich with meat veg and cheese or indeed just bread fresh from the oven dripping with butter. It’s the most versatile thing imaginable and it’s made from fucking grass!
Ok like Indians make a lot of bread, but it tends to be various types of flat bread. Don’t get me wrong I’ll demolish a peshwari naan in about 3.76 seconds but it’s not as versatile as a good crusty loaf.
You just have the wrong Asian friend. You ever have pineapple bun? No it doesn’t have pineapple.
Most of the time it comes with nothing inside it. The crust itself is the tastiest thing, but there are variations, like a big slice of butter, or embedded red bean paste.
The recipes I’ve seen all use egg, milk and sugar, so I’d argue that they’re closer to cake than bread. But it looks fucking tasty and I will be making them soon.
Americans will understand if you use a more specific word for the type of bread, instead of just “bread”, as that makes them think of prepackaged sliced bread.
I started making my own sourdough bread during COVID because for a while there they didn’t have bread or yeast at the grocery stores. I love the fact that the ingredients are just flour, water, salt and starter (which itself is just flour and water and the yeastie beasties). The yeast all dies during cooking and the water is essentially cooked out of it, so sourdough bread is really just flour altered into a really funky form with a bit of salt. I like the added thought that even the flour is just ground-up grass.
I do not have the patience for sourdough. My favourite bread is probably something along the lines of chleb lwowski or the Finnish hard bread Ruisreikäleipä which is rye bread with caraway seeds. It’ll fuck up your gums, but it’s really tasty.
As a French dude from North of France myself I can only say that Champagne is totally overrated. It’s basically white wine that is bottled with a spoon of cane sugar syrup and then fermented again. I’d rather drink red wine, or cider when I’m in the mood for bubbles (I fucking love cider). And of course, beer.
In the end it’s a matter of taste but I personally prefer true Champagne Brut and Extra Brut as they offer a more dry mineral flavor, compared to other Champagne like beverages.
But as a French I think it’s really important to respect the idea of “terroir”. I’m Ok with using champagnisation process to create Champagne like beverages, but Champagne is Champagne, from the French region of Champagne.
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