The Unending Search for Bread
Why I am still hungry for good basic bread in the land of cheap wheat
I had never been a bread eater until I came to Western Europe.
I grew up on rice.
The bread was considered a snack, an in-between meal treat, a merienda. My dad admonished us for buying what amounted to ‘as air.’ Light, springy, yet delectably filling as it comes out of the oven. That’s the best part, warm freshly made truly affordable, every man’s bread.
This is the pan de sal, roughly translated as bread of salt. My favourite. It is simply flour, yeast, salt, and oil rolled in bread crumbs before baking in an oven. Today, it is sweeter than what it was. Everything has become sweeter in the Filipino palate as of late.
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This humble bread is the barometer of inflation in the Philippines (or what used to be). Formerly, it cost centavos (from the now ridiculous-sounding 25 centavos in the ’80s) to a whopping 8-10 pesos per piece! It is irrelevant to convert it into Euros or US dollars because the amount is minuscule. The plainest McDonald’s sad-looking hamburger is about 30 pesos or 20-25 pesos, on promo.
Small businesses operate twice a day - 5 am early morning for breakfast, and an afternoon run to meet the 3 to 5 pm snack period before dinner typically at 7 pm. These hours have since changed once traffic has shifted work schedules and people are eating all the time. However, you can rely on catching freshly baked bread around those periods.
When I was a toddler, I would walk to the sari-sari convenience store with my nanny and bring home a brown paper bag with its ends twisted to hold our freshly baked rolls in. It was a thing of beauty.
None of the other breads on the old-fashioned wooden sliding glass counters could tempt me.
For breakfast, the adults often dunked the bread in Americano-style coffee (local arabica beans brewed in a large pot) or Nescafe instant coffee. Or my favourite, eating it just plain or sometimes with butter. It is the perfect blank palette to eat with coconut paste or Filipino-style peanut butter for those with a sweet tooth.
It was accessible, cheap, and filling.
I got hungry just describing it.
You could say my expectations are much higher in the land of wheat (or potatoes).
Suffice it to say, the cheap industrial bread here is king. The Dutch industrial bread including the brown bread looks so enticing. I have been a victim of great looks but with no heft.
If you see Dutch people walking around during lunchtime with a whole plastic bag of these things, it is because you’d need a whole loaf to even reach appeasement levels. These are somewhat cheap at about 1.19 euros for half a bag or about 6 or so pieces. These are pretty tasteless and light. You could easily crush it in your hand and form a ball.
Once, I discovered a good hardy brown bread produced by this specialty bakery in our city centre. We kept buying it twice, sometimes thrice, to show support. It was 20 minutes away by bike, so it was a commitment. It’s about 3.75 euros then for a sourdough seed bread at Bakker van Maanen. For a couple of months, we were good. Until they changed their recipe and reduced something because they now tasted and resembled industrial bread that is too soft with less rye flour or unhusked wheat flour. They removed what gave it great flavour. Now, it just looks good without the heft. At the same price. No, thanks.
It is also the same experience from one of the few French bakery franchises and other bakeries that we have patronised. Including upscale ones that charge like 4 euros for a loaf. They added more cheap white flour and diluted what was once tasty. There’s something about the flour in this country that is tasteless.
We’re back to our industrial reliable bread, that is, the Lidl. Do not balk at Europe’s favourite discount(ish) retailer.
I cannot believe I will be saying that this has more flavour, not by much, but enough to satisfy. Multigrain white and brown flour with seeds. At this price point, about 3 euros, it is about the price I am willing to pay for industrial okay-ish bread. Even if I paid more from speciality shops, the flavour is below this standard. Shocking, but true.
Lidl has good average loaf bread. I know that is redundant to say but in my bread grading score, there is a good average and a below average. A good average is standard with a plus. A good average.
You could say we remain hungry over here. One of our travel objectives is to find good (preferably affordable) bread for the masses.
Or bake pan de sal for me. Here is my friend’s go-to recipe which is on standby. I am afraid to disappoint myself.
P.S. I found this delectable specialist bread store in Gouda years ago behind Sint Janskerk but for the life of me, I could not find it on the maps or online. We were hungry and we only needed this bread to get through lunch. It was amazing. This unicorn is now missing. I will let you know once I find it.
Part 2 Let’s look at the bread in other Western European countries
Come to Paris, dear Melanie, we'll do a bread tour ☺️