I thank you for the blog-post length reply and I am sorry I triggered that with my simple question in disguise. I knew it was hard to answer.
It is funny that you specifically mentioned the bread. I go a fair bit between Austria, Spain, Greece, the UK and all around Asia.
We have a lot of really dark and heavy bread in Austria. Austrian bread frequently incorporates a variety of whole grains, including rye, spelt and whole wheat. Darker, denser loaves like Roggenbrot (rye bread) and Dinkelbrot (spelt bread) are the norm here. Austrian bread is typically made with just flour, water, salt, and natural leavening (sourdough or yeast).
I didn't ask you the question to gleam with that, am I'm apologizing in advance if its coming through like this. My point is the additives. And it might get back to that Fanta-to-Fanta comparison, but with so many other products, many American store-bought breads contain added sugar or high-fructose corn syrup, whereas Austrian breads rarely do.
I also think that a lot of additives or chemicals are simply banned in the EU leading to a lower shelf life of products, but generally more natural products. Like Potassium Bromate, ADA, BHA & BHT etc which are banned in the EU. Together with the corn syrup found seldom in eupean products, or Austrian.
Spain and Greece have less of the black and dark breads, but that movement is slowly coming. Spain has a lot of really really really great food, and very high quality.
Asia is a different story. There are some artisanal bakeries popping up in places like Hongkong, Singapore, Thailands larger cities, Malaysia etc. But in general, stores have these softy loafs of what we call toast bread. But then, they don't eat a lot of bread :)
Not sure where I'm going with this, if at all anywhere, next time you come to europe, try some of our bread.
It is funny that you specifically mentioned the bread. I go a fair bit between Austria, Spain, Greece, the UK and all around Asia.
We have a lot of really dark and heavy bread in Austria. Austrian bread frequently incorporates a variety of whole grains, including rye, spelt and whole wheat. Darker, denser loaves like Roggenbrot (rye bread) and Dinkelbrot (spelt bread) are the norm here. Austrian bread is typically made with just flour, water, salt, and natural leavening (sourdough or yeast).
I didn't ask you the question to gleam with that, am I'm apologizing in advance if its coming through like this. My point is the additives. And it might get back to that Fanta-to-Fanta comparison, but with so many other products, many American store-bought breads contain added sugar or high-fructose corn syrup, whereas Austrian breads rarely do.
I also think that a lot of additives or chemicals are simply banned in the EU leading to a lower shelf life of products, but generally more natural products. Like Potassium Bromate, ADA, BHA & BHT etc which are banned in the EU. Together with the corn syrup found seldom in eupean products, or Austrian.
Spain and Greece have less of the black and dark breads, but that movement is slowly coming. Spain has a lot of really really really great food, and very high quality.
Asia is a different story. There are some artisanal bakeries popping up in places like Hongkong, Singapore, Thailands larger cities, Malaysia etc. But in general, stores have these softy loafs of what we call toast bread. But then, they don't eat a lot of bread :)
Not sure where I'm going with this, if at all anywhere, next time you come to europe, try some of our bread.