Bread and Water- Questions?

True or False?-The best bread I ever had in the USA is not as good as the worst bread I have had in Europe. (Small hyperbole!)

Where did you have the best bread?

Sin gas or con gas?

I really like Vichy Catalan, plain or mixed. I once had a Bourbon and soda with it and it was heavenly!

Bread: True
Best bread: an Artesean panaderia in San Se
Sin gas: with a meal
Con gas: any other time...I like Gaseosa

Very True!!
Best Bread: A panaderia beneath my host family's piso in Granada!
Always con gas!

Bread: False - there are a lot of great artesan breadmakers in Seattle and San Francisco areas. I have had some truly terrible bread in Spain. Yes, it's true - I don't really care for the bread in Spain! Especially the bocadillo bread - why is it so dry? I've had many bocadillos, in many different places, so it isn't a question of "try a different place".

However - I haven't been anywhere else in Europe besides Spain (and London, if that counts) so I can't say if the worst bread in France or Italy is better than the best bread in the States. I'm guessing: still false.

Water: Always sin gas and room temperature.

To "That-Girl"
Maybe YOUR dry and WITH gas!!
You obviously haven't had bread in Europe and NO London does not count as Europe.
By extention folks, the butter, the milk, the cheese, the meat etc is far superior in Europe. Here in North America, we spread Crisco on our bread and think its great butter, we eat (growth hormone injected) steak that differs little (I would imagine)in taste and texture of an eraser and say mmmmmm.

Interesting thread!

The best bread in Spain imo is Galician bread! ¡Que delicioso! I also love Italian, German, French, American, English, Hawaiian, I just love bread!

Con gas!

Hi, it is almost pointless to say so, but the bread in Spain generally is not nearly as good as it was in the 1960's. Lasst year I talked aout this with a cousin who is a baker, he says that that is very true, and blames certain agricultural/production changes. Nowadays, I prefer my own bread, when I get around to it, lol, and a wicked close second best is found at the panadería downstairs from my piso - in Spain of course.

I have had some great bread in many areas of Spain and some very unexciting bread. I hunted in many corners and had trouble finding good bread in Sevilla. While staying with a Sevillan friend at her house in the country, we had some great bread and she confirmed that good bread is hard to find in Sevilla. Not to say that Spain doesn't have some terrific bread. I'm just not a fan of the cottony type. Majorca has a really beautiful unique type of rustic unsalted bread. It is used in their very thick vegetable soup and is to die for.

Although I haven't been everywhere in Europe, by far the best bread I have had was just about anywhere in France, bar none (I am a former professional baker). Here it is very uneven. Once in a while I get some really good, fresh bread, but usually it is so-so. I always heard that Spain had the best bakers. In the north (Pais Vasco and north of Barcelona) the food is much influenced by the French, and is much better than anywhere else. Truth is, I don't much care for Spainish food, or wine, especially after dining with friends who live in Bordeaux.

As for water, what's that? We drink wine with meals.

I guess I am spoiled. Only a few miles from is a boulangerie and patisserie, owned by a real french family. Their baugettes are just as good as any I have eaten in France. And their lemon tarts are to die for!

And even the mass-produced bread in Spain is good... at least for a laugh. One of the leading brands is called "Bimbo" (for you Spanish speakers, in English that means "golfona"). I cracked up the first time I saw that printed on the side of a delivery truck.

I beg to differ with the meat in Spain/Europe being better. That's straight up wacked. Dude, the meat there overall doesn't compare to here. Maybe it's different in Canada, but in the U.S., where the beef is grain fed and has a much more abundant grazing resource, it's way more tender than the grass fed, tough 'ternera' meat I ate in Spain. And what they try to pass as 'hamburguesas' in Spain made me sick. They can't pull it off.

I know many of you will retort simply because "anything/everything in Europe is vastly superior to anything in the U.S." I agree about some things, but not others, and meat ain't one of'em. Not by a long shot.

By the way, bottled water is bottled water. And the quality of bread is only as good as the ingredients and bakers; it knows no nationality.

The thing with the water is that in Madrid the tap water comes from the mountains and is almost like the mineral water. It's not the same in all Spanish towns.
About the meat there are different kinds & qualities, depends on the price or the place, also with the hamburgers, although these are normally very bad quality.

I have had fabulous breads in Spain and other places in Europe, but I would have to say that they are not any better than the best breads in some of my favorite bakeries in America. I can even find a really great baguette here in Ames, Iowa, because I know where to look. However, you get what you pay for, and a really amazing baguette is going to cost about $3 (even more at my favorite bakeries in Minneapolis/St. Paul). The thing is, you can't usually find great breads in the USA at a grocery store--you have to go to specialty bakeries and even then, it's trial and error. Some bakeries sell spongy, awful stuff and call it bread, while others use the BEST ingredients and produce breads even Europeans would enjoy (I have a French friend who swears by some of the bakery bread here in the U.S.).

Meat, well, you can't tell an Iowan about finding tender pork elsewhere--people here think they have a monopoly on the stuff (and it IS really good--particularly the thick cuts of pork chops this state is famous for--an inch thick and really tender). My experience with beef is mixed--but as I like steaks done medium rare, I prefer it here in the states. Most of the meat I have had in Spain is overcooked, to my taste.

Water--SIN gas, always. I sneeze when I drink the other stuff.

Funny thread!

Is that supposed to be humorous?

Well, maybe I am a bit dry, but I think the question was something like "the worst bread in Europe is better than the best bread in America", which I find false. Obviously you have never had artisan bread in any restaurant or bakery in San Francisco. I'm not trying to be a snob though, really! I am just saying that I have had better bread here than most that I ate in Spain - maybe that is just my luck...

No one has mentioned Cuban bread!

Well to add my $.02, as far as meat (beef) is concerned I didn't have anything memorable but nothing horrible either, except for one instance in Guadalajara, when I had an oxen steak. In another instance, what I did try (ordered well done), was still mooing. I was told by my Spanish dinner companions that if you don't want to see blood, have them butterfly the meat.

IMHO the best cuts of beef can be enjoyed in Argentinian restaurants or in specialty steakhouses here stateside. But I also think that every developed country in the world has the best and the worst of food. One just has to look hard enough and will be redeemed! I don't think you could find a great sirloin burger in Spain ... but then you woulnd't find suckling pig here like they cook it in Segovia. So let's celebrate our differences!

Con gas y con vino!

Churro

The only superior beef I have come across in Spain is entrecot or chuleton served Galician style. They sear the outside, leave the inside completely raw, slice it and send out a very HOT terra cotta or metal plate so you can cook it yourself. Accompanied by copious amounts of sal gordo, it is delicious!