Who "needs" Bread?

[Rien]

Pardon me in advance if I get a little bit abstract or theoretical ... seemingly too far from the real subject of bread. The more I've moved and travelled the more I've attempted to understand the character of people through their foods, their markets, their rituals of preparing, of eating. Some cultures, often densely urban and relatively poor, offer a mosaic of streetfoods; others neglect breakfast in favor of extravagant mid-day meals and late dinners eaten late, comprised of an assortment of small bites; and so on. Every culture, perhaps with the exception of those that have an abundant supply of cheap meat, rely on a grain as their staple. What this grain is impacts culture significantly ... I think it was in The Revolution of Everyday Life that the French historian Fernand Braudel connected the staple grain to systems of governance and cultural production. Simply put, it's much easier to build monumental architecture when you have corn because you can get a lot of calories without a lot of energy input. Rice, on the other hand, takes more labor input. China, of course, got around this with raw numbers, but I digress.

The root of "companion" in "pan" has always resonated with me. But, what I was getting at in the previour ramble, is that some cultures, though they have a staple grain, don't always have bread. Their staple, however, brings them great comfort. A bowl of rice for many Japanese people has the same connotations as a loaf of bread. Your statement that "there's something so intrinsically satisfying about dough with something on it" got me thinking in this vein. What is that intrinsic satisfaction? How does the satisfaction of bread as a staple compare to others? With your research, have you looked into this? What component if physiological, what is mental, what is cultural? The physiological and mental components make me think of research into what "umami" is and how it "works." Bread is obviously working on a very different principle - often as the backdrop for umami. There is something "ambient" about its pleasures.

The last component of this overstuffed message: why do some places within the bread eating world seem to care so much more about bread than others? For example, I currently live in Chicago and it seems not to be a great town for bread. There is good bread here, but it is not abundant. On the other hand, I've had friends from Montreal tell me that great bread is readily available there in many varieties (for the sake of my point, let's assume this is true). Is this just about supply - there are no good bakers making bread there and making great bread isn't easy - or is it about demand - people are happy with what they've got and their not willing to pay $4 + for a loaf? If it's the latter, is consumer malaise underminind our "intrinsic" love of great bread?

Whoo. Thanks for participating. As a lover of great bread that's ventured very little into baking, your generous responses and the passion exhibited thus far have inspired me to take up flour and yeast in the near future.

Ciao,

rien