As a teenager my husband could finish an entire baguette in one sitting, as part of his meal. Now he's older and less voracious but still eats an astonishing amount overall (just ask our weekly grocery bill!). But I chalk that up to his being French. He'd probably say the same thing about me and rice.
Thankfully the ubiquitous traditional French baguette often satisfies the bread cravings in our household (which includes two growing boys). Occasionally, we'll pick up a Pain de Campagne or Brioche. So as Bread Profiles go, generally we straddle the line between Authentics and Bipolars. What on earth am I talking about, you ask...
According to Abdu Gnaba (Anthropologie des mangeurs de pain) who was featured in the French blog L'Art de Manger by Ariane Grumbach, French bread eaters can be loosely profiled based on how we consume du pain. The list below is not exhaustive. So which one(s) are you:
- The Authentic - You are attached to tradition. Always have bread with structured meals. In general, you consume the traditional loaf or baguette.
- The Bipolar - Trapped between respect of the tradition and the desire for novelty, you choose between the baguette and specialty breads.
- The Out of Sync - Not a large-scale bread consumer and rather indifferent to food consumption in general. You turn to the most basic baguette or factory-baked bread.
- The Wanderer - Bread is not a pillar of your feeding. You tend to replace bread by its equivalents, like pizza - but possibly to the detriment of nutritional balance. You are more likely to have an industrial bread loaf in your cupboard than to pass by a bakery.
- The Hedonist - In search of pleasure surrounding bread (as you undoubtedly do with other foods). You're always ready to taste new breads to satisfy your curiosity. Surely a good customer of specialty breads and artisanal baguettes.
- The Nomad - You have a hurried rhythm so bread must fit into your lifestyle. You are undoubtedly a customer of sandwiches more so than the familiar baguette.
More Bread reads:
The Best Baguette in Paris - [BBC, May 2012]
The 10 Best Baguettes in America - [Bon Appétit, May 2012]
20 Great American Bread Bakeries - [Saveur, May 2012]
Catherine finally nice to see your lovely message, the theme is very relevant .. perhaps I'm not a big consumer of bread, but in my family love the prints.
ReplyDeleteThank you, my dear :)
Thank you for stopping by Valentina :) Do you have a staple starch in your diet (like bread and rice in ours) ...
DeleteYes, sometimes I eat brown rice, buckwheat flakes, rye, oats .. just try not to eat those foods in which yeasts.
ReplyDeleteI'm a Nomad bread consumer. I do enjoy buying a specialty loaf from time to time, but it must always be a soft bread. No biscotti for me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your bread profile Christine :) Now that you mention it, I wonder if a baguette sandwich (my favorite kind!) would classify me as a Nomad too... with kids I can certainly relate a hurried rhythm, especially when it comes to eating.
Deletethe price of bread in the range 0.5 euros,
ReplyDeleteLove the list of French bread eaters. I'm probably a bipolar. Still love a good artisan baguette but can't help myself from buying some specialty loaves on the weekend. Awesome blog!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind comments Diane! We seem to have the same bread profile :)
DeleteI am dying over these images and your descriptions, Catherine. I definitely drift towards the hedonist. :)
ReplyDeleteYou're adventurous Charmaine! What a wonderful trait to have, with food.. and life in general :) Merci for sharing.
DeleteThe bread looks so good!
ReplyDeleteI wish I could eat that!