THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 1, 1994 TAG: 9411300025
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: The View from Down Under
SOURCE: BY SARAH MISKIN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Sarah Miskin is a Fulbright Professional Exchange Scholar from New Zealand working as a reporter for The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star. She writes occasional stories about her experiences in America.
AFTER SPENDING the first few days of my stay in Norfolk living on coffee and pizza, I decided to hit The Virginian-Pilot's cafeteria in search of some real food.
While some would say workplace cafeterias are not likely to offer such stuff, the Pilot's reporters looked healthy enough for me to take the risk, and I joined the lunchtime queue.
Not wanting a cooked meal, I decided to have a turkey sandwich and opted for rye over white and wheat.
Arriving back at my desk, I called over a workmate as I stared with disbelief at my plate. ``What,'' I inquired, pointing to the bread, ``is that?''
I had discovered the hard way (again) that I should add ``rye'' to my list of words with different meanings in the United States. Here rye seems to be a heavy white bread with caraway seeds; at home it is a dark bread heavy with whole grains and seeds.
Thinking that it might just be a brand thing, I began a hunt that has taken me into supermarkets and bread shops in all the towns I have visited in the States so far.
Alas, I find the shops are full of ``Wonderbread'' and smooth-textured wheat breads. Few whole grains are in sight.
The only ``wonder'' I have about the breads that I have tried during my search is how Americans can put up with eating such wimp stuff.
One of my amusements in the supermarket here, and it's a cheap thrill I know, is to poke my finger into the outside of the bread bag to feel the bread dent like a marshmallow and then watch it magically spring back into shape like rubber. Amazing!
If bread is, as the saying goes, the necessity of life, I'm surprised Americans live so long. Me? I know which side of the world my bread is buttered on.
The biggest-selling breads in New Zealand are whole, mixed-grain and loaves such as sunflower and barley. These cost from $NZ2.10 to $NZ2.90, which compares favorably with the $US3.10, excluding tax, for the Mega-12 loaf I bought from the Real Bread Co. This bread is the closest I have come to satisfying my taste buds' desires.
The only other bread I liked I bought during a trip to Philadelphia. It was a Blueberry Corn loaf packed with blueberries, cornmeal, raisins and walnuts.
The only problem was its $5.49 price tag. Given that humans cannot live by bread alone, at this price they couldn't afford to put much else on their bread.
Marie Antoinette, when told that the peasants had no bread, reportedly said: ``Let them eat cake.''
In the United States, I have discovered, this has become: ``Let them eat bagels.'' by CNB