Won't Miss #19 - lack of whole grain foods (reflection)

A selection of lovely bread products from the excellent bakery, Antendo. 

There were all sorts of foods that I was looking forward to trying in America, and none more so than the plethora of whole grain bread options. The idea of walking into a store and grabbing a bag of Orowheat bread instead of having to make my own sounded pretty awesome. And it was, but the truth is that I'm still making my own whole wheat bread for other reasons.

While is has been convenient to have access to whole grain buns and bread, the truth is that the taste generally hasn't lived up to expectations. This is what happens when you grow accustomed to having either bread made in a good bakery (which we had in Tokyo) or homemade. I'm also, frankly, a little scared of the packaged food in the U.S. I have a feeling that it's packed with chemicals and other things which I wouldn't be ingesting if I made my own. That's probably a paranoia, but I do know that America has some of the most liberal laws when it comes to allowing additives in food.

So, while I thought I'd be pleased as punch to give up making my own bread, it turns out that that's a boat I'm still in of my own choosing. I guess that I really don't miss feeling like I have to choose between three tiny expensive slices of whole wheat or huge fluffy blobs of white bread or making my own, but I don't really feel I've gained much on this front by coming to the U.S.

Will Miss #338 - Good Morning Bakery

There's a chain of bakeries called "Good Morning" and one branch is in my neighborhood. They also sell their baked goods on consignment at supermarkets (such as Ito Yokado) so you can get their offerings even if a cafe or bakery is not in your immediate area. While there are tons of excellent bakeries in Tokyo, this place has a koshian (red bean paste) bread which is sublime. It's soft, lightly sweet and incredibly delicious. It looks like marble cake, but it has texture and subtle flavor delights that might convert even the most red-bean-hating person to the appeal of this traditional substance. Good Morning also has a fantastic maple pastry for the most conservative of foreign eaters and is one of the very few bakeries to sell authentic and well-made sourdough bread.

The aforementioned koshian bread. So good, even if you aren't a red bean fan.

I'll miss Good Morning Bakery, and the delights it offers me on a regular basis.

Won't Miss #245 - Japanese bread

This bread makes gorgeous and decadent toast. Each slice is as thick as two regular slices, perhaps thicker. Coffee shops often use this sort of bread for toast and coffee breakfast sets. I never eat it.

Sometimes, things that are good in every way are not necessarily good for you. One of those things is Japanese bread. If I were to come as a tourist and dine on buttered toast and coffee for breakfast for a week, I'd be gratified at the delights of Japanese bread. Living here for a year or more is another issue entirely. Japanese bread is like cake. It's light, white, and fluffy. It's also generally cut to fairly fat sizes unless you track down skinny 8-cut bread. The main problem is that it's very fattening. An average slice is about 150 calories, and that's for an fairly normal cut slice (thinner than that shown above). There's also the fact that it's like a cushy pillow that easily flattens out. It's only good for the most lightweight sandwiches. This suits the Japanese habit of putting blobs of mayo with small amounts of egg or tuna in between two delicate (and crust-less) pieces, but it doesn't hold up to a nice pile of lettuce, tomato, cheese, and a slice or two of lunch meat.

I won't miss the tasty, but fattening Japanese bread.

Won't Miss #148 - bad and expensive bagels

Japanese bakers seem to believe that a bagel is simply a type of bread shaped like a doughnut. Most bagels in Tokyo suffer from a variety of problems including being too dense, too dry, or too fluffy. It's very, very rare to find an authentic, chewy bagel. What is more, even the bad bagels are relatively expensive. Getting a properly made bagel is something you have to research and travel far afield to do.

I won't miss the pricey and poor quality bagels.