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Comment by egjerlow | Hacker News Reader

Meanwhile, as a Norwegian, the notion that Italians or the French make 'good' bread is hard to swallow. That's probably what most of us miss when we go further abroad than North Europe - decent non-white bread to eat for breakfast. (citation needed). However, this is probably mostly due to the differences in what we expect good bread to be..

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As a Swede I'm quite confused about what you're trying to say.

I guess the benefit of (what I guess is the kind of bread you are talking about) is that it can be stored quite easily and last for a month or two in room temperature.

I am talking about what is here in general referred to as 'grovbrød' as opposed to what is here in general referred to as 'loff'. Loff can be good, but to many it feels substance-less, especially for breakfast.

Ah. Not sure what name that has in Sweden (I think just: "Fullkornsbröd"), but having worked at a Norwegian company (or three) I did experience that kind of bread in their Oslo-based company canteen many times over the years (during my 40 visits or so). It's really good with Nutella. :)

But really.. I think this all comes down to the fact that there are a lot of different ways to make bread around the world. In a way I think it's good that not every taste/texture combination is readily available everywhere - it makes travelling so much more interesting.

Agreed. Also it makes you appreciate more the good things about your home country as well!

When I was living in Switzerland, my biggest woe was that all of the bread seemed to be white, or sweet. I could find no good simple grainy brown bread, like at home in Ireland.

But the beer was better, so I was happy.

Are you sure you were living in Switzerland?

Bread in Switzerland is rarely sweet and non-white bread is very common.

I am quite sure! Maybe I was looking in the wrong places, but all the bread was too sweet for me.

One of my joys of moving to Norway is the selection of good, fresh bread available. I've been here a few years and still find the in-store bread slicers odd. Some of it took some getting used to with my American palette - I suppose I could get the fluffy stuff, but I refuse. Weirdly, however, I rarely buy the stuff as I developed a habit of simply making bread daily.

As an American who once visited Norway, I can confirm for my fellow Americans your statement that Norwegian bread is indeed superior.

you can find dark/black bread (not that white American/English sweet sponge) in most of continental Europe, especially in countries influenced by German and Russian cuisine

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