What a boring topic, right? How could someone actually write a blog post about bread? What possibly could be interesting about buying bread in China? Isn’t that on aisle 7 in the local megalomart next to the crackers, jellies, and jams? Or maybe in the, oh I don’t know, the bakery section of the store? Well … sort of. Let me explain.
Most of my life I’ve had some form of processed carbohydrate for breakfast, be it cereal (sugary or not), bagel with plain smear (mmmm), or even a slice or two of toast covered with some form of nut butter (peanut, almond, Nutella — hey, it starts with the letters “nut” so it must contain nuts, right?). Living in China my breakfast routine hasn’t changed much, except instead of just that processed carb with spread (never vegemite, btw, that stuff is nasty contrary to what all those crazy Aussies will tell you) I try and add some freshly sliced or whole fruit to go along with it.
Near where I live in the Xinghai Square neighborhood of SIP (Suzhou Industrial Park) there are many choices for breads and pastries. If I walk around the four corners of my block, I can pass The French Baguette, 85C, some cake store that I cannot read the name of, Sweet Daddy Toast, and a bread shop at the entrance to the subway station which also has a name I cannot read. That’s at least four bread/pastry shops just on this one block! If you go *into* the shopping malls (there are four malls that touch this block, crazy?!) that number at least doubles. Oh, and then if you add the grocery store type places along the same perimeter that number increases by another four.
OK, so I cannot tell you what the deal is with so many bread and pastry shops, but do know that my neighborhood isn’t alone. Times Square, Suzhou Center/Dongfangzhemen, and Ligongdi all are pretty similar. What I do find really interesting about these shops is that most of them make their bread and pastries at that location! They don’t have a centralized warehouse or factory where the items are made in advance and then placed on shelves for folks to purchase. Walking into one of these shops usually welcomes the person with that lovely smell of freshly baked bread.
My favorite bread shops so far are Holliland (in Times Square along Wangdun Road near Si’an St/旺墩路 & 思安街; there’s another Holliland shop near the W Hotel entrance at Suzhou Center along Suhui Road/苏惠路) and The French Baguette (found almost everywhere there’s a shopping area including Central Station (north side) in Xinghai Square, Times Square along the shopping promenade, and I believe inside the new Suzhou Center shopping mall). Holliland makes some amazing cakes apart from their breads. In fact, they put on display some of their wedding cakes and they just look amazing! The French Baguette is not only great for all sorts of breads and pastries, but they also have some decent non-carb type foods. I like to get some of their salads and sandwiches on the weekends for lunch.
Bread Castle, in Ligongdi along Shuifang Rd/水房路 near where Euromart is (was?! Closed for “renovations”) where I most recently went. No real big differences from any of the other bread shops but I will say this; it is the first time I found walnut bread (mmmm!) and was offered to have the bread sliced thinly for me and put back into the packaging. I was thinking the girl behind the counter was going to hand slice it. Nope! Got my first glimpse at a working, industrial-sized bread slicer — pictured below, of course.
At most of the bread shops you will find the bread either sliced or whole. I usually like going for the pre-sliced bread because otherwise that old adage of “the best thing since sliced bread” would never hold true again!