The Bread Blog!

I have to decided to devote this blog to yet another burning question many of you have: What do I eat? The simple answer, that takes up one-third of the week is bread because I eat it with peanut butter for breakfast everyday. Yup, plain old white bread. It isn't like I have much choice... Take a look at the bread aisle at the store I like to visit most often. At the head of the aisle there are two brands of bread. Down the side are more choices of rolls and sweet things. There is something like a baguette sometimes, but it just doesn't look right to me.

Back to the two brands at the head of the aisle. The red package is more expensive than the blue; I do not know why. It only occupies the top shelf. I do not think the blue is bad so that is what I buy and eat. (The bread packages are one of the few things that do not have a description in English, but as it is obviously bread, that is not a problem!) The packages all come in the same weight, but you have your choice of five or six slices in a package at the same price. That means if you buy five slices your slices will be thicker so that your package equals the weight of the six slices. I go for the six slices because the bread is already sliced pretty thick.

Yes, you get six slices in a bag; not a loaf. And no heels. I wonder what happens to the heels of the bread here... A friend told me that they are anti-crust here. You've got me.

At home, I pop the bread in the microwave and hit the toast button that is at the bottom of the many buttons of my microwave (I have no clue what most of them do!). I wait about 6 or 7 minutes (I should have timed it for this blog) and bam, I have toast done English style--that is, toasted on one side.

My stove also has a toast function, a little area under the two burners, but I have not tried it yet. I'll get back to you on that.

Yes, I can get peanut butter here.
Unfortunately, my favorite store doesn't seem to have it. I made two mistakes and bought something (the left jar) called labelled whipped (a light, sweeter peanut butter type of thing) and something (right jar) labeled peanut cream (like an oozing peanut butter). These packages are mostly in Japanese, but I should have realized that what was in English was accurate. The peanuts on the package of cream (right jar) really helped me fall for it (and it is the worst of the two!).

I will have to run over to the other store--the true grocery store--today to get real peanut butter, because I am out. This small Peanuts jar (I don't know what to make of that branding: Peanuts brand peanut butter...) had almost two weeks worth of peanut butter. That is a regular size price tag on the jar to give you an idea of size. Pretty expensive too, at 285 Yen ($2.50 at the current 115 yen to $1US) but it was good at least. My only choice appears to be smooth. The bread was either 79 Yen ($0.70), just so you know.

There are, apparently, other ways to get peanut butter--including a Costco near Fukuoka city--that I will investigate later.

(One quick note, all the photos here were taken with my wonderful phone. I sent my camera to get fixed because I cracked the screen and I hope to have it back soon. In the meantime, please excuse the flash-less pictures!)

Quick update, Monday, August 27, 2007: I went to the store yesterday after posting the main article and found a different kind of peanut butter; it even came in creamy and crunchy! The bread at the `real grocery store' was twice as expensive, and they didn`t have my blue brand. I sure hope they aren`t putting sawdust in my brand to make it cheaper!