I went to Holland not long ago, and into a bakery, and they had all kinds of yummy breads - whole grain, white, etc... freshly baked on-site, and they would SLICE IT RIGHT THERE for you so you could go home and make a sandwich... Yesterday I was at the big Manor in Chavannes-des-bogis, they have a fabulous bakery section, I asked for a fresh sourdough loaf, and by any chance could they slice it - and she looked at me like I was nuts.

I laughed and suggested they get a machine - and she laughed back and said she doubted that would happen any time soon. "Pas en Suisse, de toute facon," I sighed. Just across the border in Ferney at the Carrefour, you can buy fresh-baked bread that has been sliced. What is it with the Swiss and slicing bread??? The only sliced bread you can buy here is icky preservative-laden processed crap.

There's a reason for the English (American?) expression "the best thing since sliced bread" - it is a good thing!!

I have to say I also have never seen "sliced bread" for sale on the other countries I lived in. I find the concept... odd...

I do miss the wonderful German bakeries, but even there if you wanted bread to slice, you bought the whole thing and sliced yourself at home...

Oh well, different cultures, different habits.

Sometimes you need a thick doorstep of bread for dunking in a soup, sometimes you need a thin, delicate slice for a sandwich or some toast. If it's all sliced uniformly you don't have the choice.

The other thing is that if it's sliced it goes off quicker here. We don't notice that in the UK or the US because the bread is full of preservatives but here, if it were sliced, it would go off twice as quickly.

You can get sliced bread here, either the nasty "toast-bread" or there is a couple of types of dark bread sliced and in plastic bags to keep them fresh. Check out Migros and Coop.

Yeah, I know about the "sliced bread" in Coop and Migros, I've been here for a while. That's not at all what I'm talking about. That's nasty stuff.

I *can* slice bread, I can cope with it, I'm not a total moron, but this is the complaints corner, and it's something I miss so I took the opportunity to vent!

BTW, yes, bread does "go off" - read, get hard as a rock - here in no time flat, but if it were SLICED you could put some of it pronto in the freezer for later, oh so easily...

I can buy unprocessed, wonderful bread in Whole Foods in the US (from an on site bakery) that doesn't "go off" in like five minutes. That's the kind of bread you want to have sliced. I think there's some oil in the recipe or something. Plus you store it in plastic (horrors).

Don't get me wrong, I love the bread here, it's wonderful, even if it does go stale by the time I get home from the store. I'm fine with it. I love life in Switzerland. Just venting, that's what this thread is for.

don't vent so much... the bread is going off !!


( and sourdough at Chavanne Centre?... I guess I'll have to look better, or get there earlier )

Ah, but if you don't want anyone to respond, that's called a blog.

This is Switzerland:

We have our own domestic designs to take care of this tricky dilemma with bread.

While this is what most people do in Germany, almost every bakery there has a slicing machine nevertheless.

Even blogs have response features nowadays.

I know exactly what you mean! I have thought much of what you have written here before! Right down to the saying, "best thing since sliced bread".

But yeah, if someone wants the bread to stay fresh, put the thing in a sealed bag, rather than leaving it in a paper bag, or simply out in the open... Seems very simple to me!

& Sandgrounder, every decent bakery I came across in Australia, & I'm sure in other places around the world that slice bread, either have two slicers, one thick & one normal (or thin), or an adjustable one... It's really not difficult!

Did you see the price?! For €21.50 it should be gold plated.

As you mentioned the saying, "The best thing since sliced bread" - with no sliced bread available, there is no back marker.

I put my bread within it's paper bag, inside a plastic bag, and then keep it fresh in the fridge.

Sourdough is called "pain de levain" in French BTW, it's just at the entrance of the Manor Food. It's great! Another upside - slicing bread is such a good workout for your arm muscles!

What I *want* in the responses is commiseration, maybe sympathy, definitely some "oh I feel your pain" - although, if you feel my "pain" here, it's probably gone off...

As for "well that's the way it is here, deal with it" - I already know that, doesn't really help, thanks anyway

I absolutely agree, sliced bread is one of the things I miss most! My parents came over from the UK and brought me a white sliced loaf, they thought I was crazy but I just wanted some good toast!

My cleaning lady does the slicing too.

I just have a decent knife... slices all kind of bakery product without effort and the slices have just the perfect thickness, as I like it

not true in general. some places in Germany do provide this service, but mostly bakeries in supermarkets. bakeries alone 99.9% dont.

Oh man, I miss the Netherlands.

Always bought the "pain de Madeline" in Albert Heijn. The dutchies are mad for sandwiches though...kip en kaas! Also, I could kill for some tigerbrood.

I bought some multigrain sliced bread in Manor Geneva - UK sized slices - and the use by date was almost 6 weeks later, I nearly had the boak (dry heaves) when I ate it.

Nevermind, almost everything else in the grocery stores here make up for the lack of square, sliced bread.

I love all those preservatives - keeps me looking young

That's probably the reason why I never encountered the "slice that bread" option... I had wonderful bakeries right next to home and work, so I never bought bread in the supermarket. They didn't offer any pre- or slice-it-now bread.

Oh man, I miss the good old fresh out of the oven mohnbrötchen

When I want to freeze bread, I slice it first with my awesome bread knife (it's purple and cuts through bread as if it was butter), takes about a minute to do. I never slice Zopf, by the way, as I like how it tastes when you re-crunch it after freezing, crunchy on the outside and deliciously doughy in the middle. For those of you with combi-steam ovens, use the interval steam option, it makes even Aldi bread taste fantastic!