I came across a fun article on bread. The author talks about how people are used to eating bread produced from the assembly lines, and getting away from the true art of handmade bread, unconsciously.
The author is Chinese -- I think his complaints about bread not being authentic in China are understandable. I do remember the kind of bread I ate most was the one sealed in a plastic bag, sliced. I used to eat bread filled with red bean paste, meat floss or sausage, as well. He argues that these "recreated bread" actually snack-nizes it: people enjoy the fillings more than the bread itself, sad.
To be honest, most Chinese do not live on bread, that may be the reason why few care about its authenticity. We have tons of other flour-based staple foods, like steamed bun (man tou/馒头), dumplings (jiao zi/饺子) and bau (bao zi/包子). In China, steamers are used more than ovens. Most families do not have ovens -- my first touch on it was roasting a Thanksgiving turkey, after I came to the United States. It took me quite some effort to understand how not to burn myself.
After so many years living in the US, I start loving bread more. My favorite is sourdough, even though it's so hard, and my teeth feel like getting pulled off while eating it.
The fascinating part: the reason why I like sourdough so much is that it makes me think of my grandpa's handmade steamed buns. I can't have enough of those -- I even brought bags of them back to the US from my China home trips.
Ultimately, I think, it's not the authenticity of food that matters. It's the people who make it. It's what they put into the food, like love, that matters.
