Just about every culture around the globe has their own type of bread, from Australia’s iconic damper, a wheat-based bread traditionally baked in campfire coals, to mantou, a Chinese steamed bun made with white flour, to the ever-popular American banana bread, a 'quick' bread that might better be classified as dessert, but shhh, don't tell. While Merriam-Webster defines bread as 'usually baked and leavened food made of a mixture whose basic constituent is flour or meal,' it can also be boiled, steamed, or fried. Different types of bread have been beloved by so many for so long, it’s not surprising that a crop of superstitions about the foodstuff has arisen, like the legend that whoever eats the last slice has to kiss the cook, or the old wives’ tale that eating crusts will make your hair curl (is that why kids always want the crusts cut off their PB&J's?). No only is it delicious (there is nothing better than buttered toast!), it’s also inexpensive and filling. While low-carb diets might try to cut out bread, for most of us it remains, as the old saying goes, 'the staff of life.' Yes, it might get a bad rap, but bread has been a staple of the human diet since the Neolithic period, about 10,000 years ago, for a good reason.
