Static I wrote:

>>"Mike Pearce" mpearce7@coxREMOVE.net 
>>Date: 9/19/2003 8:14 AM Central Standard Time
>>Message-id: <TjDab.184925$xf.157032@lakeread04>
> 
> 
>>I'm with you in not feeling that commercial cooked food is necessarily
>>inferior to home cooked food. I do get certain level of enjoyment out of a
>>meal when a friend makes it for me than when I buy one in a restaurant,
> 
> 
> Boy, do I have a different reaction to all this - most restaurants I go to, I
> think "I could have done thisd better myself". (One of the few exceptions is
> Bayonna in your hometown where the food is almost cerebral)
> 
> But as for breads, I'm making what most people would find to be good breads,
> but I still haven't fouind the reciupe or techniques used for the breads I love
> back in New York bakeries. 

Baking is a strange activity. Ten people can be given the same recipe 
and come up with ten different results. Having grown up in the NYC area, 
I can tell with complete authority that not all bagels from New York are 
good. Not all bakeries make good rye bread either. And for another, I 
now know that the house I grew up in is not half the size I thought it 
was when growing up!

Like bakeries, very few restaurants are any good, either. We oft times 
visit them because of speed of service, quantity of food, as well as 
price. What is really indicative of a bad restaurant, is when we go to 
one because of all three reasons. :)

Bread making is a journey. We learn a bit more with each failure or 
small success. While not wanting sound like this is some sort of zen 
trip, it really is!!! I like bagels. I live in Seattle and can't find a 
single one that I think is any good (don't bother, I know them all. 
There are fewer each week.) So, I decided to bake my own. And to be 
honest, and somewhat immodest, I make damn good ones. Of course, it only 
took a few years to reach that point. It only took about a 100 different 
recipes. It only took about a dozen different brands of flour. And it 
only took about a gazillion alt.bread.recipe posts here to understand 
about techniques.

Every time I travel to another part of the country, or to a different 
country, I learn something new, that will improve my breads. Bread 
baking is relaxing. (Quite obviously, I don't do this for my survival.)

In the end, I bet you will be able to closely duplicate what you liked 
in New York. Just be open to learning.
-- 
Alan

"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and
avoid the people, you might better stay home."
                                 --James Michener