Finally a use for Japanese white bread!

[Taro Toporific]

Hydrogen, methane created from bread waste successful
Japan Today - Oct 7, 2004
TOKYO--- Sapporo Breweries Ltd, Shimadzu Corp and Hiroshima University have succeeded in a joint experiment to steadily generate hydrogen and methane gas using waste from the bread-making ...

[Steve Bildermann]

generate hydrogen and methane gas using waste from the bread-making ...

and all the years I thought it was the other way around...

[Pencilslave]

Hydrogen, methane created from bread waste successful
Japan Today - Oct 7, 2004
TOKYO--- Sapporo Breweries Ltd, Shimadzu Corp and Hiroshima University have succeeded in a joint experiment to steadily generate hydrogen and methane gas using waste from the bread-making ...

I'm always glad to learn about new energy sources. I'm looking forward to the day when there are enough alternatives to oil so that we can finally tell all the filthy rich OPEC countries to go fuck themselves.

[kamome]

The best source of hydrogen and methane gas is BB after a night of scarfing down daikon slices in his oden.

[Russell]

Using their loaf: Japanese elevate humble art of toast

Breakfast at Galant, a cafe in the Ueno neighbourhood of Tokyo, has a decidedly retro feel: a boiled egg, salad, plain yoghurt with a swirl of blueberry jam and a cup of coffee.

The centrepiece, though, is the perfectly executed toast – a single slice of white bread, its crunchy exterior concealing an inner fluffiness, served just warm enough for the butter to melt without dripping.

While Japan has partly embraced the artisanal bread scene led by London, Sydney and New York, the main object of the country’s desire is shokupan – literally “eating bread” – soft white loaves sliced as thick as you like and consumed without a hint of fibre-free guilt.

The latest culinary obsession gripping Japanese people and cafes such as Galant, which has been sustaining Tokyoites for more than 40 years, is how to perfect the art of making toast.

Bread became a regular part of the Japanese diet during the lean postwar years, when bakeries churned out long white loaves of shokupan that became a staple for generations of schoolchildren. In the home, too, people raised on traditional breakfasts of rice, grilled fish and miso soup started turning to the convenience of buttered toast and coffee to start the day.

While eating bread has become an established practice, the act of making a simple slice of toast is an increasingly hi-tech affair.

An online search from one chain brings up hundreds of options of toasters.

[...Follows a list of products that burn Japanese bread in order to make it edible...]

More

Tells a lot about the quality of bread when toasting is a necessary condition for it to be fit for consumption...

[Grumpy Gramps]

Some years ago, there was a shop called Gipfeli* in Nagoya. They had croissants baked in Switzerland near an airport, frozen and flown to Nagoya daily. Then they thawed them and sold the gloop that came out of their oven for, well that was an expensive endeavour

Needless to say, that shop didn't last long.

* Gipfeli is Swiss German for Croissant