Nothing is ever straight forward!

Whilst my friend loves where he lives he's not enamoured of American bread. If you're fond of brioche and/or bagels then you're well set but ordinary toasting bread ain't so good. So, it makes sense that we begin with Soda Bread – the fastest and most uncomplicated recipe ever and it will suit my friend well – I hope.

However, if you've spent any time in the USA and shopped in “markets” then you'll know that it's a whole different world out there. It's fine once you realise there are different names for different products.

This is what I mean ...

… remember the Soda Bread - here's a list of the ingredients

Soda Bread

170g self raising wholemeal flour

170g plain flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

290ml buttermilk – 300ml pot works

fine

I've shopped to cook many times in the US and have to confess I've never seen self raising wholemeal flour … watch this space. What we call plain flour in the UK is all purpose flour in the US so that's ok. Bicarbonate of soda is known as Baking soda in the US. The one ingredient that should be easily available in the US is buttermilk – bring on our visit to Trader Joe's – a great “supermarket” and reasonably priced too. A voyage of discovery … here's what we found.

I have to confess it's good fun translating recipes – if you have the time of course and I did – hey you never know when you might want to bake Soda Bread in the US – I've saved you all that time and done the research for you!