What type of bread was it, what was in it, how was it prepared, and what made it stand out in your mind as the best?
Interesting topic. I would have to say fresh pretzel bread from a local farmer's market, but there are a lot of good choices. One store around here used to sell a hard-crusted Italian bread with garlic baked inside that was very good.
Pillsbury French bread dough (found next to the tubes of biscuit and croissant dough) that I threw in the toaster oven for 30 minutes.
Mass produced white bread? Butter Krust. A lot like Mrs. Baird's, but it just tastes a lot better. I've eaten so many good artisan/bake shop breads that I couldn't narrow it down to just one.
There's an artisan bakery down the street that does some pretty awesome stuff, but like shootER said, there's so many places like that, I can't really say that one is best. I do have a bread memory that stands out, though. It was in Paris, a bakery down the street from the hotel. Breakfast was coffee, and a small split baguette with a ton of fresh butter on it. I'm sure some of it was the context of the trip and foreign adventure and such, but I sure did like that bread. Twenty years later, I can still almost taste it from thinking about the memory.
Bread is one of my weaknesses with a good crusty Italian bread with garlic and herbs baked in it, a good sourdough, and an onion and herb ciabatta being my favorites. As much as I consider myself an amateur bread snob, there's one hugely popular variety I don't like. I don't care for pumpernickel or the associated marble/dark ryes. I have yet to try one that I actually liked. And, this belongs in The Green Room.
Generally with you on that, but I have come across a good one here or there, so I know it can be done. Totally, zoom, to the Green Room!
Kroger Bakery Onion buns fresh.. . Local Klosterman Bakery Jewish rye bread. And I make my own beer bread.
Probably the best bread I've ever had is some roll in some restaurant. Nothing specific I can point to, but I know that in a few different times and places I've had dinner rolls that knocked the proverbial socks off. On a more regular basis, there's a particularly good bagel shop near where I live. A fresh everything bagel with cream cheese, sometimes with lox, is a wonderful thing. A shout out to Morris Park Pizzeria in the Bronx. I don't get there often, but, in addition to being the best pizza value I've ever seen--largest slices known to man, very good overall pizza, and cheap--their crust is great. They manage to make it firm, slightly crisp on the bottom and yet keep the edge nice and chewy. Their crust isn't just something to hold the sauce, cheese, and toppings together, but rather is actually good bread done just right for the job.
A nice French baguette, firm but not too hard or chewy, with bruschetta made from my home-grown tomatoes and basil. Home-made from scratch cinnamon rolls, baked barely enough so that they don't fall apart too much but are still plenty gooey. King's Hawaiian rolls with some room-temperature butter.
