How do you describe the "regular" taste of bread in Chinese?

[vellocet]

Tonight my girlfriend was supposed to pick up some bread rolls from the store, but they only had the sweet kind.  She notified me instead of buying them (smart girl) and then asked what flavor I wanted.  I was stumped.  What do you call the "normal" taste of bread in Chinese?  I've had "butter" or "milk" bread before, but they just put more of that ingredient when they call it that.  

[li3wei1]

Here, bread comes in two 'flavors', white and brown.

[Demonic_Duck]

Don't really understand the question. Maybe just 原味儿的[面包]? Or if you mean unsweetened, maybe something like 西式面包 or 不加糖的面包 (but with the caveat that 味多美-type places won't have what you're looking for).

 

There's also 全麦 (whole wheat), though again, most Chinese-style bakeries won't have this.

[ChTTay]

For the OP, I'd go with what it's made of rather than the "flavour". Just say you want 全麦 ones as that's usually never sweetened.

Your gf is probably just referring to what you mention yourself "milk bread" etc. You can usually get sliced bread and rolls with dates in, white, milk, wholemeal... Etc I imagine they think about that as a "flavour".

Off topic breaducation for DemonicDuck:

Actually, most of the major Chinese bakeries do whole meal bread of some kind these days. 味多美 sells 全麦 sliced bread along with a "milk" white bread and one or two other kinds. The whole wheat is actually pretty good. It's like the cheap "wholemeal" bread you'd get back home that isn't actually "brown", they've just mixed white and brown together. They have baguettes too. Also, Paris Baguette do different types of sliced bread, including brown, seeded and white as well as baguettes and bagels. Tous Les Jous does an excellent granary style loaf (sliced) but it's quite expensive. They also sometimes stock a good small brown, wholemeal crusty loaf for 8rmb that they can slice on request. They have a wholewheat raisin loaf too. Auspicious Phoenix do a "German" black whole wheat bread that's good too, if a little cottony. As well as a normal wholewheat one.

Bread buns are harder though. BHG recently had mini ones available in wholewheat and white. Otherwise I've only seen them at more specialty stores for foreigners.

[vellocet]

Yeah, but 原味 bread would be the sweet bread, wouldn't it?  Seeing as they only have a couple or one "normal" Western style loaves in the shop every day.  

[889]

You might try asking for 三文治面包, but in those bread shops with all sorts of different yet similar-looking stuff all packaged up, you just have to ask to make sure it isn't sweet or salty or stuffed with pimentos: more what it's not than what it is.

[ChTTay]

I've never even seen 原味 in real bread. I don't think that'll help you if you're looking at packaging

[abcdefg]

I bought a loaf of unsweetened bread yesterday at Carrefour. It was a long, French-style baguette （法棍), but I saw small loaves and rolls on the same shelf which looked as though they were probably made from the same kind of dough.

 

What I've personally found here is that baked goods are classified as 甜的 (sweet), 咸的 (salty) or 原味 (original.) What you are after should logically be 原味，since that also means "plain cooked, natural flavor, without seasonings." But in practice 原味 still often gets you bread that is made with something closer to a cake batter, instead of being a slow-rising yeast bread with a real crust. 

 

Best bet is to look for or ask for 法式 (French style) bread. In Kunming I've found that it some of the newer, more "trendy" bread stores/bakeries, but definitely not in all of them. I hit the jackpot last year in a small Vietnamese grocery where the boss had contracted with a family of Vietnamese immigrants to bake his (French-style) bread.

 

Good bread winds up being something I crave by the time I return to the US every year. My family thinks I'm nuts to get all excited about deli sandwiches; they don't see them as being exotic fare. But, being a refugee from the Middle Kingdom changes one's perspective.

[imron]

Maybe just 原味儿

Nah, because to Chinese tastebuds the 'original' flavour of bread is sweetened.  I'd go with 法式 or 全麦.  
 

三文治面包

三明治面包 - but even with the correction, this is also not likely to get you the desired result due to cultural differences in what sort of bread can be used for sandwiches.

[Demonic_Duck]

味多美 sells 全麦 sliced bread along with a "milk" white bread and one or two other kinds. The whole wheat is actually pretty good. It's like the cheap "wholemeal" bread you'd get back home that isn't actually "brown", they've just mixed white and brown together.

Sounds more like 半全麦 to me.

[889]

三文治 isn't uncommon in Hong Kong:

 

http://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/r-%E5%BA%B7%E5%A6%AE%E7%B5%B2%E7%BE%8E%E5%91%B3%E4%B8%89%E6%96%87%E6%B2%BB-%E5%BF%AB%E9%A4%90%E5%BA%97-%E7%81%A3%E4%BB%94-%E8%A5%BF%E5%BC%8F-%E7%B2%89%E9%BA%B5-%E7%B1%B3%E7%B7%9A-r7260

[ChTTay]

Sounds more like 半全麦 to me.

 

 

Hahahaha whatever double D.

 

It says 全麦 on it and it's not sweet. Does the job if you can't make it to somewhere that sells something better.

[onebir]

 

Best bet is to look for or ask for 法式 (French style) bread. In Kunming I've found that it some of the newer, more "trendy" bread stores/bakeries, but definitely not in all of them. I hit the jackpot last year in a small Vietnamese grocery where the boss had contracted with a family of Vietnamese immigrants to bake his (French-style) bread.

 

Don't some little no-name places still do French-style bread in Kunming? I believe the city was occupied by France, and remember being surprised to see little mini baguettes on sale quite widely there back in 07.           

[abcdefg]

No French influence here now, so far as I know.

 

Don't some little no-name places still do French-style bread in Kunming?

 

Mini-baguettes are what I buy at the small grocery store. They are made by a Vietnamese family.

 

I've heard that some of the expat coffee shops on Wenlen Street have French bread for sale.

[hongputaojiu]

just ask whether they have 咸的。 although it means "salty", this will give you the type of bread we have in back home. Not many bakeries will have it, but eventually you will find some. 

 

good luck - I too spent a long time working out how to express this need!

[vellocet]

Ah.  So  咸的面包 will get me what I want.  Thanks!  They think it's a salty flavor, eh?  Innerestin'.

 

If there is French influence in Kunming, it is likely due to the Miao people, who are Vietnamese.  Tons of Miao there.  I thought the headdresses were just for TV until I actually went to Kunming and saw them everywhere.  

[ChTTay]

咸的 might work. Sometimes this seems to mean more "savoury" than salty. However, sometimes it really does mean salty. I ordered something thinking it just meant "not sweet" one time and it was horribly salty.

You might end up with salty bread ;-)

Best bet might be to just find what you want and see how it's described in the label or package.