Bread Talk, Paris Baguette, Paul, Yamazaki and others..  These days it is usual in Shanghai to see locals are queuing in front of these so-called western-bread providers while many advise that Chinese do not eat bread.. I wonder why ? Have Chinese adopted to the western taste ? Well, this a big question which deserves a proper answer in different aspects including gourmet, marketing and social transformation I believe.

A couple of years ago, it was a real challenge to find western type bread which was called by local shop owners as "salty bread"  or  shortly "xian de" .   As a bread (salty of course) lover, struggling to find a loaf of tasty bread among the dominant cake-type sweet pastry was a normal practice of my daily life .  I had even to fly with a small size second suitcase, back from home to Shanghai which was full of "salty bread".

Now, as China keeps changing and western-type bread varieties are dominating the "bread market", I have many choices that enables me to be very selective.

Sunday, Sep 8^th I made my way to my popular bread shop;
Paris Baguette at ZhangYang Rd. Pudong and when I took my place in the long queue to pay, I counted seventeen bread lovers in the shop enjoying the "bread world" and only three of them were "laowai" including myself.

You may claim that the locals are usually buying sweet or other type of pastry that matches the local taste..  True, however I also see significant number of shoppers are including the western-type bread in their bags.

It is a big sign, business wise that Chinese are now the "majority" in the bread shops.

Changing-adopting Chinese or the savvy entrepreneurs who created a market,  or both ?  This could be answered in different ways as China keeps developing.

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