Craving crumpets

This morning I really missed crumpets for breakfast...I've had longings before but today I could have really really scoffed a crumpet or two. Crisp and hard on the outside and chewy and springy on the inside...with lots of melted butter falling through the holes...I always like to toast them twice to get them the right colour...scuse me a moment whilst I wipe the drool of the PC.
So I'll be adding those to the list of things friends can bring to the US.
It's not that I don't like the crumpet substitutes here. I can finally get a proper chewy bagel, and this weekend we discovered that we had a real Jewish deli (small but perfectly formed) next to the supermarket. Not really surprising find since we live in a Jewish neighborhood, but we'd never ventured in there. HoppelPoppel anyone?
Fabulous bagels and lots of strange(to me) cuts of fish....I'll have a piece of fish belly please?
So bagels are great, 'English' muffins are ok, the dark rye bread and pumpernickel is wonderful and if you stray into the super organic (read very expensive/very delicious) supermarket then you might even find a loaf of Vogels bread, or an adequate substitute.
Then there is the stuff the USians 'invented'...mmmmmmmnnnnn sourdough. If it's made well and/or comes from San Fran it's pretty damn delicious...had some sourdough French bread yesterday...mon dieu! Probable illegal to call it that and the French food police will be down like a tonne of goose lard.
So it's all pretty good except for the regular sandwich loaf. Kinda like eating a bunched up paper towel with sugar on top (not that I've done that yet, but ask anyone with a toddler and they can probably tell you that they've seen it) Even the brown bread tastes white (resisting the urge to have a crack at MJackson)
"It's pap" as Mewett would say.
So anything vaguely 'artisan'...which is a posh way for saying 'doesn't look like it comes out of a machine' tastes ok...otherwise it's back to muffins, bagels, rye and longing for crumpets....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmnnnnnnmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm crumpets!