In Luxor, there are a few types of bread which are usually readily available. Our staple is 'aish fino' (white finger buns, in various sizes) straight from the baker's oven. Often, and for the guests' breakfasts, we also get a normal white sliced toasting loaf, but not from our baker; we have to get this from the supermarkets. Then there is the bread which comes from the mud-brick ovens, and which can be bought on the street in various places, direct from the women who bake it. This is 'Baladi' bread! I posted some pictures of it being prepared, just a few weeks ago.
Then there is the subsidised brown flat bread from the Government bakeries, which is scoffed by the barrow load in nearly all Egyptian homes. I may have mentioned before that it costs one pound for 20, but it used to be one pound for 40! A normal family can easily get through 40 a day.
Our aish fino is often very hot still, when I get it. In fact, it has been known to be so hot that it's melted through the plastic bag I was carrying it in! The brown flat bread (sorry, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it's known as) very often seems to have coarse material in it, a bit like Osman's falafel, which we joke about; how much sand is in his mix!
Well, the recipient of the bread in the following pictures won't have to be surprised if his bread feels a bit gritty:
It's obvious that this lot is not for private use, but for re-sale.(I doubt whether that's actually legal, mind you!) or to go to a restaurant. It's often strewn about the place like this, and when it has sufficiently cooled; it's put into white plastic bags. You can see some of them next to the motorbike, ready to go.
You and I, Dear Reader, both know the state of the streets in Luxor, so I ask you, "Would you be happy to eat this bread?" I don't think that I would be, but how or why would we ever know?????
Will use the bakers at the back of Temple i think. sandra
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