Ready the flour, exercise the hands and preheat the oven. These are the steps we “knead” to take for us to commemorate the international celebration of the “pan-packed” World Bread Day.
In Filipino culture, there is one popular adage that says, “When people throw stones at you, throw bread at them instead.”
The maxim figuratively suggests not to repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, we should repay evil with blessing.
Even in the old times, no matter how they slice it, pull it apart, and chow it down, Filipinos know the value of having bread in the table.
Just a taste of one grain of truth — bread has various significance beyond the usual nutritional benefits in many cultures in the
West and the Middle East due to its historical and contemporary importance.
In the early 2500 B.C., the ancient Greeks were already producing more than 80 types of bread
Egyptians also viewed bread in the early times as a type of currency. They highly regarded it to the point where they would often place the bread in the tombs of their loved ones.
Also, the consumption of bread has a large significance in religion as Christianity uses the sacramental bread as one of the elements, alongside wine, of the Eucharist.
In order to commemorate the international celebration, the Manila Standard followed the appealing smell of the freshly baked pieces of bread around the world and ranked them from top to bottom.
The Top 5 Bread around the world
1. Baguette (France)
The most iconic of them all. With its golden, crunchy crust, chewy interior, and cream-colored and mellow crumb, the Baguette has become a trademark food of French culinary tradition.
When bread lovers in France think of heaven, most of them think of eating Baguettes, with butter, emerged hot from an oven. Bon appetit!
2. Focaccia (Italy)
Focaccia is a thick, flat oven-baked Italian bread.
With its high gluten flour, salt and olive oil, mixed herbs, and other spices, Focaccia is like a pizza base. This Italian bread product is often served as a side dish or even as sandwich bread flavored with herbs, vegetables or cheese.
3. Sourdough (United States)
While most bread products are made with commercial baker’s yeast, Sourdough relies on Saccharomyces exiguous, a wild yeast.
This bread has a mildly sour taste and has better keeping qualities.
The sour flavors are due to the lactic and acetic acids produced by inevitable environmental bacteria, which are working on the flour’s sugar along with the yeast.
Different bacteria make different sour flavors. And San Francisco in the United States is blessed in local bacteria species, making its sourdough bread quite tasty and famous.
4. English Muffin (United Kingdom
English muffin is a small, round, flat yeast-leavened bread, commonly sliced horizontally, toasted and buttered.
This bread product is often deemed as a breakfast food, served with sweet toppings like jam or honey, and flavorful toppings like a cooked egg, sausage rounds, or bacon and cheese.
Most English people in the United Kingdom consume English muffin for its low-fat qualities, proving to be a healthy addition to a meal.
5. Bagels (Poland)
Bagel is a firm, doughnut-shaped roll traditionally poached in water first for a short period of time before being baked in the oven.
This bread, which originated in the Jewish communities of Poland, has now spread to many countries, including Canada and the United States.
Other variations change the flavor of the dough, often using salt, onion, garlic, egg, cinnamon, raisin, blueberry, chocolate chip, cheese, or a combination of the mentioned ingredients.
These five known pieces of bread are only a testament that the baking industry adapts from time to time.
Most of the bread products that we have now are made centuries ago. It even came to an extent where only the rich and the powerful had access to these deliciously crafted bread products in a length of an arm.
However, the variations that the bakers have done through time somehow developed how we perceive bread and how to consume it.
Together, let us break the mold as we commemorate the World Bread Day through promoting good bread, consuming one from your local bakery, and baking a masterpiece on your own.
Whether you agree or not, life is a bit butter with a slice of bread.
The World Bread Day, annually celebrated on Oct. 16, is an annual event for all the bakers and bread-lovers in the world to commemorate the simple food known to the stomach of mankind since the early times.
The commemoration was created by the International Federation of Bakers and Confectioners to “dedicate a day to the history and future of bread, to share the bakers work, exchange views on the raw material from which many varieties of bread are made.”