The most potent symbol of Egyptian Life is Bread. They call it Aish Baladi, pocket bread, and it looks like the Pita Bread we can buy here. But it is a little bigger and the texture is lighter, and very fluffy.

I had the chance to taste it, coming right out of the oven, when we stopped in front of a bakery in a small village. And don’t let the look of the bakery fool you – it was delicious and needed nothing on it or with it.

Before it goes into the oven to be backed it has to rise and what better way is there than putting it into the sun until it is ready to go into the oven.

There have been revolutions in many countries because of the price of bread, or the shortage of bread, and Egypt would be no exception. Therefore, the Egyptian government  subsidizes it – so at the moment 10 loaves cost about 8 cents.  

Once Egypt was the breadbasket of the Eastern Mediterranean, but today it has to import wheat, and the United States is its biggest supplier.

Whenever you see long lines of people waiting, it is in front of a bakery. They wait for the bread to be baked. The reason they are there early is because whatever the baker can produce with his allotment  of 25 pound bags of flour per day, might not serve everybody.

On the Islamic Walk in Cairo we saw a man on a bicycle delivering a lot of bread to somebody who did not have to stay in line.

More from Egypt soon

                                     Brigitte