Food for Tooth
By Otto George Weber
Just dough it!
‘’All sorrows are less with bread.’’ – Miguel de Cervantes
If there’s one business that seems to thrive well in this city of ours, it’s the business of making and selling bread. The last time I checked, there are more than a dozen bakeries dispensing popular items from the best-selling hot pan de sal and fransing to ensaymada, pan de siosa, sliced bread, Spanish rolls, to name a few. At certain times of the year, demand is so great that these bakeries are literally left with empty shelves!
Well, that shouldn’t come as a surprise as bread is a tasty, cheap and nutritious foodstuff – either eaten as is or filled with various ingredients to make a sandwich. The sandwich, by the way, came to be known as such in the 1700’s when the Earl of Sandwich in England started tucking in pieces of meat between two pieces of bread. This allowed him to keep on playing his favorite card games without interruption. Many saw the convenience of this novel idea whereby it caught on fast and the rest, as they say, is history.
Having mentioned some of the breads sold locally, I would like to highlight one type with an intriguing name and shape – the monay. Unlike today’s one-size-fits-all monay, yesteryears’ version had three sizes. According to former Intramuros Administration consultant Sonny Tinio, ‘’the smallest was called monai; the medium size was called abanaku (aba naku!) and the large size was called susmariosep!’’ While its origins remain a mystery, it shouldn’t be too hard to deduce what aroused a baker to create this obscenely-shaped bread.
It’s been said that the first Filipinos to get a taste of bread were Rajah Humabon of Cebu and his queen who received it as gifts from the Spanish conquistadors in the 1500’s. The natives were so delighted with this tasty pasalubong from abroad that from then on, bread became part of diplomatic ‘gift packs’ given by the Spaniards to local chieftains.
Basically, bread is simply a combination of water and wheat (or other grains) flour that is mixed into a piece of dough which is then usually baked or in some cases, steamed, fried or grilled. But in extreme cases like the traditional Hverabrauth bread of Iceland, it is baked by burying it in soil near hot volcanic springs.
While it is generally regarded as a snack food in Asia, bread is the chief food commodity in the Middle East, North and South Africa, Europe, Australia and the Americas. Consumption-wise, citizens of Austria and Germany are the top two leaders in the world – somewhere around 80kgs a person a year!
One of humanity’s oldest foods, bread occupies such an important place in daily life that even our language mirrors its relevance. A ‘breadwinner’ is the main money-earner in a household while a ’breadbasket’ refers to a region that produces a lot of agricultural products. In India, the basic necessities of life are often referred to as “roti, kapra aur makan”, (bread, cloth and house).
In the Lord’s Prayer, the first thing that we ask God is to “give us our daily bread” – even before we ask for forgiveness! After all, as former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson said, ‘’No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach.’’ Amen to that!
Starting with the Biblical “manna from heaven” that rained down to feed Moses and the Jews on that epic exodus from Egypt to the miracle of the multiplying “fish and bread” during one of Christ’s sermons, bread has been regarded as a blessing that nourishes both body and soul. Some 2,000 years later, bread still holds an important role in the Eucharist for symbolizing the body of Christ – a cornerstone of the belief held by the world’s 1.2 billion Christians.
Known for his humble ways, Pope Francis has taken to heart the Jesuit tradition of favoring simple cuisine. Unlike other cardinals who patronize fancy Rome restaurants, the Holy Father prefers to dine by himself at home and follows one of the rules of the Jesuit order – fill up on bread because it avoids the ‘disorder’ that comes from being “tempted by other foods.” In short, the filling effect of bread keeps one from overeating.
Chef Jessie Sincioco, official caterer of Pope Francis during his recent visit to the Philippines, remarked that the Holy Father’s “breakfast consisted of seven kinds of bread: ciabatta, croissant, brown roll, sesame, hard crust and two kinds of ‘media luna’, an Argentinian bread that is crescent-shaped.’’
-To be continued
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