Kiss the Bread: Bread, beans, yogurt, makes a good life.

Years ago 1997 I baked breads in my friends Geary Street San Francisco hotel room when their band was performing there...the drummer said "Of course, you are the Jewish baker!"
My husband tells everyone who will listen, "We live on Emily's bread."

Bread, beans, yogurt, makes a good life.

"... when a piece of bread falls to the floor, we kiss it to expiate the carelessness. In such a cuisine, the “daily bread” is the meal itself..."
- John Thorne, ‎Matt Lewis Thorne, Serious Pig: An American Cook in Search of His Roots


Middle Eastern breads
By Habeeb Salloum, Backwoods Home Magazine, self-reliance, homesteading, off-grid

Issue #135 • May/June, 2012

Arabs, the majority people in the Middle East, eat bread with every meal. In tradition and in daily life, bread is held to be a divine gift from God. The Egyptians call bread 'aysh which means "life itself." In the Arab world, if a piece of bread falls on the floor, a person will pick it up and kiss it, then eat it. I used to see this happen at home when my mother dropped a piece of bread on the floor, not allowing it to be thrown away with the garbage.

The Spanish picked up this habit from the Arabs during their long stay in the Iberian Peninsula. In Spain, when a piece of bread falls on the floor, in the Arab fashion they will say: "Es pan de Dios" (in Arabic, 'aysh Allah means God's bread).

The Arabs claim that they cannot taste other foods without bread and the bread types they have to choose from are numerous and varied. Arab bread comes in many textures, sizes, and shapes. Without question, the mother of all these Middle Eastern breads is pita — by far, the most popularly found in the Middle East. Called Khubz Arabee among the Arabs in that part of the world and once called flatbread or Syrian bread in the United States — that is before Syria became the "bad boy" of the Middle East — it is now widely known as pita bread — a Greek name.

Pita bread, like all types of Middle Eastern breads, is usually soft and pliable — perfect for the Arab way of eating. One of the greatest advantages of this type of bread means that you can take pita bread and dip it in olive oil, yogurt spreads, hummus, and tahini — no need for a knife or a spoon.

Pita bread is used for picking up meat, vegetables, and salads and serves as a scoop for sauces, dips, yogurt, and other semi-liquids. When the loaf is cut into two, the top and bottom of the loaf separate easily and the halves form pockets which can be filled with hot falafel, shawarma (barbecued meats), kufta (Arab version of hamburgers), and/or salads to make delicious sandwiches.

The traditional way of baking Middle Eastern bread is in highly heated brick ovens, with the loaves being slid into the ovens with wooden paddles. Of course, the making of Middle Eastern bread in the modern countries of the Middle East and in North America is an automated process, from the flour to the piping hot bread. Today, in most cities and towns in the Middle East and in the major urban centers in both North and South America people usually buy pita bread commercially produced from Mediterranean and Middle Eastern bakeries and stores bypassing the work needed to make the bread. However, even though it takes time and energy to make your own homemade Middle Eastern breads, it can be one of your most exciting cooking experiences. The aroma coming from the kitchen, the delicious taste of bread fresh from the oven, and, above all, the pleasure you feel when you bake homemade bread are well worth the work involved.

Just think of the mouth-watering aroma flowing out of the oven, especially from thyme-topped bread filling the room. It's an atmosphere one rarely forgets. My mother on our homestead farm baked Khubz Arabee and other Arab breads at least once a week. I can still remember vividly today the smell of my mother's bread fresh out of the oven.