In Egypt, there is a saying that all you need is a cup of tea and aish baladi, and you won’t go hungry. While bread maybe the great unifier across the world, here it is almost sacred.
Aish means ‘life’ and signifies its importance, while baladi translates as ‘traditional’. It is omnipresent, irrespective of class. For Egyptians, it is not a mere food item but a reflection of their culture and a significant part of daily life.
As I went through various parts of Cairo, it seemed buying the bread from the bakeries is a closely-guarded male chore. The bakeries were lined with men in the morning and evening to buy freshly-baked round loaves. So much so that, a fellow woman traveller’s enthusiasm to visit a bakery herself and click some pictures was met with a curt disapproval from the elderly driver.
No wonder Egypt has even come on streets for its bread many times. Per reports, about two-third of the country’s population benefit from the programme that gives them five loaves of bread daily at a subsidised price, making it one of the cheapest breads in the world.
‘Intifadet Al-Khobz’ (The Bread Riots) of 1977 saw thousands of people taking to the streets in Cairo against the government’s attempt to change the subsidy system. Then there was another in 2011; it’s slogan – bread, freedom, and social justice. For, a long time, till 1988, it was famously known as ‘one-piastre bread’ as several attempts to increase the price proved futile. 2017 also saw renewed protests in Upper Egypt and the Nile Delta after the Ministry of Supply decided to reduce the daily ration of subsidised baladi bread.
And, despite the rise in global diesel prices, the newly-re-elected third-time President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi’s government on this July 25 decided to rather bear the increased difference in production cost than try to raise the bread prices again. It was only in June that Egypt could increase the price of its bread by 300%, after speculating over the move for well over three decades in the face of a long-continuing economic crisis. The country also signed an expanded $8 billion loan deal with IMF earlier this year.
From 5 piastres or 0.05 Egyptian pounds ($0.0011), a loaf of the bread now costs 20 piastres or 0.20 Egyptian pounds (₹0.34). Once ‘the granary of the Roman Empire’, the country is now the world’s second biggest wheat importer (after China, 2023 data), and a loaf of bread that costs the citizens 20 piastres costs the government 125 piastres.
The Gift of Nile
Once upon a time these loaves would be baked in clay ovens made from the red mud of the Nile – the river that made Egypt possible. Also, in ancient times, the bread enjoyed a scared status as it was made from ‘Emmer’ wheat – a sacred plant to ancient Egyptian Gods, particularly Osiris, a god of fertility and lord of the dead and the underworld. The wheat was high on fibre, low in gluten content, and organic. Wild yeast was added to help the dough rise, and it is said the baking methods and many ingredients have remained the same since the time of the pharaohs.
As per a paper published in National Library of Medicine, the earliest known records of yeast-risen bread also came from Ancient Egypt in 1300-1500 BCE. It further adds that ‘knowledge of these fermentation and baking methods passed from Egypt and Babylon to ancient Greece and ancient Jewish cultures, and Rome’.
I still remember the first time I inhaled the aroma of aish baladi, and took the first bite of that bran-coated deliciousness. In a lane not too far from the famed ancient wonder – the Great Pyramid of Giza, Mawlana restaurant was introducing me to local delicacies, like mesaqa‘ah (baked sliced eggplants in tomato sauce), basbousa (syrup-soaked baked semolina cake), kebab-kofta, tehina (sesame tahini, lemon juice, and garlic dip), torshi (assorted pickled vegetable), besarah (fava beans and greens). In the company of all of them, that basket of bread seemed too peasant. Yet, the sheer nutty taste of that soft whole wheat bread pipped the rest in my memory.
The following day, after tracing the footsteps of Ptolemy I Soter, Julius Caesar Augustus, and the Holy Family (Joseph, Mary, and infant Jesus), in Coptic Cairo, I was at Abdulaziz Al Saud Street in Old Cairo. And, there it was again – warm fresh aish baladi with hummus non pareil, a quick Egyptian salad, and labneh, claiming its own place of importance amid an indulgent fare at Happy Dolphin restaurant. Overlooking the calming Nile, Abdullah, the tour guide, told me why it was so important to their way of life. “No meal, no get-together, no meeting, no occasion – happy or sad, is complete without it,” he said simply.
The common thread
Like any other old walled city, Cairo is also a study in contrast. The chic Sphinx International Airport, not even a couple of years old, gives a peek into that. Located on the picturesque desert road between Cairo and Alexandria, apart from Egypt’s very own, Air Cairo, Jazeera Airways, Flynas, Wizz Air, and easyJet, are some of the few carriers that are connecting it currently, with more expected to join later this year.
The drive to and from the airport, through El Sheikh Zayed City and its world-class urban scape (like high-street outdoor lifestyle destination, Walk of Cairo), is as awe-inspiring as the historic city. And, yet it seems that it is this simple aish baladi that connects the old with the new here.
In Arabian Night-esque streets of the 14th century Khan el-Khalili market, someone carrying aish baladis on big wooden trays is a common picture. After hours of shopping, the bread with the Egyptian mint tea is all you need to relax and refresh. Or, be it the ultra-chic environs of Capital Business Park, it receives admiration from the elder as well as vegan-supporting younger generation. Yes, the bread naturally happens to be vegan too!
Termed a ‘mood gauge’ in various ways, perhaps socially, culturally, and politically too, it is quite evident that Egypt’s joy is directly tied with aish baladi. From breakfast to dinner, much may change in the country, the only constant is that flavourful, aromatic, nutritious loaf. The true bread of life!
Garima Verma is a freelance writer. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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