Bread is an amazing thing. Every
agricultural society the world over has some form of it. Wheat
ground into flour and mixed with a variety of liquid and solid
ingredients. Do it without yeast and you have unleavened or
flatbread. Add yeast and you get any one of a number of risen
breads. Boil it and you have noodles. Bake it and you get crusty,
sweet, savory, chewy, doughy, crispy bread.
That the human body could have such a
powerful relationship with something so complex is astonishing. Why
we enjoy meats, fruits, vegetables is because these things occur
naturally in our environment. Bread is the first food that has no
analog in the natural world. No animal or plant produces anything
like it. In fact, it requires ingredients from both animals and
plants in order to exist.
Bread might be considered the first
true agricultural product. Without farms to grow sufficient grain,
without herds to provide milk or eggs, without permanent places where
good ovens could be produced, where would bread be?
So the next time you sit down to a
sandwich, or toast, or to enjoy a plate of yakisoba, think of bread
and all that it has done for us. All the people that it has brought
together. Think of the fact that there is no more fundamental aspect
of civilization that brings so many people together so easily. Break
bread with someone, and you can join their family.
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