The most ancient meal on Earth...

I guess people invented bread when they started to collect grains and cultivate them. It's an ancient meal. Meal people ate by itself, with wine, cheese and later as a sandwich. Bread has a special meaning for me.

In my country you are not allowed to neglect it, to throw it away or step on it, it's sacrilege.

If you do not want it, you feed it to the animals or give it to the birds in the park. Or slice it thinly and dry in the oven, sprinkle some spices on it and give it as a snack to your children when they are hungry. Or if nobody wants it - dry it, grind it and make breadcrumbs for your cooking needs. You just do not waste it.

It is a lot of labor to create good wholesome bread and people cherish the creation if not the creator.

My mom used to send me to the bakery when I was fairly small and I would come home carrying still warm "brick", as we called it after its form, inhaling its wonderful nourishing smell, stealing some peaces of crust and nibbling on it.

My mom would never say anything for "spoiling" the bread, no matter how badly I mutilated it on my way home, because when she would go to buy bread she would do exactly the same, tearing the warm pieces of crust and nibbling on it.

It was irresistible. It was rye bread, dark golden brown and very delicious. We had white bread too. It had golden crust and was heavy and tasty too, but I liked the brown one better. I don’t know, may be in your childhood everything tastes better, may be your appetite is different. Though I should say I did not have any appetite at all as a child. I was thin, sickly and constantly with sore throat and something like measles – things you usually do not have as an adult. Pretty pathetic. But I was not a sad child or depressed, that came later.

I liked Nature and could be lost for hours among trees, flowers, birds and other small animals. Nature is still may major way to get some relaxation; forget the stress of everyday life.

But I think I stepped aside from my narration. I just wanted to say that bread was a very meaningful part of a meal in my old country, a necessity to have and eat with a soup or second course.

At one time I remember (long ago, when I was a small child), we had it on the tables of all diners and restaurants all the time, thinly sliced small pieces of bread with salt and mustard jars on the plate. If you do not have enough money to order a good meal, you at least can supplement your meager dinner with some bread. Not a bad idea. But as everything that is too good, it did not last long...

Sometimes when I come to the bakery, I can manage to find bread that looks almost like one from my childhood, but it never tastes the same. I understand that and do not complain. I have lots of things in this country that I never had in my childhood and would probably die for it then just to have it. Life is full of compensations and I remember that.

But I still miss that bread and the people who served it to me.