Baking and Breaking Bread

Our first job of the day (Friday) was to "supervise" the bread baking in Zoltan's outdoor oven. The bread was already rising when we arrived (overseen by local experts). Almost every house has an outdoor baking oven. They mix and raise the dough in a large wooden trough that have seen decades of use (and many repairs). They build a fire in the oven until the bricks turn white. Then the coals are moved to the front and the oven is swabbed out with a wet mop. They form loaves and place them on top of wet cabbage leaves, which are then slid into the oven with a large wooden paddle. When the bread is cooked, they knock off the outer crust with mallets and smooth out the crust with graters. The finished product, shown with bakers, was saved for the Mittitei party later in the day. In the meantime, we enjoyed a local delicacy, a sweet cheese bread usually made only for Pentecost.




While the bread was baking, Michael, Denisa, Marta, and Bori (18-year-old translator and granddaughter of Michael's hosts) took a morning stroll near the village. In addition to getting a sense of the countryside, we saw a stork on top of the church (the nest is right next to the building) and got some different views of the village.
Before the party, Bori showed us pictures of her life (including a school dance or two). The party was a big hit, especially the bread and the grilled sausages (mittitei----a Romanian specialty). Everyone ate and drank and made merry, including Denisa and her new friend.