Int'l Bread Festival starts in Baku [PHOTO]

20 October 2016 23:15 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

One of the most "delicious" events of the year, the International Bread Festival, kicked off in Baku.

The event offers an opportunity for professional bakers to improve their baking skills and share ideas, Trend Life reported.

The festival, timed to the International Chefs Day, aroused great interest of residents and guests of the city.

Every October 20, home cooks, and professional chefs across the world celebrate International Chef’s Day. As the name implies, the day is meant to celebrate the greatest of culinary gurus.

This time the event brought together bakers from more than twenty regions of the country, including Karabakh, Lachin, Ganja, Ismayilli, Baku, Qusar, Astara, Zagatala, Balakan, Zangelan, Sheki, Imishli, Goychay, Agdash, etc., as well as guests from Turkey, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

The festival features more than five hundred bakery products, traditional kinds of bread and pastries.

Under the charming sounds of mugham, guests were presented the traditional bakery products.

Trend news Agency was awarded an honorary diploma for the promotion of and contribution to the development of national cooking.

Grandiose celebration amazed foodies with its warm and lovable atmosphere that prevailed throughout the occasion.

Azerbaijani people can’t really imagine their national cuisine without homemade bread.

There are other bread varieties sold in Azerbaijani bakeries, including tandir, lavash, and shirinchorek.

Each of them is different in shape, size, taste and smell. Cooking of bread from flour and water is done by its steaming and roasting.

Tandir bread is usually preferred over others on special occasions, such as weddings, birthday parties and holiday celebrations.

It's history began in Neolithic. Scientists note that the word "tandir" refers to the ancient Turkic peoples (the Sumerians).

The bread cooks in the inside of the hollow which has been plastered in surroundings. Bread is cooked by attaching on walls of tandir. The bread is also prepared like fragile bread and kept for a long time.

Shirin chorek, or sweet bread, is mostly baked on holidays such as Novruz and Ramadan.

Lavash is thin flat bread made of water, flour and salt.

It's thickness varies depending on how thin it was rolled out. Toasted sesame seeds or poppy seeds are sometimes sprinkled on before baking.

The bread is widely consumed in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Iran.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova