GIVE US THIS DAY

One Saturday morning when I went to get milk from our neighbor, Etus was carrying round pans of risen sourdough bread to the outside bread oven. I helped her by carrying two pans about 12" in diameter and 4" deep. The finished bread would rise to about 12". She had begun the fire several hours in advance with natural gas which was turned off after the wood started burning. The thick rounded walls were hot from the burning coals which she then spread over the bottom of the oven, an area about 3' wide and 4' deep. She pushed the pans in with a stick, put the door back in place, and scratched the sign of the cross on the door with the stick. I asked her why she did it. She replied, "For God's blessing" or something like that. "Give us this day our daily bread."

One of the things we love in Romania is the bread. There's no Wonder Bread here, and the people wouldn't recognize it as bread if they tasted it. I buy our bread either directly from where it's made or at a local store that carries the particular one I like. In the past few years, several bakeries have opened and so we've sampled around, and I like Kocsis Jozsef's bread best. Sometimes it is still fragrantly warm and irresistible, and I arrive home with a loaf that looks like it was attacked by a (big) mouse.

It's these little things that we have learned to watch for and ask about. Our Romanian Orthodox friends make the sign of the cross on the bottom of the loaf of bread with the knife before they cut it. I asked Etus if she did that, too. "Yes, and I'm not Catholic!" she said with emphasis. She's Unitarian. Further inquiry determined that Unitarian (at least in our area), Roman Catholic and Romanian Orthodox people do this before they slice bread for a meal. Other Protestant religions don't. What will people do when sliced bread is generally available?

We buy whole loaves that weigh a kilogram (2.2 pounds) and cost about thirty cents. Village (home-made) bread is usually round (2 kg), but store bread can be oval or round, big or small. And they'll give you a half-loaf or quarter-loaf, if you want them to cut into a loaf for you. In all but a few stores, it comes without wrapping. People walk down the street with a loaf of bread or two under their arm, or in their hand. We find small loaves of graham bread sometimes. And "black" bread. I remember reading "Heidi" and how she longed for white bread. Black bread is nothing more than whole wheat bread. Now I think my little heroine just didn't know how well off she was!

But even the white bread here tastes good, so much so that you don't need to put butter on it. Just plain, thick slices with every meal, especially in the villages. People are proud of their flavorful bread. Our friend Zsolt, who has been working in Paris for the past year and a half, always takes a loaf or two back with him. Usually he makes the long trip by bus, but this Christmas he was on an airplane and his luggage was over-weight by about three kilograms. He said they could take out anything they wanted, just not the bread! Air France thought it was funny and just let him go on.

I'm going to have a slice right now with the elderberry jam I made last year.