Culinarybackstreets.com: Georgian Shoti Bread

The Global Guide which offers interesting and delicious articles from all around the world via its website culinarybackstreets.com had recently reported on the traditional Georgian bread known as Shoti. Andrew North, the journalist and writer of the article has spent many years in Georgia.

Traditionally in order to bake Shoti all you need is a mix of flour, water, salt and yeast. After mixing you should knead the dough by hand. The website spoke to two Georgian women, Nona and Marekhi who bake the shoti bread in Tone (oven) about their daily life.

“It is incredibly hard work, Marekhi’s day begins at 4:30AM, when she and her co-worker Nona Khatiashvili (no relation) start making giant tubs of dough in the back of a low-ceilinged bakery, ready to be baked into the long-flat loaves of bread that Georgians call shoti. It is a ritual of daily life here,” the article reads.

“The loaves are ready in minutes. With a long-handled hook in one hand and a kind of scraping tool in the other, they deftly prise each piece loose and flip them onto a rack.”

Customers ask for shoti at the window with the question “do you have any hot?” a phrase often uttered in front of bakeries. Shoti costs around 60-70 tetri and look like canoes.

“It’s relentless toil. Over several hours, I watch the rhythm of Georgian bread-making unfold, trying to keep up on my sketchpad. And they’ll be at it until 9 p.m. each night. But except when she is leaning over the oven, Marekhi keeps up a constant flow of jokes and banter.

“It’s hard enough to bake Georgian traditional bread,especially in summer when temperatures reach about 40c but despite such conditions Marekhi and Nona think this work is blessed,” the article concludes

“Like wine, bread is a gift from God.” Nona commented

resource: culinarybackstreets.com 

Nina Ioseliani