The little bakery deserves its own post because I think it is quaint & yet still functioning after so long.
The bakery is accessed from a courtyard, just off the street & down from the Le Citerne Portugaise - the subterranean water storage building.
The round, cellar like ceiling & the poles mounted in the wall to hold the trays have not changed in all time.
This is a community bakery - people who live in this little town, bring in their bread daily to be baked in the oven.
Our guide Mohammed explained that the baker knows which bread belongs to who & he has a system for stacking it in the oven so that when he takes it out, he knows who to put it by. These trays are all from different families ...
I know the baker has a system but I know I would mix things up when the town ladies bring in different amounts of bread to be baked so you are never certain that a person has a set number of loaves ....
Mohammed explaining the system to us ...
I admit to getting distracted by the view in the bakery - the wooden window opens on to the harbour & this is his view - wow, just wow. How is that for a work view?
The town ladies also bring in trays of the most beautiful biscuits to be baked too - how tempting are these?
The baker in his massive, sunken inglenook type oven. Imagine him getting distracted & not timing the baking well?
Stunning biscuits ready to be baked ...
The baker lights the fire in the massive oven to start baking the cookies
Mohammed had told us that towns folk also bring in the food to be cooked & while we were there, a lady brought in the skillet of spicy Portuguese chicken. The smell was so good & she was pleased with our compliments - imagine a system like this which has not changed in generations? The expectations of the whole town rests on one man ....
I walked up on to the town walls overlooking the harbour & could see the bakery window from the top. A cat has come to sun itself ....
Can you see the bakery window / door / opening just close to the harbour wall? It personifies a time less hurried, a time when life was much simpler & when things had a slower pace ...
A fascinating place, an interesting concept of the baker taking charge of many people’s food. I wonder how other bakers would cope with such things. I wonder if the baker ever thinks: Mrs D, your biscuits & bread is not too good today? Could do better ....
The pretty Unesco town of El Jadida - a place that has stood still in time.
Dee ~💕~
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