The Papadum Maker
Gujarat India 2009
We stopped to visit a group of women whose families once lived in Pakistan but since the partition have lived in India. The women earn their living making the flat crisp bread called papadum. (Making papadums was one of the first methods used by women in the sub-continent as a means of earning their own money. )
There was a reason for our visit. Our guide’s family came from what is now Pakistan as well and his wife had told him to buy some papadums. He bought all the papadums that were available because, he told us, these were the best and friends and family were waiting for a culinary reminder of the old days.
You might notice that once the papadums are rolled out, they are placed on the floor to dry. I’ve seen this technique used in Syria. When the large, thin disks of bread come out of the foran or eyeball-shaped oven, they must be cooled or they will stick together. Men who deliver bread will buy an armload of bread in the bakery, go out into the street and fling the bread onto the sidewalk disk by disk. When it is cooled they gather it, place it in a plastic bag and proceed to deliver the bread. I’ve seen men place bread on the hood and roof of their car, or drape it over a wrought iron fence. No one thinks twice about it…but I did.