Syrian Rural Oven, Attractive Tourist Phenomenon, Means Supporting People’s Life
The Syrian rural oven, which has become a popular phenomenon in our country, has a very old story that goes on with tales of women in the countryside who gather around it and exchange happy and sad news in addition to a lot of funny tales while making their delicious bread.
According to some people, the oven is no more than a small corner in the house that can be used only to change paste into bread. For others, and from a scientific point of view, building an oven reflects the genius of the oven’s first-builder who had made use from the three most important discoveries humanity had ever witnessed which are: fire, pottery, and domestic wheat.
A few of us know that only skillful persons can build an oven. They had to be accurate while mixing tile with clay to build the oven walls then they must make a hole in the bottom of the oven in order to drive ashes out. When heating process begins, the oven must be anointed with a piece of cloth wetted with water and salt.
In the past, the oven was one of the most important characteristics of rural life. Every two or three families had their own oven where women make bread for their families.
Ovens began to disappear gradually due to life developments. Nowadays, ovens have restored their important role as an attractive tourist phenomenon and as a means supporting rural people’s life.
The Syrian folkloric ovens have become a popular phenomenon that can be noticed along Syrian tourist and mountainous roads. They have become very important stops for every traveler or tourist who seeks enjoying the charming nature and tasting the delicious food and pastries baked with various flavors such as cheese, shinkleesh, chard and red pepper.
Oven owners are keen to use sweet-smelling fragrant plants such as basil, oak, and sage as firewood because such plants give special and distinguished flavor to bread.
A lot of people wonder what makes us enjoy eating such kind of simple food. Emotionally speaking, I think, it is because of the smell and the taste of such food which take us back to the simple life that our grandparents had lived. Our grandmothers were experts in preparing healthy food depending on natural resources.
Amal Farhat