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By
: Jon Bugge, Picture by : Bobby Viceral.
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A typical road-side bread stall
that can be spotted on just about any street in
the city
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The wooden
building at the end of the alleyway gives no indication
of usage. The only signage is the stenciled name,
on the stacks of baskets piled in front of the dark
entrance. In bold red lettering spelling out "Seven
Makura."
Before reaching the end of the alley the aroma emanating
from within speaks more than any sign could. The
smell of freshly baked bread is, without doubt,
a reassuringly delicious scent and arguably serves
as the best advertisement possible. Man first started
eating bread in approximately 10,000 BC - this was
basic flat bread. It was the ancient Egyptians who
first baked livened, or raised, bread around 3,000
BC. The archetypal baguette style bread was introduced
to the region during the French colonial era.
Since it's origins bread has provided a "nutritionally
dense" food, due to the concentration of complex
carbohydrates within bread. It is these carbohydrates
that provide a sustained energy |
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source.
The importance of this food group within a nutritional
context can be seen in fact that since 1990, United States
Dietary Guidelines have recommended the daily consumption
of six to eleven servings of bread and other grain foods.
It was in 1987 that the Seven Makura bakery was established
in Phnom Penh. Taing Pao Sreng prior to this had been
a baker in Chhlong district, Kratie province. Like so
many of his countrymen he found himself drawn to the capital.
"I moved to Phnom Penh because the market here is
bigger and I hoped to be able to do better in the city."
Sreng learnt his trade from his father in law, who worked
in the bakery when it started. Although starting as an
inherited trade, Sreng's wish now is for his children
to receive education and not to follow in his footsteps.
With the glow of a proud father he displays the certificates
of achievements for his children. He supports his four
children and one nephew from the bakery, but says, "My
children should do other things. It is too hard to make
a living this way."
"I called it Seven Makura because this was the date
that we started the bakery. Having asked a monk it was
chosen as a lucky day," Sreng explains. "It
was also the date of the liberation by the Vietnamese.
So many people survived because of this event I hoped
that by calling it this, my bakery too would survive."
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The heat,
from the four ovens, creates a mirage around the
six workers Sreng employs. The work begins everyday
at six in the morning and continues for most of
the day. There is an omnipresent cover of flour
to everything inside the bakery. The bakery is sparingly
light through skylights and the orange glow of the
fierce fires that are at the heart of the process.
Tirelessly the workers produce hundreds upon hundreds
of loaves. The huge shelves are loaded and unloaded
with an almost mechanical precision. The oppressive
heat and the heavy loads appear not to faze the
bakers as they maintain their production line. The
entire process is continuous; when one batch is
baking others must be rolled, weighed, counted,
sorted, packed and dispatched. Sreng seems to have
been right about the larger market in Phnom Penh.
When he started in 1987 he produced, on average,
about 1000 loaves a day. Sreng now reckons "Each
day we produce about four thousand loaves. Some
we sell to middle men and some we sell direct to
customers."
Much of his work is ordered prior to baking, he
hopes to increase the production when he buys an
automatic oven. Although he produces bread year
round there is a degree of seasonal fluctuation.
"From about now, when it starts to rain, we
sell more. The best time for us is in the
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A Naum Paing vendor peddling
her sandwiches on the streets of Phnom Penh.
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cold season. Then
we are very busy" Sreng explains.
The wood fueled ovens make the temperature inside the
bakery soar. On average each day they burn two cubic meters
of wood. This daily expense is about 60,000 riel (approximately
U$15). The tall chimneys, which rise above the alleyway,
testify to this consumption: billowing out smoke from
early in the morning. The crucial part of the process
is unsurprisingly in the flour. "We use very good
flour that we buy from a local company who imports it
from Australia." Sreng is proud to announce. The
price of the flour is around U$360 per ton.
Whilst proud of the flour, Sreng displays uncharacteristic
false modesty regarding the building itself. "It
is not beautiful and it is old too. I have plans to renovate
the building soon." The depth of his feeling became
apparent when he refused Leisure photographers to document
the bakery.
Whilst turnover maybe high it seems profit margins are
less so. "It is difficult to do this business. There
is very little profit. If I sell ten loaves I may be able
to make about 200 riel (U$ 0.05)" laments Sreng.
The French style baguette is definitely one of the tastier
colonial legacies and is evident across Indochina. Having
been amalgamated into the Khmer cuisine, it is a common
site in the markets across the country. Traditionally
considered a Western staple, Cambodians find a variety
of ways of consuming this product. One such "recipe"
is Naum Paing - usually an evening snack sold by mobile
vendors, it consists of a sandwich of luncheon meat and
vegetables. A more obscure variation is Karem - the ice
cream sandwich - the perfect way of jazzing up slightly
stale loaves!
One does not need to be in the kingdom long to be able
to recognize the vendors of the bread. Cycling round with
small charcoal burners to ensure their produce remains
warm. The characteristic dulcet tones of the sellers echo
throughout the city.
The eponymous "Naum Paing" or "Paing Paing"
announces their arrival. Come rain or shine they peddle
their wares and ensure our daily bread. |
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Suite
B8, Regency Square, InterContinental Hotel, 294 Mao Tse Toung
Boulevard,
Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia.
Tel: (855) 23 213 133 Fax: (855) 23 213 033
E-mail:
editor@leisurecambodia.com |
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