Bread accompanies almost every Afghan meal, and in Kabul much of it comes from the neighbourhood bakery, the nanwayi. This film looks at how naan is made there. At the heart of each bakery is the tandoor, a deep, round clay oven built into the ground and kept fiercely hot all day.
Bakers sit on a platform around its mouth, kneading and shaping the dough, often into long ovals, sometimes scattered with nigella seeds. Using a padded paddle, they press each piece onto the oven’s hot inner wall; minutes later the bread is golden and crisp outside, soft within, and is lifted free with a long metal rod. Many families also bring dough prepared at home to be baked, and the baker may keep count by cutting a notch in a stick for every loaf.
