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Breaking Bread
As the pandemic rages on and people are confined to their homes, many have sought comfort in baking bread, but not without documenting it on social media.
For the privileged, self-isolation, however melancholic it may sound, is hardly solitary confinement like it is being made out to be—we remain relatively oblivious to its deafening silence as we submit into digital noise in this great global lockdown. One such commotion, interestingly, is coming from our kitchens, “byte”-ing into our virtual domains.
As the novel coronavirus propelled the world to shut down, it also set the stage for a heady spate in social media activity as human beings prepared for confinement. Celebrities, gourmands, and even the culinarily challenged scrambled to their Instagram feeds bestrewn with funny anecdotes citing their struggles to replicate sourdough starters and kneading hiccups on their journey to impeccability. Many roused their dormant “epicurean bone” and took to firing their ovens with a zeal that hijacked pre-lockdown weekend chitchat on social media. Starbucks aficionados who missed their daily coffee runs headed out to replicate a dizzyingly viral TikTok video featuring whipped Dalgona coffee, storming into the kitchen swirling and beating coffee until their arms were numbed into a temporary freeze. Amidst this mayhem, one particular food item stood out—one that is staple the world over and yet is mostly outsourced—going on to become every creator’s muse: bread, the most ubiquitous and humble part of our food system.
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