A long queue waited in the morning in front of the bakery on Avenida Carlos III to buy garlic bread, the only one that could be purchased this Thursday at a price of 6 pesos per unit and a maximum of 10 pieces per person.
“This bakery, like transportation, has its complicated schedules. I try to come very early, because there are fewer people,” commented a client who was waiting sitting on a small bench that she brought from home. Meanwhile, a woman ordered the flow of people to enter the store two by two.
“Garlic bread is quite convenient for me, because I save myself smearing oil and garlic on it. We eat it just like that,” the woman continued. “But what garlic or what eight quarts? If that bread doesn’t taste like anything! You can eat it, but nothing garlic,” replied a neighbor amid the laughter of the rest of the congregation.
In Carlos III’s bakery they also produce other types of bread, such as mold, for 25 pesos, which is not widely accepted by consumers, or the popular 5-peso bar, which is preferred because it is cheaper. But there is not always variety and, when the product is sold out, it can take between 30 minutes or an hour until a new batch is ready for sale.
“But what garlic or what eight quarts? If that bread doesn’t taste like anything! You can eat it, but nothing garlic”
The shortage of wheat flour, which in May reached the point of having to be replaced by corn, has recently manifested itself in the extremely long lines that double the bakery, giving rise to numerous arguments and fights in which, on occasions, the police had to intervene. Although the situation has improved this summer, a normality that perhaps does not exist in Cuba has not just arrived at Carlos III’s bakery: that in which the product can be purchased without long waits standing under the intense sun.
The obsession with bread is partly due to the fact that the product replaces many other foods that have been disappearing from Cuban tables. Bread with oil, bread with mayonnaise, bread with guava sweet and many other combinations become the most common snack to hold between meals or replace the traditional dish of rice, beans and meat.
The bread, made from refined flour, ends up in a school bag to serve as a snack between classes and to replace the tasteless food of patients in hospitals. Wherever they sell it, their fervent consumers will go there, especially if the price is lower than that of private bakeries, with more elaborate recipes.
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