Score!

Most successful outing downtown today at breakfast time! Cheese bread!!! Delicious. Just. Delicious.

I got a car and driver, first thing, and said, "this is where I want to go - but first to Farm Five in Doha to get cheese bread." When we arrived there was quite a little stack of bread ready and waiting and only a few men milling about either as customers or conversing. [By the time we were ready to leave there was quite a little line forming. We got there before the rush.] I asked if it would be alright if I took some pictures and the three men [there is a fourth that works out back that I had never seen until today] were all most pleasant, accommodating and willing to let me snap away. Even allowed me to move in behind their counter to get a better photo of the inside of the oven. How sweet is that!

Mr. Customer Relations on the left, Mr. Bread Baking Oven Expert in the center, and the man who controls the magically tasty ingredients - Mr. Baker, on the right. Thank you Gentlemen, for allowing me to take photographs.

So it was a score. Score for the pictures so that I can share them with y'all. And a score for me, because I got cheese bread. [Trust me on this one - I am getting the better deal, here...] In return for me taking pictures all that was requested was that I please e-mail the photos to one of them. I am happy to oblige. The photos were e-mailed to the gentleman who requested them before I started this post. I will also be making color copies and delivering them in the next week or so - at the earliest possible opportunity I have to get downtown to indulge in more cheese bread. [Saturday!] The bread, alone, can't possibly be that fattening. But, if you could see the amount of cheese that goes into one of the "loaves" then it would be pretty easy to figure out how it is that I've managed to put thirty pounds onto my frame that I did NOT have when we arrived years ago.

Cheese bread is not the only option. There is bread with za'atar and plain bread and they have a sauce the will serve with the bread if you ask for it. I have had the za'atar bread. Yes. It is tasty. Much, much less caloric and much, much less fattening. Thanks, anyway, if I'm going to go there, I'm having the cheese bread. Eat it while it is hot! [If you have the man slice it and bag it for you, to carry home, I guarantee you that you will NOT be able to resist the aroma that fills your vehicle, and you'll start by just pulling off a little bite, and then another, and then a couple of more, and which point you may as well just eat the whole quarter-piece. As filling as it is, it is also very, very easy to eat a second quarter-piece. I know I said yesterday that one piece could feed a family of four. I lied. It will only feed a family of two. The cheese bread goes great with orange juice!]

The oven where the baking yumminess takes place. [Top photo - oven opened; bottom photo - oven closed.]

See that little hunk of dough back there on the counter? It is FILLED with cheese. Just filled with it. And, it's mine.

The baker preparing my order of bread. Cheese for me, please. And, my driver would like a piece of za'atar bread.

The bread on what looks like a nylon foam-covered cushion, about to be tossed into the oven.

In the oven. Look closely at the opening. You can see a loaf of bread - stuck to the wall of the oven - baking. There were probably four or five pieces in the oven when I took this picture - I'm glad that at least one of them can be seen - my photography skills do not do this process any justice. Click the photo to enlarge it. You can just barely see another loaf baking directly underneath...

Bread's done!

This bakery is located in Doha, in the Farm Five shopping center. Enter as though you were going to Farm Five - but don't park in the front - continue through the parking lot like you were going to go around back - past Starbucks - keep going, around the corner. There is what looks like a little "strip mall" area of shops - with plenty of parking. There is a barber shop there, and a cleaners, a couple of other shops and "the cheese bread shop." The bakery is two stores down to the left of the barber shop if you were facing that direction. You'll see it. There will be men waiting in line for their daily bread fix... And one blonde-haired, crazy American woman with her camera!