The Twisty-Tie

I knew that there would be many things which were familiar and comfortable from my U.S. life that would not be available here in Dar...reliable power, water from the tap, hot showers on demand, street addresses, etc. etc.  And while I definitely miss those big things, it's the loss of the little things that have surprised me.

Exhibit A:  the "twisty-tie"...the little piece of wire that goes around your bread and baked goods to seal in the freshness.   I'm sure most of you have never given this a second thought, and it's definitely not something I thought I'd miss!

However, here we have an annoying little sticker-seal around our bread.  It's nearly impossible to remove without a scissors, and even in carefully cutting the sticker, I usually accidentally cut the plastic wrap around the bread more often than not.  There is no possibility of adequately re-closing the bread bag with this system.   And in a place which has very high humidity most the year, (and no preservatives in the bread), sealing the loaf in a better fashion would probably be a good idea.  Even kept in the fridge, this bread can turn to mold very quickly!

(photo and hand courtesy Emily Steen)

The other interesting feature about the sticker-seal is that it's printed with the "sell-by" date directly on it.  However, you can't actually read the date as it's usually printed towards the inside of the seal, and then you need to cut the sticker in order to eat the bread.  Therefore, a better judge of the "freshness" (a very relative term as it's usually brick-like in texture), is to squeeze it and/or visually inspect it for mold before purchase.  Believe it or not, moldy bread on the shelves is not a rare occurrence!

Although twisty-ties seem to be an obvious solution to the problem of keeping bread fresh, they simply do not exist here, anywhere. Why is this?  Does the manufacturing technology not exist in Africa?  Is there a shortage of wire?   If anybody is looking into a new business idea, there's no competition at all for the twisty-tie market here.

It's the little things....