The Pita Is Poppin’ at Alida’s Bakery
Image: Jane Sherman
When he arrived in Seattle, Nechirvan Zebari’s father went to the bakery in their local Fred Meyer to meet the people doing the most important job: making bread. In Kurdistan, everyone either made or bought bread daily, and almost every street had a bakery. But, as refugees do, he adapted. From his new friends, he learned when he could shop to get the bread at its freshest, bringing it home for Zebari and his seven other children.
Now, Zebari has that essential role himself, baking fresh Kurdish-style pita at Alida’s Bakery in Everett. “Bread has a control on people, on me, on us,” he says. “You eat it, you feel different, you feel good.”
Image: Courtesy Nechirvan Zebari
The same goes for making it. He found this out by watching as his older brother Ali and Ali’s wife, Khalida, started making Kurdish breads in a tandoor. They taught Zebari the family recipes he had been too young to learn when Saddam Hussein kicked American companies out of Iraq, leaving their father, a security guard for one, at risk of prosecution and with the opportunity for refugee status in the US.
“It was so good, and it was so fun,” Zebari says of baking with his family. “And for them, it brought back so many memories of being at home in Kurdistan.” The hobby became a passion for the brothers, then a business.
Zebari scoffs at the scratchy, paper-thin Greek-style pitas many people are used to: “I don’t even know why you call it pita; it’s flatbread.” His Kurdish-style pita exits the oven thick and puffed with steam. “For us, bread is fluffy, it’s like a cloud.”
But, somehow, a very strong cloud. The surprisingly robust bread sops up sauces like a Swiffer and maintains its integrity through even the messiest of sandwich fillings. Made with just flour, water, salt, and yeast, it draws on the alchemy of an oven to bestow its gentle flavor.
That magic comes with a downside, though. Many European-style breads use sourdough, which imparts acidity to stay fresh longer, and many mass-produced American breads have sugar or fat, which keep them moist. Alida’s uses none of that, which makes its bread ethereal, but also ephemeral. Unless, as Zebari suggests, you take a hint from what his dad did after buying all the fresh bread at the grocery store back in the day: Simply freeze it as soon as you buy it and pop it in the microwave to refresh before eating.
