国际英语资讯:Feature: Homemade bread aroma floats over Istanbul amid COVID-19_时事

国际英语资讯:Feature: Homemade bread aroma floats over Istanbul amid COVID-19

Her interest in making bread started when the outbreak became widespread in the country nearly two months ago. Since then, the Sapan family do not go to any bakeries due to their concerns over hygiene.

"The worst part of cooking bread at home is that we eat a lot," she said, noting that the flour consumption of the household has also increased significantly.

"I am buying at least three packets of flour per week," she said.

A manager of a supermarket in the Dikilitas neighborhood of the crowded Besiktas district said the previous month they had difficulty in meeting the increasing demands of flour and dry yeast.

"Our shelves have been left empty many times," he told Xinhua. "But I can say that in April, we were more prepared in providing enough supplies."

The sales of bread in the bakeries in Istanbul decreased at least by 35 percent in March due to the coronavirus pandemic as a significant number of citizens started to make their bread at home, Erdogan Cetin, president of the Istanbul Bakery Chamber, recently told reporters.

In Cetin's view, it is hard to catch the same quality and taste of the bread made in stone ovens in bakeries.

"But, the health of our citizens comes first for us," Cetin was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu agency. "This process will end in 15 days or a month, and after that, everything will be back to normal."