Golden-brown, thin-crusted, dense, sweet, and fragrant loaves of mine bread have long become a trademark and specialty of coal miners as well as all the people of Quảng Ninh.
Quảng Ninh mine bread – A simple mid-shift meal of coal miners
Mạo Khê mine was the first place to make mine bread. By the 1990s, other mines began to follow suit and made bread a convenient mid-shift meal, helping workers regain their strength to continue their labor deep underground.
A dense loaf of mine bread. Photo: Quảng Ninh Newspaper.
Perhaps only in the Quảng Ninh coal mines is there a kind of bread not meant for sale. Each worker heading down into the pit receives a mid-shift ration consisting of 1 loaf of bread and 2 cartons of milk. At a depth of 300 meters underground, these loaves of bread can warm the miners' hearts.
For those who have witnessed the development of Quảng Ninh's coal mining industry, through the mine bread, they reflect on the industry's growth and the increasingly improved lives of fellow miners.
Workers receiving bread mid-shift. Photo: Quảng Ninh Newspaper.
Nowadays, mine bread is no longer an expensive and rare treat, yet it still retains its distinctive delicious taste, encapsulating the heartfelt care that the bakers send to the miners—a dedicated effort to ensure that workers always have quality meals.
The mine bread , delicious and high in quality, often accompanies miners home to their families as a snack for wives and children, serving as a sweet gesture of sharing among loved ones as well as sharing the hardships of working underground.
Bakers at the company. Photo: Quảng Ninh Newspaper.
To produce a delicious loaf of mine bread, it must go through six main stages: kneading the dough, resting the dough, shaping the loaves, proofing, scoring, and baking. In the past, the bread was baked in coal-fired ovens, but now electric ovens are used. The baking stages are also supported by many machines, so just one person can produce thousands of loaves.
Loaves of bread packed with energy for an afternoon snack. Photo: VTV.
The bread-making process holds no special secret; the most important thing is to put one's heart into every loaf. The bread must adhere strictly to the recipe weight without skimping, the ingredients must be fresh, delicious, and properly regulated, and the crust needs to be thin so that the bread does not turn soft when kept for a long time.
The joy of miners during their meal with bread before continuing their work. Photo: VTV.
Not only for miners, miner's bread has become a cherished memory for any native of Quang Ninh, while also serving as a “cultural ambassador” bringing the interesting story of this humble specialty as a gift to visitors coming to the Quang Ninh mining region.
