
Low-carb diets may attempt to eliminate bread, yet it remains “the staff of life”. Yes, it’s carbohydrate-laden, but there’s a reason why bread has been a part of the human diet since the Neolithic period, around 10,000 years ago. It’s delectable. It’s also affordable and filling.
Beyond plain white bread, there’s a whole world of bread to discover, so why not spice up your table with one of the below bread varieties?
1. Bolani
A well-prepared bolani is adorned with golden blisters of crisp dough, but the actual gem of Afghanistan’s favorite flatbread is concealed inside.
Afghan bakers stack bolani with a substantial filling of potatoes, spinach, or lentils after spreading the yeast-leavened dough into a thin sheet. The chewy, cozy meal acquires a crispy coating when cooked in shimmering-hot oil, with fresh herbs and scallions adding vibrant flavor.
2. Lavash
Don’t dodge when your Armenian mother-in-law approaches you with a hula hoop-sized flatbread: The newlyweds in the nation are covered with lavash to ensure a prosperous life. Ladies assemble to roll and stretch the dough on a cushion padded with hay or wool to make traditional loaves. Slapping the massive sheets into the interior of conical clay ovens, where they bake fast amid the tremendous heat, requires a deft touch.
3. Damper bread
A damper is an explorer’s staple that harkens back to Australia’s frontier days.
It’s only water, flour, and salt, and it may be baked directly in the ashes, pressed into a cast-iron skillet, or even toasted on the end of a stick. Chemical leavening, butter, and milk are frequently included in modern recipes, transforming the hearty backwoods meal into a sophisticated delicacy akin to Irish soda bread.
4. Lucchi
A quick dip in hot oil transforms soft wheat dough into a blistered, golden flatbread that goes great with the country’s fragrant curries.
In Bangladesh, it’s a popular breakfast option, generally served with white potato curry, although these can be found anywhere from Dhaka sidewalk vendors to home kitchens.
5. Pão de queijo
The fact that South America’s native cassava is a testament to culinary ingenuity: the starchy root contains naturally enough occurring cyanide to kill a human.
Plenty of the continent’s native population discovered a technique to transform cassava into an unusual culinary hero by meticulously treating it with a cycle of soaking, pressing, and drying. It’s now the foundation for one of Brazil’s most popular snacks: a cheesy bread roll with a crunchy exterior and a soft, mildly sour inside.
6. Montreal bagels
The flame is always burning at Montreal’s Fairmount Bagel, which debuted in 1919 as Montreal Bagel Bakery and became the city’s first bagel bakery.
Inside, bakers push rows of bagels into the wood-fired oven with long, slender wooden paddles, toasting them to a rich golden hue. The hand-shaped rings are cooked in honey water before baking, and the bagel dough is combined with egg and honey. The result is thick, chewy, and mildly sweet cookies that may be purchased hot from the oven at any time of day.
7. Marraqueta
An influx of European immigrants in the early 19 and 20 centuries, brought their wheat-bread customs to Chile, and the country’s favorite snack arose from that cultural clash.
The marraqueta features a light, fluffy center split into four lobes, but the ubiquitous roll is all about the crust. Many Chileans enjoy the addictively crispy exterior of the marraqueta, which is achieved by sliding a pan of water into the oven.
8. Shaobing
The sesame-seed shell of a shaobing cracks open to expose delicate layers of wheat taste. Expert shaobing bakers spin and slap the dough till it is so thin that it has 18 or more layers when done. The sweet or savory contents, ranging from black sesame paste to smoked pork or Sichuan pepper, can be added to the north Chinese flatbread.
9. Pan Cubano
The fluffy crumb of pan Cubano provides a delicate contrast to the crunchy, cracker-like exterior, which is flavored with melted lard.
If you go to a Cuban bakery, you’ll almost certainly see the long, golden loaf with the pale seam in the middle: To produce a unique crack down the length of the bread, some bakers push a trimmed palmetto leaf into the dough before baking.
10. Libba
In Egypt’s vast deserts, Bedouin tribes travel light, taking sacks of wheat flour to bake each day’s bread over an open fire.
Libba, unlike certain Bedouin loaves, is cooked on hot metal sheets. The high heat creates a crisp, browned top on the light dough, leaving the inside steaming and moist.
11. Pupusas
You’ll never be far from the toasted-corn aroma of frying pupusas if you walk the streets of San Salvador. The griddled cornbread is a popular snack as well as a national symbol.
It consists of cheese, pork, or spicy beans. For a full dinner, a bright topping of slaw-like curtido cuts through the fat and salt.
12. Injera
The porous surface of injera is covered in a constellation of bubbles, giving it the ideal foil for Ethiopia’s rich sauces and stews. Injera is made from teff, an ancient and nutrient-dense grain. It has a distinctly sour flavor. It’s the product of a fermentation process that begins with combining fresh batter with microorganisms from a previous batch, then allowing the combination to ferment for several days to become more delicious.

13. Baguette
The French may scorn eating the move, but “le quignon,” the crisp-baked end of a thin baguette, is an unwritten exemption.
You’re free to cut off a piece and eat it while walking down the street, possibly because the baguette is a symbol of French culture.
The baguette, like many of the finest traditions, is a very recent innovation.

14. Khachapuri
Khachapuri, brimming with fresh imeruli and sulguni cheeses, might be Georgia’s most popular snack.
The delicious flatbread begins with a soft, yeasted dough pinched into a boat-shaped cradle before being baked with an egg and cheese filling. Khachapuri masters know to wipe the rich, flowing filling by breaking off the ends.

15. Pumpernickel
These classic north German loaves have a unique mahogany color and are made entirely of rye flour.
Traditional versions are cooked for up to 24 hours in a hot, humid oven. It’s a unique method that aids in transforming sugars in rye flour, converting naturally occurring sweetness into taste depth.
16. Corn Tortilla
After failing to make humans from mud and wood, Mayan tradition claims that the gods formed mankind from a paste of ground maize, or corn. Because the outcomes were so remarkable, the gods were concerned that humanity might become divine. The significance should not be overlooked: the soul of corn tortillas is ground maize and water, which has sustained and sustained people everywhere in Mexico and Central America.
17. Bao
It’s nearly difficult to walk into a food hall, ramen shop, or pan-Asian store these days without coming across morsels nestled within a soft, fluffy, somewhat sweet bun. The bun has grown so appealing that chefs outside of the Chinese heritage have found it to be a good fit for fillings inspired by Mexican, Vietnamese, and other cuisines.
18. Sourdough
The sourdough era has come. Many people have been touting the health advantages of sourdough in recent years, claiming that it is simpler to digest than other bread and contains antioxidants. To value this bread merely for its nutritional value or ability to prevent disease, however, is to overlook the bigger picture: people all over the globe have enjoyed sourdough for millennia because its tang compliments a wide range of meals from many cultures.

19. Rugbrod
Although this Danish rye bread is nominally a sourdough, it lacks the airy texture of a traditional sourdough due to the reduced gluten concentration of rye flour. Rugbrod is the basis for smorrebrod, a Scandinavian open-faced sandwich consisting of buttery slabs layered with various toppings, occasionally fishy, usually acidic, and always colorful.
20. Pita
Pita is a flatbread. This moderately leavened bread, which originated 4,000 years ago in the Middle East, is soft and spherical and fried at a high temperature. The dough will inflate up, as a result, leaving a practical inner pocket as it cools. Pitas can be filled with delicious falafel, but they can also be folded over gyros or used to scoop up hummus or tzatziki sauces.