Naan

To my elitist roommates who think that I am crazy for thinking naan is shaped in a circle and can be cooked without a tandoor oven: Check out this wikipedia article discussing naan. You will notice that naan is described as a “round” flat-bread. Traditionally naan is shaped in a distinct teardrop shape (neither oval or circle); however, if you do a google image search on naan, you will find pictures of the bread in all three shapes (more circles than ovals or teardrops). Although I haven’t researched the specific shape-preferences of naan producing regions, the point is that you should not look at your roommate with an elitist eye when he says he has been served naan in a circle shape. More than anything, it seems like shape is determined by the chef’s personal preference. Furthermore, you will find in this article, and in almost any other recipe for naan, that it is common to cook homemade naan in a pan in the absence of a tandoor oven. This is not to say it will be equal in taste to naan cooked in a tandoor; but we cook hamburgers and shish kabobs on the Foreman in the absence of a Big Green Egg eh? And lastly, you will find that naan is consistently compared to pita bread in almost any description you find on the internet. This is not to claim that naan is pita bread or that it has the same ingredients as pita bread, but simply that you should not look upon your roommate with an elitist eye when he speaks of the similarities of the two breads.