Rusk is bread baked twice until it is dry all the way through, and India eats an enormous amount of it.

It is built for dunking and nothing else. Dry, hard, faintly sweet, and it holds together in hot tea where ordinary bread would not.

Milk rusk is the standard version. Have it with chai in the morning, give it to children, or keep a packet for when there is no bread in the house. It lasts a very long time unopened.

Available at Curry Corner in North Melbourne.