public service announcement

[deird1]

Being slightly homesick, have spent half an hour on YouTube watching Americans eating vegemite.

GUYS. IT'S NO WONDER YOU HATE IT. YOU'RE EATING IT WRONG.


Everyone keeps grabbing a spoon, scooping up a big glob of vegemite, and sticking it straight in their mouth. Then gagging and saying they hate it. I'm not surprised. I'd hate it too.

Vegemite is extremely potent stuff. It's supposed to be used to add a hint of flavour to your food, not be eaten as an OVERWHELMING FORCE the way all the YouTube people are doing it. Honestly, you're basically putting a full heaped tablespoon of salt in your mouth, and then complaining about everything tasting salty!

...which is a pretty good analogy, because vegemite is quite salty, and works in a similar way to salt.


To properly eat vegemite:
1) Make a piece of toast.
2) Add copious amounts of butter to the toast.
3) Get a very very small amount of vegemite, scrape it over the toast, and then scrape any and all excess off. You should be left with a light-brownish layer of vegemite, through which you can still see the butter.
4) Now eat it.

Quite simple, really.

Comments

[immer_am_lesen]

Aw, I saw the title and hoped you'd hatched your sprog. :) Ah well.

Yes, Americans can't do things by halves...I guess it wouldn't make for a funny youtube video to sensibly scrape a thin layer of vegemite onto a slice of toast, nibble on it, and claim it to be 'piquant'.... ;-)

[deird1]

Aw, I saw the title and hoped you'd hatched your sprog.

Nope, still waiting...

My days currently consist of doing jigsaws, watching tv, taking walks, and basically sitting around wondering when I'll go into labour. :)

[redsixwing]

IDK from Vegemite, but Marmite is delicious.
The grocery store had a teeny-tiny pot of it for sale, and remembering a friend's experience with a spoon, I did not in fact put a big wad of it in my mouth.

I like it with jam. :)

[deird1]

Vegemite and marmite are remarkably similar - just a slight difference in flavour.

I congratulate you on your wise non-spoon decision. :)

[frayadjacent]

I prefer marmite because it has a bit of sugar; vegemite doesn't. Though after a year in Australia I'm coming around. Vegemite is definitely easier to find. But I'll say it's not *just* a matter of quantity -- vegemite is definitely an acquired taste. But starting in tiny amounts is necessary to the acquisition.

I'm sorry you've been homesick! I hope the videos cheered you up.

[vass]

I've occasionally eaten it with a spoon, or even made broth from it. But I'm strange.

It still tastes best the way you describe.

[thirdblindmouse]

Couldn't you just... salt the butter instead? ;)

[frayadjacent]

Haha! But vegemite has a yeasty malty thing going on in addition to the saltiness. I like it best on toast with cheese and a fried egg, but I've been informed I'm Doing It Wrong. :)

[brin_bellway]

Everyone keeps grabbing a spoon, scooping up a big glob of vegemite, and sticking it straight in their mouth.

Weird. When we tried--I think it was Marmite--in Girl Scouts, we had it on toast. (I don't think there was butter involved, though, and we may have put it on slightly too thick.)

Shortly after, I read Terry Pratchett's The Last Continent, in which the characters' reaction to the Vegemite-analogue is something like "they all said 'yuck', and then they wanted more". I thought this was a very apt description.

[velvetwhip]

Thanks for the tip.


Gabrielle

[megpie71]

I think the thing is the majority of things the Murricans spread on bread are sweet things - the nearest they get to savoury is peanut butter (and even then they have that in sandwiches with jam... *pulls face*). So they're used to things you ladle onto the bread like an amateur plasterer. So maybe the trick is to get them started with things like devilled ham spread or anchovy spread as a sort of training regime for incredibly salty stuff, before introducing Vegemite into their orbit.

[luscious_purple]

When my church held an Australian-themed dinner as a fundraiser back in 2000 (guess where we got the idea?), the organizers had a feeling that something like that would happen. So for appetizers they pre-made small pieces of bread already topped with butter and a tiny, thin spread of Vegemite. That way, we didn't have to buy tons of Vegemite either, since it usually has to be special-ordered around here.

[nimthiriel]

I just introduced my Chinese colleague to the concept of a vegemite and cheese toastie. He was pretty pleased with the result!