Food Habits

For all those who love food, I will share today a few impressions about some Aussie food items. Probably the most traditional spread used on breakfast toast and school lunch sandwiches is Vegemite. It is also a symbol of Australia, along with the koala and the kangaroo. Vegemite is a very dark brown spread made from lysed yeast left over from beer brewing. Its invention dates in the 1920s and I believe it had to do with not wanting to trash all that organic matter rich in B vitamins but use it to feed hungry mouths. Vegemite has some of the B vitamins, but not B12. I read that Vegemite did not sell well in the beginning (actually until late 1930s) and that was no matter of amazement to me! Vegemite is saltier than straight seawater, darker than night, and even if you recover from these two unappealing features, your mouth is still abused by a strong savoury, slightly bitter concentrate that marries well only with a thick layer of butter and warm bread. School children and who knows how many adults eat vegemite and cheese sandwhiches for lunch, probably as much as Americans eat the PB&J sandwich. I confess I could never eat more than the first bite I tried… Yet, all of these things are nutritious and if I were to eat them from a young age, I would have liked them a lot, no doubt. Here is another sandwhich very popular with school kids (I hear from Chloe), fairy bread. It is a butter with hundreds and thousands sandwich. Did I get you again? Yes, hundreds and thousdands are what Americans call rainbow sprinkles. Are you hungry yet? I am, so I will prepare dinner now and I’ll discuss more Aussie foods and Aussie food names tomorrow. I couldn’t make myself show a picture with food, but some strawberries look good here. I took the picture on a strawberry farm close to Melbourne. Enjoy!