Tuesday, January 29

 
Stop and Smell the Marmite

If you haven't had Marmite, a peculiar vegetable-based spread, by the time you're 3, you'll probably never develop a taste for it. That would include just about the whole of the United States, save the tiny population of English expatriates who exchange addresses for and haunt the doorsteps of American shops that dare to stock the odd-smelling stuff. Marmite is celebrating its centennial this year, an occasion that will go practically unnoticed in America unless you read this article that appeared in the New York Times and presents a Yank's attempt to understand the English devotion to it. From the paper's description, Marmite approaches peanut butter in both its evocation of happy childhood and its versatility as a food ingredient. The secret recipe includes yeast and vegetable extracts, salt, niacin, spices, folic and various B vitamins, making it a staple food for polar explorers, travelers and military personnel. (As an aside, perhaps a reader in England or Australia can tell me whether it's similar to Vegemite, the Australian vegetable paste made famous in the U.S. in a song by the band Men at Work in the early 1980s.) The downside is that it tastes, at least according to one account, like a cross between cheese and shoe polish. We will delicately sidestep the temptation to link this affection for Marmite to the obvious stereotypes about the quality of English food and beg you instead to read the story. My favorite part of the story came when Marmite devotees were able to detect a minute change in the formula in one shipment, which came from a South Africa factory, and shot off outraged letters to the company. It reminded me of an incident a few years ago in which Wisconsin brandy drinkers were the only ones in the whole country to detect and complain about a subtle change in the way Korbel was blending its brandy.
posted by Unknown 12:25 PM