Preface: this edition of Is My Blog Burning? celebrates the first birthday of the original food blogging meme. I'm happy Carlo from My Latest Supper is finally hosting an IMBB? and especially this one. Carlo's turn should have come up way before, but in part because of my messy organization, things got a tad delayed. Scusa Carlo! Last year in February things kicked off with a soup dedicated event. This month, we have something different: Carlo thought up a somewhat unusual and provocative theme, food taboos. Show me yours... here's mine!
Finding a food taboo was a real hard task. I'm not someone who says no to new foods, and I'll try almost anything once. Bugs? Done that, they can be quite nice. Horse meat, snails, frogs... don't see what's shocking about that. While I never tasted snake meat, I've had crocodile (or maybe alligator) once, nothing breathtaking. Natto or mountain potato, especially after reading Tony Bourdain's description of them in "A cook's tour" seemed a good pick, but I had no luck in finding them here.
The only thing that I've had a taboo about at a certain stage of my life was offal. As a kid, just the smell would make me sick. Not anymore. The only thing that still slightly puts me off is blood, blood sausages, pudding and the like. Blutwurst is quite popular around here, but I always find it grainy and slightly metallic yet sweet can be quite revolting to my taste buds. I have eaten it if I had to, but I survived.
What really got me the right idea for this IMBB? was Carlo's examples for food taboos... marmite! I seriously loathe the stuff, salty, yeasty, sticky... just DIS-GUS-TING! Daniela, on the other hand, loves the stuff. I can't even look when she spreads it on bread. I only tasted it once, and swore never to taste any again, but, in Carlo's honor I decided to give marmite another try.
To make things a bit more interesting I made marmite on toast part of an Irish style fry-up with bacon, egg, mushrooms, plus white- and black-, i.e. blood, pudding (above). These two were a kind gift of a friend, Manuela, back from some time in Ireland. A fried tomato wouldn't have gone amiss, but I simply forgot to buy some. So I brewed myself a cuppa and set on on this perilous taste journey.
I started nibbling on a little bacon, then egg, a bite of mushroom... pretending black pudding and the toast were not there, sort of. Who did I want to fool? A sip of tea and I attacked the black pudding next. Quite nice actually, much better than Blutwurst: spicy, not too fat, the whole grains in the sausage giving an interesting texture change. No problem with obstacle no.1 there. Next the toast. Bite. Chew. CHEW, I said. Salty... very salty. I try to swallow but the stuff sticks to my gums. TEA!! With one gulp I wash whatever is still in my mouth down. OK time for a little more eggs and bacon, mushroom and pudding. Should I try again. Oh heck, once more! Gh! yeek!! bleah!!! Quickpassthetea! Drink, drink, drink... ah! I'm sorry Carlo, blood's fine, I'm actually tempted by boudin noir, but marmite? NO WAY!
I actually think you spread far too much Marmite on your toast, for a novice marmite eater!! One of the biggest mistakes that those who are not familiar with Vegemite or Marmite is to put too much Vegemite/Marmite to too little butter. There should be lots and lots of butter and only a small scraping of Vegemite, enough to give a pleasant salty taste. Augustus Gloop (another Australian), from Grab Your Fork, will back me up on this idea!
I think of Vegemite etc. as a concentrate vegetable stock, or thick soy sauce; in fact they're often used as ingredients in Meatloaf and soups! I don't know, perhaps Daniela really, really loves thick marmite toast, but looking at that amount on your bread makes my salivary glands sting (if that makes sense!), and I have been brought up on Vegemite, which is even stronger and saltier than Marmite!!
(PS -I actually wrote about Vegemite Risotto in my entry...yes, doesn't it sound REVOLTING!!)
Posted by: Niki | February 20, 2005 at 04:14 AM
PS - I should have also written congratulations on trying it! It's not easy trying to like something so new. And you've done one better with me, because the one time I tried natto I nearly retched.
Funny thing is, I actually quite like blutwurst.....but not too much of it. It's so rich!
Posted by: Niki | February 20, 2005 at 04:17 AM
Alberto - congratulations on trying it. But I have to agree with Niki - you don't have nearly enough butter, and you have WAY to much Marmite. It shouldn't be spread like Nutella!!!! Check out my entry for a picture that illustrates an optimum marmite:toast:butter ratio.
But at least you put it in your mouth. Try as I might, I couldn't persuade Fred to do the same thing!
Posted by: Sam | February 20, 2005 at 04:50 AM
oops - bad link - here is the picture:
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/164/977/1024/toast.marmite.1.jpg
Posted by: Sam | February 20, 2005 at 04:52 AM
I had the same reaction with black pudding - thought I would hate it but its actually nice. Marmite though... you are a braver man than me - I smelled, had about 1 part in a thousand of bread and still hated it about six years ago. Never looked at the stuff again...
Posted by: ronald | February 20, 2005 at 09:49 AM
I haven't tried natto yet, but I do like Thousand Year Old Eggs. Most non-Chinese folks I know think I am a big weirdo for eating them and make faces, but I like the flavor, what can I say.
Marmite or vegamite--now, I have to try them!
Posted by: Barbara | February 20, 2005 at 07:11 PM
Oh you're so brave! Marmite is really bad stuff. Many english folks says that people who doesn't like it probably spread too much in their first try. They say you should spread butter first on your toast then add a tiny weeny amount of Marmite and spread on top of the butter until it looks marbled. I tried this method but I'm afraid to say that I still take part of the team who hates it!
Now oooh, nato... I love it! Very sticky, mixed with raw egg yolk and pring onions, poured on top of a steaming bowl of japanese rice, mmmmm, blis!
Posted by: Marcia-UK | February 20, 2005 at 07:38 PM
Good Job Alberto!!
I, like many others, came clost to the stuff, took a smell, and backed up at least ten feet from the small jar. Stincky!! I tried thinking of things to write about - but couldn't fin any in time. I hope I make it to the next IMBB?
Ciao,
Ore
Posted by: Ore | February 20, 2005 at 08:00 PM
Thanks everyone for the tips - well that, or sharing your disgust for marmite ;-)- Niki, Sam and Marcia: thanks for the hindsight, I'll try again... maybe. At least now I know how much I should use, great picture Sam - it is really worth a thousand words.
Posted by: Alberto | February 20, 2005 at 11:11 PM
Good on you!
PS - A medium sized jar of Vegemite should last a single person about a year. I'm serious! That's how little you use!
Posted by: Niki | February 21, 2005 at 11:16 AM
Well done Alberto! You're a braver man than me for trying something you know for a fact you don't like... I have to say that I like Marmite - always have (but then I have the most salty tooth - opposite of a sweet tooth - in the world...). I prefer Bovril (made in SA - the one in the UK tastes different!) but my dad always had Marmite so I grew up with it. I do agree with Niki, Sam & co that you need far more butter and far less Marmite on that slice of toast!! And if you had put the egg *on top* of the Marmite, you'd have a creation ready-made for this month's End of Month Egg on Toast Extravaganza...
PS - I also expected to hate black pudding, but in the end I rather liked it!
Posted by: Jeanne | February 24, 2005 at 02:15 PM
Hahaha! Brave man you are. congratulations. And I commisserate with you I absolutely loathe that stuff. While my husband and youngest kid loves it a lot. Blechhh!
Posted by: celiaK | March 01, 2005 at 02:55 PM
Just eating Marmite on toast as I came across this blog. I'm yet another one to say: way too much marmite. I suspect that most people who don't like it have tried it like this and put themselves off for life unsurprisingly.
To start with, use a decent plain white bread. Pugliese is a good choice. Avoid sourdough or rye etc initially. If all goes well with the white, brown bread can also work well. You have to have a lot of unsalted butter on the toast, wait till that's melted and then scrape the tiniest dabs of marmite on. Treat it as if you were adding salt and just try to lightly colour the toast - try to keep it transparent.
If you haven't completely put yourself off for life with the abomination of your first attempt, you should find that it has a very interesting flavour. The longer you eat it the thicker you can spread it but this is measured over years. Also, you can't do anything with it apart from toast (or bread and butter which is not as good). English breakfast or similar tea with milk is a pretty essential accompaniment.
Posted by: chu | March 05, 2005 at 07:03 PM