Kirkepiscatoid: Another Confession--this NE Missouri native is a Marmite Junkie!

Another Confession--this NE Missouri native is a Marmite Junkie!

I am told by all my relatives that for a NE Missouri native, I have, um...unusual food tastes. So unusual, in fact, that I have been the butt of many family jokes about it. My contributions to potluck dinners are frequently "suspect," because of my love of hot spicy food. I was the first person in my family who dared eat sushi. My mother has been distressed for decades that I eat my oatmeal with garlic and hot sauce on it. (Of course, this is coming from the woman who puts half a bottle of syrup on her pancakes, so I have never taken her derision to heart.) My late grandmother refused her entire 84 years to ever eat in a Chinese restaurant. (Her classic line was, "You ever notice it is DARK in a Chinese restaurant? That's because they don't want you to see you are eating cat meat and octopus eyes." She also used to claim that "Chow chow" meant "edible dog" in Korean.)

So it's plain to see I was not reared to step too far out of the gastronomic box. But part of what I envisioned as a child as "the adventure of foreign travel" was eating all these things I had only seen in movies. When I went to England to visit my friend C. while he was on sabbatical, he and I mostly cooked at his flat, and only rarely went out, because part of the "adventure" for me on my visit was simply going to Tesco (the big grocery chain in England) and buying the local groceries.

I fell in love with two food items on that trip--digestive biscuits, (they taste a little like "a more refined version of a Graham Cracker" to me) and a very unlikely candidate--Marmite, a yeast extract paste that Brits are goofy over and Americans, by and large think is very weird.

C. hated the stuff, yet told me I had to at least try it. He was pretty dismayed when after one bite, I said, "Oh, man! This stuff is great!" I had to bring some home with me after my visit with C. in London. Since then, I have found a place on the internet I could buy the stuff.

I am not a person with a sweet tooth. I am a "salt and sour and hot" kind of person, when it comes to food. The sheer saltiness of Marmite gives me a rush--I think I can hear my arteries hardening when I eat it right off the spoon. My favorite way of eating Marmite is to put it on roasted garlic Triscuits. Even though it is 100% vegetarian, it tastes "beefy" to me, for some reason. It's Aussie counterpart, Vegemite, tastes "puny" to me compared to Marmite. I understand that New Zealanders like Marmite, but their version is slightly different than the British version. I have never tried the NZ version of Marmite. I hear it tastes more like Vegemite.

I may be the only person that Marmite reaches in the 63501 post office, but what the hell?

2 comments:

Leonard said... November 2, 2008 at 10:53:00 AM CST: Marmite, I´ve never met Marmite...my Dad and his huge family came from England and we were treated to all sorts of different stuff, some we developed cravings for such as Yorkshire Pudding with Brown Gravy, Steak and Kidney Pie (but not the Beefliver Tartare)...but, Marmite, do you stur it into broth/soup? I think I´ve gotta have someone bring me a jar on a visit from the States...I like hot and spicy too but I also love sweet...my father/family would never mix them and turned up there nose at Cranberry Sauce and other sweet things combined on the plate.

My Mother was very ¨food¨ particular and we never had anything in our home that wasn´t really fresh (she would even throw things out that remained for over a few days)...everything, almost, was refrigerated and NO DENTED CANS...going shopping to the market with my Mom was like going looking for diamonds in the sand...very intense.

I always thought it funny when I went to other peoples houses and discovered things like Velveeta Cheese or Cold Cuts...we only had waxed squares of Sharp Cheddar and Boiled Ham or left over Roast Beef, NEVER anything that looked like sausage or lunch meat...later, I developed a weird sort of craving for SPAM Sandwhiches which I discovered at college (and quickly got over).

Later as a adult working in the Far East over Five Months out of every years (for almost nine years)...I learned a whole NEW cluster of favorites...like you, Japaneese was a favorite, but like your Grandma, I wasn´t a fan of BBQ´d Korean Dog (no matter how delicious).

Sorry, I´m going on and on, but here in Latin America we have some wonderful things made with Plantains! Wonderful, and every kind of delicious bean too.

Happy Sunday, and thanks for the Marmite heads up!
Kirkepiscatoid said... November 2, 2008 at 10:10:00 PM CST: Although the standard fare is Marmite on toast or on a cheese sandwich, it can also be added to soup/stew for a more savory flavor (or should I say "savoury flavour"?)

I got turned on to plantains, too, BTW from some Puerto Rican friends I had when I lived in Columbia, MO. But I have yet to see a plantain show up in Kirksvile (bummer!)

Had to laugh about your cheese story. I didn't even know I LIKED cheese until I was like 17 or 18. The only "cheese" my mom ever bought was Velveeta and Kraft American Singles. One of the things that traumatized me for life was my mom put Velveeta in meat loaf. Melted Velveeta in a meatloaf slice looks like a lung abcess in a pneumonectomy specimen.

But the gastronomic ignorance of my relatives now freaks me out. I grew up eating chili and spaghetti made of ketchup, "Salad" was potato salad and egg salad (the thing my mom called "lettuce salad" was a pile of lettuce with "Dorothy Lynch Homestyle Dressing" or Miracle Whip on it.)

In fact, my mom got into a row with me that I now "like cheese". She said, "Where did you pick that up? You never liked cheese." I had to answer, "You never HAD cheese. All you ever had was Velveeta. I'm not even sure if that stuff ever SAW a cow!"