Hello! I am keeping busy with my friend arriving today, no new gardening news.
I had a question about Vegemite from Janet a few weeks back. (Popular spread for bread here in Australia) Her older son was daring her younger son to eat a whole jar for five dollars.
My immediate response was “Get your younger son to ask for a whole heap more cash”
Its not that I don’t like it – I love it, but very few of us Australians eat it with a spoon (shudder)
Its a yeast extract – salty/savoury NOT sweet or chocolatey. My Canadian husband seems to think it works well on his bicycle chains! 🙂
I am under the vague impression that you have to be brought up on it to like it. People do make the mistake of sticking their noses in the jar for a big sniff – don’t do that!! You’ll never be the same again.
People also try to spread it like peanut butter – again, not a good life choice!
First, cook your toast, nice hot buttery toast!
Get your knife and artistically scrape bits of vegemite over your hot buttery toast!
I will take a couple of months to get through a jar – as you can see, not much needs to go on the toast.
Now, think savoury, be brave and take a bite.
Actually Vegemite might have been banned in the US, not for taste reasons, but due to the high yeast content!! Puzzling. And disappointing.
One of the greatest joys in an Australians life is watching foreigners taste Vegemite for the first time. 😀 Its the little things in life….
Any non-Australians out there taken the Vegemite taste test? Did it go well? Did it end badly? I would love to know!!
Hope everyones Friday has been amazing!
Cheers!
Janet here. I just showed my sons your pictures and noted what you said. Amazon has Vegemite for sale. When I looked at the reviews a few weeks back some people hated it but some people really loved it. There were Aussies who were so glad to find it. My younger son, who is 7, can be a fussy eater, so I don’t think he is ever going to try it. He saw a young boy on a show who was blindfolded and his parents put a “peanut butter amount” on a Poptart. The boy spit it out and tried wiping his mouth out. That was probably where they got the idea. Thanks for showing the proper way to eat it. Funny your husband doesn’t like it – bike grease!! haha
Love your pictures and all the great garden ideas you have. Why do you cover the raspberries? Birds? I don’t think I have ever seen someone cover raspberries (Washington State). Take care.
Hi Janet! Glad this was helpful – at least saved someone the agony of trying to earn a very difficult – if not impossible five dollars!
I used to take cheese and vegemite sandwiches to school too! 🙂
uuuurgh – re the pop-tart! Thats just cruel!!
Thank-you re garden! Yes, its birds that I net for – both the normal flying sort and the destructive greedy chickens! Once the local birds find something good, the message goes out and wham – all gone! We have two massive cherry-plum trees which we get buckets of fruit off, but we probably only get about a quartre of it (which is really oodles) then the birds start coming in – we call them the clean up crew! Saves having lots of sticky fruit and wasps hanging about. 🙂
Lisa,
While most people will enjoy reading the eating instructions, I enjoyed reading the label “Only available at Woolworths”! This is a store from my childhood, which no longer exists companywise here in the states. I say companywise, because our downtown still has the Woolworth store doors with the logo on the door pulls.
lol – Our Woollies is a supermarket chain & one of the ‘biggies’ here. You can get vegemite in any supermarket but I think this one is a special size!
I always feel a bit nostalgic when I see by gone shop signs labels too!
Lisa,
I believe that being able to eat Vegemite is an Aussie DNA thing. I have tried it…thinly scraped over buttered toast….and it was still not fit for human consumption. However, my wonderful son-in-law and my (half) Australian grandson gobble it down with gusto. I would rather put anchovy paste on ice cream.
Read this out loud to the people here… we are laughing a lot!!! Thanks for that!!
I ordered Vegemite off Amazon several months ago as a fun thing for my husband and I to try. I read that you have to use a thin scraping of it on toast. I spread it as thin as it will go but it was still not thin enough, as we could not tolerate it. We in the Southern U.S. tend to thinly spread stuff thicker than most would, lol. I have since learned to use a thin scraping on a super buttery piece of toast and I really enjoy it. I also put a little bit in when I make brown gravy and it tastes pretty awesome. I have read about making Vegemite scrolls but I haven’t tried them yet. Either way, this jar is likely to last me a loooong time! There is a great clip of Jimmy Fallon(I think) trying Vegemite toast on you tube if you get a chance to view it.
“As a fun thing to try” Having a little chuckle over here!
I am rapt you got the quantities right and actually like it!! Yes – it gets used in cooking here too – not that I do, but I know for sure our older generations did!
I just watch Jimmy Fallon try – oh dear!! They made all the classic mistakes! haha – but then Hugh Jackman went on the show with a toaster and sorted him out!
Oh yes! That’s who it was. I couldn’t remember which Aussie it was that set Jimmy Fallon straight. Okay here is the whole story. The group Men at work sing the song Land down under My husband loves that song. Vegemite became a topic of conversation between us one day while listening to it. He said that he thought it was just a made up word. I said that I knew Vegemite was a real thing but I wasn’t sure exactly what it was and I didn’t even know it came in a jar until after a little research. It could have been a special breed of turnips for all I knew! Of course, me being me, I set out to prove a point so I ordered a jar to show that I am always right. It was fun.
Thats great, re: song!! And it IS a fabulous song!!! How funny that it ended up causing you to research and buy vegemite!! I love that! (and I am now singing the song in my head! lol)
I tried it when I lived in the UK for a year in college. I wasn’t a fan, but admittedly I am more adventurous now! 🙂
Brave you!!! Well done!
Hi,in the UK we have Marmite which is similar and delicious.when traveling I got withdrawal symptoms until I met a pair of Australians vehicle Lent me their Vegemite?
lol – I miss vegemite when I travel too!! We have marmite here – but always been a bit afraid to try it! Did you know Cadbury’s over here made Vegemite Chocolate!!!??? I was way too chicken to try it!! 😀