Day: June 9, 2008

One thing led to another…

a bottle of Marmite I recently developed the biggest craving for Marmite and ended up spending some time reading the Marmite Wiki article about this savory, yummy goodness.

Marmite and its closely related cousins Boril (Bovril Wiki entry) and Vegemite (Vegemite Wiki article) are by most accounts acquired tastes, usually requiring to one to have been exposed to it at a fairly young age to be able to tolerate or like it in later years. There is also apparently the Swiss version of Cenovis, but its sales seem to be limited to Switzerland. For me, I grew up with Marmite and Bovril but I don’t recall particularly liking nor disliking it; just something that I remember having as a child. So it came somewhat as a surprise to me that I really wanted to have some Marmite recently.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen these yeasty bottles in the local supermarkets before, but certainly on my recent foraging trips, I couldn’t find any. So I did what every well-connected netizen would do: I mail-ordered it from an Internet site. While I was at the business of ordering Marmite, I decided that I might as well augment the order and pad it with a second bottle of Vegemite, and a pot of Bovril. Then it was time to wait for the order to arrive.

In the same vein of acquired taste foodstuffs is natto, a Japanese item of fermented soybeans. For many people, the off-putting thing about natto is its slimy, sticky texture. This guy, Steve, I’m almost certain, is not a natto lover if his blog on his natto eating experience is any guide. I, however, happen to love natto, and at sushi restaurants, I almost always try to order a natto temaki if available. It occured to me that having to go to a sushi restaurant for my natto fix might better be fixed by visiting the local Japanese grocery store and getting my own in-house supply of natto, so that I may partake of it at will on my schedule.

From the most informative Wiki article on natto, I learned that in Japan, natto is commonly eaten with rice as a breakfast food. That seemed like a capital idea, although I couldn’t countenance natto on those mushy 90-second microwavable rice packs. This would need freshly made rice.

So starting with Marmite, through Vegemite and Bovril, to natto, and then to rice, one thing has led to another, and now I find myself the proud owner of a rather expensive, but very capable, computerized rice maker, which to its credit makes very good and convenient rice.