For the edification of the many Australian and British visitors to TPV, we present the latest news from Vegemite.
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https://youtu.be/uAuHy5R_fJk
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PG has, of course, heard about Vegemite, but he’s never tasted it. (Marmite enjoys the same unexperienced status as well).
PG doesn’t recall either Vegemite or Marmite being offered to him when he has visited in Britain and he’s never had the privilege of visiting Australia or New Zealand.
While he doesn’t doubt that Vegemite is a wonderful product, he’s never seen it on sale in the US.
However, for all who wish to enjoy the Vegemite experience, it is available in the US from (of course) Amazon.
Here’s one of the Amazon reviews for Vegemite:
I’m from Australia… need I say more. I delight in sharing a taste with Americans just to see their faces as it hits their taste buds. Fortunately, I rarely have to share too much, because I am addicted to it and smear it on thick. I believe it repels both mosquitoes and women.
As a proud Aussie, I love Vegemite – on toast with lots of butter!
As the song for the advertisement from the 1950s goes…
“We’re all happy little Vegemites… it puts a rose in every cheek!”
Love it, especially with mature cheddar cheese (the only mature thing in this house!)
Both are in fact on sale in the Chicago suburbs. I tasted Marmite once in the UK (it was not offered to me because I talk funny). I make it a habit to ignore both products with great efficiency.
I see it used sometimes in Goodreads reviews – marmite book, you either love it or hate it.
I want to say I’ve tasted Vegemite, but it’s been a looooong time. Or maybe it was just that ten year old girl in Thailand, mocking Americans in general for not knowing the wonders of Vegemite. She did that for three days straight and by the time we left that particular orphanage, I was very glad to go 🙂
I’m Australian, but I was four when we arrived and I HATE Vegemite. The first taste confirmed my mother’s long held view that Anglo Saxons had mutated taste buds and should never be allowed near real food. For once, I agree with her. 🙁
Apparently some people don’t like even videos of vegemite, because it’s up and disappeared.
I teach English to new arrivals here in Australia, and Vegemite is very useful for teaching ‘declining politely’…
If you’ve never tried it, and want to – don’t smell the jar!!! Seriously, don’t. Just spread a tiny see-through smear of it on buttered toast. (This is our comfort food for ‘sick in bed’ too.)
“he’s never seen it on sale in the US”
I can buy it at the Safeway in my small Colorado (ski) town. That might have something to do with the number of us Aussies living here though.
A teaspoon, or more, of Vegemite in left over meat juice and a bit of flour and water makes the best gravy ever. 🙂
I grew up on Vegemite on toast, or Vegemite on apple slices, or Vegemite licked from a spoon. Yes, I am an Aussie.
I lived in Australia for over a decade, but I left there close to thirty years ago and I still can’t forget the awful stench of that stuff. It’s sort of like smelling a ripe corpse. Just not nearly as pleasant.
I lived in Alice for about four years. in the early 70s Still can remember the taste. When I have a hankering to refresh it, i sample axle grease. Does the trick.
You should try vegemite. It’s the yeast you can do. 😉
I’m partial to vegemite and peanut butter sandwiches. The saltiness and yeasty flavor compliments the flavor of the peanuts.
It is yummy. Kind of like concentrated beer, with salt added.
And I have seen it for sale at some larger grocery stores, health food shops, World Markets, and the like.
I love the idea of a black market in Marmite! That has got to go in a story. I used to think food black markets were for luxuries such as truffles until I learned that the suburbs had one for government cheese. A connoisseuse* of grilled cheese sandwiches told me government cheese is perfect for those sandwiches.
I tried Marmite once. It was … well, I tried it once.
*It’s more like she’s obsessed. But “connoisseuse” is classier.
Canada has cheese-smuggling gangs bringing cheap US cheese across the border. I’m guessing if someone is in the know they can probably find the street corner where guys will sidle up to you and ask ‘hey, bud, wanna buy some brie?’
My mother sends me Marmite now and again, because it’s about 4x as expensive here as the UK. And doesn’t use the same ingredients.
Vegemite is kind of like Marmite’s rough and tumble younger brother. Harsher taste, but looks pretty much the same. I was a user for a while, but it was just a phase I was going through.
Cheese smuggling gangs! That’s perfect.
‘hey, bud, wanna buy some brie?’
I never know the right people. I need to get out more 🙂
Jasper Fforde uses that as a side bit in the Thursday Next books. (The early ones, anyway. Book 5 lost me.) I laughed the first time I read it, and I’ve laughed every time since.
It was crazy at the time. You wouldn’t believe the prices an opened jar of marmite was going for on the “black” market! lol
Marmite vs vegemite is a great controversy Downunder. I was completely underhand and fed my kids marmite as toddlers so they now sneer at their father’s preference for vegemite. It is an acquired taste and as I found out when travelling to the UK, British marmite actually tastes like vegemite.
After the massive Canterbury earthquakes here in NZ the local marmite factory was closed, which led to shortage and then a blackmarket in marmite. Some lovers even had to *shudder* substitute with vegemite.
No it doesn’t. As a Brit who has had both, vegemite definitely tastes different. Not bad, just different.
Um… yeah it does – British marmite tastes like NZ vegemite. Our marmite tastes quite different to your marmite. My other half who is a vegemite eater also found British marmite similar to vegemite. There are regional differences in the formula between UK, Oz and NZ.
Marmite’s good. Delicious on toast with lots of butter…
We had an Australian exchange student that brought some. I didn’t care for it, but it wasn’t like it was horrible.
I can see it being in an “acquired taste” category.
I used to work with an Aussie guy who was given such a hard time about eating Vegemite by a colleague (who’d never had it herself) that when he brought in a tube—yes, it came in tube form—I was determined to react with as much enthusiasm as possible when trying it in front of the two of them. I didn’t have to fake it, though. I actually liked the stuff.
That said, it is enough of a unique flavor that I could understand someone giving it a thumbs-down. Same with, say, blue cheese (a favorite of mine) or any other strongly flavored, unfamiliar food with a distinctive taste, smell, or appearance. I grew up with gefilte fish, for example, so I love it. But I don’t question the bravery of anyone who’s ever seen a jar of it and ruled out the idea of giving it a go, particularly when it’s on a plate with some jellied-chicken-broth residue on it and topped with a bit of blood-red horseradish.
Wow—I just made myself hungry.
But have you tried Vegemite AND blue cheese… it definitely goes great with cheddar cheese (proper aged cheddar, not the orange stuff…)
I have not tried either of those combos, but now it’s on the list. And I wholeheartedly agree on the cheddar. The Jasper Hill Cabot Clothbound, which is almost always in stock at Whole Foods, is a go-to for me.