Too tired to put up much of a cerebral post tonight.However, I've been pondering breakfast over the past few days. Why do some people prefer sweet and others savory?
Mark Bittman's piece in the NY Times last week gave some unusual breakfast ideas and challenged Americans to try eating a savory breakfast for a change. Why do most Americans think of breakfast as a sweet meal? We eat danishes, donuts, cinnamon rolls, sugar cereal, pancakes, and waffles. Even peanut butter is sweet tasting.
If I stray from oatmeal for my morning meal, I go for toast and Marmite--you don't get much more savory than that. In the words of Nigel Slater, Marmite is, "Savoury tar for your toast. As shiny as a lovingly polished army boot, saltier than a mouthful of sea water, stickier than treacle, and somehow the work of the devil."
You either love it or hate it. I love it. Most likely, if you did not grow up on it as a child, you will hate it.
How does the taste for savory or sweet breakfast develop? Why so much sweetness in the American morning meal? And what about you? Marmite: are you a lover or a hater?
5 comments:
It's a little scary how much you write about things that have been on my mind for a while...I never realized how much sweet crap Americans eat for breakfast until I came to Norway for the first time. Everyone in the entire country eats a few slices of whole wheat bread with some cheese, deli meats, hard boiled egg, or crab salad for their breakfast. I'd call that savour, wouldn't you? And I've gotten used to it too and am not sure I could ever go back to Aunt Jamima's drenched pancakes after it.
Now Marmite, on the other hand, I have never tried. Maybe that's because it's always gotten a bad wrap. But if you're a lover, I may just have to buy a jar next time I see some.
Nice post...
Yeah, I was actually trying to think about other countries who eat sweet breakfasts and I could not really. My good friend is from Turkey, and he always eats bread, feta cheese, olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, and maybe some fruit. The traditional British breakfast is savory (even without the Marmite), and well the French and Italians pretty much just drink coffee for breakfast from what I hear--pastries are more of a mid day thing. (Although, I could be wrong about that).
Oh and in Japan people eat eggs ad rice with soy sauce.
I am going to ask Ben to pipe up here and say what people normally have for breakfast in Russia, because I think that it is pretty similar to your experience in Norway. Also Ben, what about Canada? It it similar to the US, or do they also go for more savory breakfasts?
Well Canada is pretty much the same. After all, you can't get much sweeter than the only famously Canadian foodstuff: maple syrup. At least that is my experience. People who still live there might know otherwise.
Russian breakfasts. Hmm, well breakfast for ME is never sweet. It usually focuses around cereal (which is kinda sweet) or eggs. This is always accompanied by toast and cheese (maybe with slices of sausage on it), yoghurt, tea, and juice. I know that real constants are cheese, bread, yoghurt, and sometimes fruit. Some Russians also really like "syrok," which is a log of whipped, fluffy cream cheese encased in chocolate. On weekends, my host mother makes pelmeni, a savory meat ravioli that I originally thought was a dinner course, or bliny, which are Russian crepes. So I would say that savory definitely wins out over here.
Marmite is, to paraphrase Homer, "sweet ambrosia, the nectar of the gods." I remember that, in the course of the first conversation I ever had with my current ladyfriend, we connected in our intense love of Marmite and proceeded to shout down our Australian colleague who was disparaging it in the name of the Vegemite pretender.
As weird as it was to eat smoked butter fish and pickled burdock root for breakfast, we always ordered the "Japanese" style over the "Western" while in Japan a few years ago. It's all about the visual appeal and the experience, you'd be a fool to turn it down, just because you're used to eating a piece of toast for breakfast.
A savory meat ravioli for breakfast sounds awesome but intense.
And hey Melissa- what's with the break in the pie blog? I would be your #1 reader if you started it up again. Maybe you and i need to start a pie lover's circle. A pie a month???
Ooo, I love a pie.
Hmm... had veggiemite in college, Australian roommate, you see.
I don't think of it as breakfast food. More like hang over food.
I should revisit it. Glad you brought it up.
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