Thats my Marmite

Marmite man

It’s almost midnight. Been working for roughly 10 hours straight. Still have at least three more to go before any of this work can be considered finished. It’s the usual story, you leave stuff to the last minute, things start to accumulate, you forget about it and then out of nowhere Google calendar pops up telling you that mister client wants his proposals tomorrow, nine AM sharp!

I guess this is a pretty common situation for the so-called creatives or just disorganized people in general. It certainly was when I was student, when we would regularly pull all nighters to finish off projects. The most important thing to have in such a delicate situation, apart from some pretty cool and quirky ideas, is some decent nutrition. You just aren’t going to get through the night munching on salt and vinegar crisps, Jaffa cakes and Coke… Not enough vitamins not enough protein not enough energy. You’ll just end up falling asleep watching You Tube videos, trying desperately to think of some credible excuse.  What you really need is a massive jar of Marmite.

marmite_jar_01

I guess every English person on this planet knows what Marmite is and where it comes from. Australians might be familiar with the tamer product known as Vegemite. There are quite a few variations of the product’s name and taste depending on which country you buy it in, but they are all basically the same thing:  a dark brown spreadable paste with an extremely strong and salty flavor that some say is comparable to Soy Sauce or Swiss Cenovis. It ‘s usually eaten spread on toast, over a thick layer of butter.

I have no idea why people started eating Marmite or why it has become such a huge success, initially many vegetarians chose to eat it as a meat-free alternative to beef- extract and yes it is a great vitamin supplement, but how it got from there to being a British icon is anyone’s guess. Maybe the advertising helped a bit. Marmite has a great advertising history that has intelligently taken advantage of the binary and exclusive “love/hate” reaction amongst consumers.

marmite_006

So yeah it’s apparently really good for you and has a weird taste and a great looking jar but what is Marmite and where does it come from? Well, Marmite is a natural by-product from brewer’s yeast. The by-products of fermentation—A German chemist named Liebig discovered that the waste of yeast used in brewing beer could be self-digested and made into a concentrate, resulting in a protein-rich paste (some would say “sludge”) with a more or less meaty flavor. (So Marmite is actually a Continental, not a British, invention! But the Brits were the first to make it commercially viable and probably the only people in the world to actually like the stuff.)

Marmite is made from (greater quantity first):

  • Yeast Extract
  • Salt
  • Vegetable Extract
  • Vitamin: Niacin
  • Spices
  • Vitamins: B1, B2, Folic Acid, B12

There are many ways to enjoy Marmite, as we have already said you spread it on toast or biscuits, you can mix it with duck, chicken and beef to make some dodgy recipes, some people even dissolve it in hot water and make a drink out of it, try it and then let us know. I actually prefer it the good old-fashioned way: spread on soldiers and dipped in a runny egg.  Where soldiers are just pieces of toast cut into strips so they can fit into the broken egg hole.

marmite_egg

So you live in Milan and you don’t have a trip to the UK planned anytime soon. How do you get your hands on some proper Marmite. Don’t despair, there are a few shops in Milan that sell the stuff which are both positioned between the Stazione Centrale and Porta Venezia.

International Grocery – Via Luigi Settembini 42, Milano
Alimentari Indiani – Via Panfilo Castaldi 32, Milano