Smear Campaign

I’m British, and while there are plenty of quite outdated jokes about British cuisine from the days before Nigella Lawson, Gordon Ramsay, and Heston Blumenthal made it delicious and chic, there are still some controversial culinary traditions. In addition to teaching our son to love fresh, healthy food and have excellent dining room manners, I want to him to know and perhaps enjoy the food of his British heritage. Today, I came home earlier from work, hungry because I hadn’t had any lunch. I made myself a slice of bread, butter, and Marmite and came out to the backyard where my partner and the Sprog were playing.

“Please,” said the Sprog, eyeing my bread.

“I don’t know if you’re going to like it,” I said, giving him a small chunk. I am unable to resist a “Please.”

He woofed it down. A moment later, his hand came up again. “Please?”

So that was it. Two small morsels of bread, butter, and Marmite, and then I said “All gone,” and he agreed, “Ga ga.”

For those not familiar, Marmite is a by-product of beer brewing. It is very salty and yeasty, and the slogan for the company has been “Love It or Hate It” – which is not something most brands would embrace. Here in Los Angeles, it is available at a couple specialty British shops, but I try to pick some of it up when I’m in the UK, and I ask my friends visiting to bring some back for me. One friend arrived with a jar of it, and told me that he was asked at customs, “Have you brought over any food, or Marmite?”

Nutritionally, sodium content is quite high, not surprisingly, but so is Niacin, Folic Acid, and Vitamin B12, even in the tiniest 2 gram smear on a piece of bread. The amount the Sprog had was negligible.

The point of giving my son Marmite is not the nutrition, though it used to be advertised as “the growing up spread” because it was a way to get children their B vitamins. Looking at the label of ingredients, it is good stuff, which is welcome after I took a moment to read the label of the YoBaby yogurt I had been feeding him and seeing that the second ingredient was sugar (I have since switched to Greek yogurt with fruit, which he seems to like as well or better anyhow).

No, the point of giving my son Marmite is sharing something with him that I love. That’s as nourishing as any vitamins and minerals.

Now I have to go look up my other childhood favorites, Heinz Apricot Rice Pudding and Farley’s Rusks, and see whether they’re as good as I remember.