On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:44:47 +1100, Alan S
wrote in :

On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 05:14:33 GMT, kangaroo16
wrote:


I can't say that am a great fan of Vegamite, although have tried
it. Australians who migrate to the US are often disappointed
that it isn't readily available there.

I keep wondering what Vegamite is.

Actually, it is a spelling error on my part. Sorry about that!

Something Vegans eat?

This would depend on what you mean by "Vegans" :-)

If you mean humans who don't eat meat or animal products, some or
most of them in Oz probably do eat Vegemite. In passing, I
wondered for years why people would choose not to eat meat.
Several years ago I ran across a hypothesis or theory that
may account for this, though.

Meats consists of various amino acid chains. It is thought
that vegetarians (a.k.a. Vegans) have an abnormal sensitivity
to one of these amino acids and taste it as unpleasantly bitter,
so meats containing it taste bitter to them. Humans do vary
widely in the their sense of taste.

Most people who drink white wines cannot taste the small quantity
of potassium metabisulfite that is added as a preservative to
many, if not most of them. I can certainly taste it though, and
dislike the taste.


Or do you mean hypothetical life forms on possible planets
orbiting around the star Vega? If there are any such
life forms, they aren't using radio or radar, or we would have
detected them long ago. Vega is 25 light years away, and
SETI [Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence] would have
noticed any characteristic EM (electromagnetic) emissions.
Wikipedia has quite a lot of info about Vega, incidentally. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega

In passing, saw an interesting item on the ABC site.

Ex-pilots, military officers call for new UFO probe
http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/...?section=world
Interesting reading, as are 25 comments on the article.

If advanced alien life exist, perhaps they are here
for the Vegemite? I wonder what the freight costs
would be to ship a case of it the 25 light years to Vega?

Or perhaps you mean inhabitants of towns named Vega?
On the above site, there is a link to
Vega (disambiguation) which suggests alternate
meaning for the word vegan. Or you can go directly
to this site at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_%28disambiguation%29

On
the other hand, Vegemite is our secret wonder food.

I admit that I wonder why it is so popular. :-) IMHO, it is
an acquired taste, and I suspect one has to grow up with it
to appreciate it. I don't like the bitter taste of the caramel
colouring. I don't remember meeting any visitor that found it
particularly attractive, which is probably why most supermarkets
in the U.S. don't stock it.

Have heard that some Australians in the U.S. miss it so much
that they have family or friends here mail it to them. Or they
did in the past, anyway. With current high security on posts
and allowable imports, it is quite possible that a passenger
trying to bring his own supply into the U.S. would attract
the attention of customs officers. After all, a lot of things
could be hidden in a jar of opaque black Vegemite. :-)

Not sure that it is that much of a "secret" either. From memory,
British "Marmite" is very similar, and think it was invented
first. However, easily checked.

Yep, Marmite invented in 1902, Vegemite invented 1926. No
longer an Aussie company, as Kraft Foods bought the
company several years ago.


Cheers, Alan, Australia

Regards,
Kangaroo16