Toast: Homage to a Superfood by Nick Parker.

Toast: Homage to a Superfood by Nick Parker.  Hardcover book with pictorial boards published by Prion Books 2002, 109 pages with colour photographs.

“Why don’t we all just admit it? We don’t give a toss about sun- dried tomatoes or seared tuna. What the nation* really craves is toast.  More toast is eaten in this country than any other food, yet it has been shunned by recipe books and ignored by history TOAST is here to set the record straight.  Funnier than Delia Smith and with more recipes than Longitude, TOAST tells you everything you could possibly want to know (and a few recipes more) about the nation’s favourite fast food… With toast recipes and some of the finest food photography this side of Sid’s cafe, TOAST takes a satirical and long overdue look at our fondness nay obsession with the greatest of fast foods.”

*Great Britain

Toast.  I’ve eaten a bit over the years.  When I think hard about how much toast I’ve eaten, my brain starts to hurt.  Looking back, I think I grew up on the stuff, the best days of my life were spent eating toast.  This might have something to do with how easy it is to turn a piece of not so fresh bread into a fresh piece of warm mouth watering toast… with lots of butter… and, because I’m Australian, with a generous amount of Vegemite spread across it.  The butter melting through and the salty yeasty delight of Vegemite combined with the crispy sweetness of a piece of freshly toasted white bread… yeah.

Toast is a universal food eaten by most people around the world.  I’m sure the Inuit would have eaten it if they had of had something other than seal and whale to make bread out of.**  I know Indians like a bit of toast as I’ve eaten more than a few omelettes on truly tasteless small thin bits whilst travelling through the sub continent.  The author of this book points out that most gourmet chefs as of 2002, seem to have ignored the whole toast issue. Yep, Nigella and Jamie don’t mention a crumb about toast, although I’m sure that since the publication of this breadbreaking volume this issue has been fixed…

And here is a book… yes, a whole book… with history, observations, anecdotes and some excellent recipes, including a recipe for cheese on toast (page 94).  This book is for any chef wanting to fill that hole in their cookbook collection.

** I’m sure that toast is now a staple food in most Inuit communities as it is the world over.  I wonder what Seal on toast tastes like?