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In the early 1980's the world came to know the term Vegemite Sandwich' from the global hit song "Land Down Under" by the Australian band "Men at Work". It was the biggest promotion of Aussie culture since Paul Hogan aka Crocodile Dundee threw shrimps on the barbie.

Vegemite boasts to be one of the world's richest known sources of vitamin B. It is a black spread which is a concentrated yeast extract. It is low in fats and sugars and contains the B group vitamins niacin, thiamine, riboflavin and folate.

Those not from the continent Down Under usually describe the taste of Vegemite as either salty or disgusting. Yet Australians love affair with Vegemite begins at an early age.

The first taste of Vegemite often comes when babies begin teething. A light spread of Vegemite on a piece of bread, cut into 4 strips and baked in the oven, make delicious home-style teething-rusks or biscuits.

Babies happily gum and slobber over these not realizing that this is the beginning of a lifetime of Vegemite ingestion. As an Aussie baby is able to eat more solids they graduate on to Vegemite on toast. No Aussie baby album is complete without a picture of a toddler's happy face smeared with black Vegemite as they learn to feed themselves.

Once school age, the Vegemite sandwich often becomes the staple lunch time fare. Even now the smell of a Vegemite sandwich will take me back to my school days when 20 kids would open their lunch boxes that had spent the morning sitting in the hot sun.

The mixture of butter and Vegemite would be so soft that you could squeeze it through the end of the sandwich and lick it off the end. My mom's attempt at gourmet Vegemite sandwiches was to add a piece of lettuce. By lunch time the lettuce was soft and limp and totally changed the Vegemite taste, so that bit of green was discarded on sight.

Vegemite on bread or on a sandwich was and no doubt still is considered a party food. You'll find it on every kid's party table menu giving the host parents piece of mind that even the pickiest eater will have something to snack on.

As Australian children get older, the Vegemite sandwich becomes a great stand by snack probably like the PBJ sandwich in America.

However once they turn 18, the legal age to drink alcohol, Vegemite becomes a medicinal necessity. Nothing cures a hangover like Vegemite on toast the next morning. Trust me on this one, well at least it makes you feel human.

But that's not where it ends. Dieters take Vegemite to work for lunch on crackers and cooks add it to casseroles, stews and gravies to boost the salty flavor. As Australians start to age they eat Vegemite on bread or toast as a way of boosting their vitamin B supplements.Even doctors will recommend eating Vegemite.

Traveling Australians pack jars and bright yellow tubes of Vegemite in their luggage whenever the leave their antipodean shores.

Even the false rumored banning of Vegemite by the FDA, which somehow left American supplies scarce, didn't stop expat Aussies from eating Vegemite. Friends and family paid exorbitant postage to have it sent through the mail. Where its arrival was hailed like a Red Cross care package in a refugee camp.

The British have a black spread called Marmite which tastes very different to Vegemite. To an Aussie it's a sad imitation.

Vegemite is as much part of the Australian culture as kangaroos and koala bears. Even when it was taken over by the global multi-national food company Kraft, it remained an Australian icon.

So that's why Australians have such a love affair with Vegemite, they're brought up on the stuff.

Learn more about this author, Belinda Youlten.
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