Great work, Princess in Oz!
Tell us more about the soup, and the toast! (Don't know anything about either.)
Thanks!
Vietnamese Pho (pronounced "fur") consists of a soup broth (usually made from pork and beef bones), rice noodles and a protein on top. The one that I like is Rare Beef Pho. The beef is sliced thinly and placed on top of the hot soup/noodles raw. When you mix it into the soup, the heat of the broth cooks the beef. As a result of this, the beef is very tender. The most authentic Pho will have a combination of rare beef and brisket as the protein. Aside from liverworst and pate, I don't do sweetbreads at all!
The Pho comes with vegetable garnishes, which consists of the bean shoots, vietnamese basil, lemon and fresh cut (red) chillies. There are also condiments that go with the dish - namely Hoi Sin sauce (chinese sweet BBQ sauce), chilli sauce and hot chilli oil. I normally put the bean shoots and basil on my beef and then squeeze the lemon all over. I then apply a generous squeeze of the Hoi Sin sauce bottle and a nice dollop of hot chilli oil on my Pho.
There is a standing "Come if you can" once-a-week lunch date with a group of my friends. Would you believe that around noon, the standard email sent to herald the stampede is...."Soup's On!"???
Vegemite, on the other hand, is made from yeast extract (a black residue from the beer making process) and is rich in Vitamin B. It was developed in the mid 1920's as the Australian version of Marmite, which is what the Brits eat. Vegemite has a much more intense flavour than Marmite. The vegemite taste is predominantly very, very salty and if you've applied too much of the black stuff on your toast, you can experience that yeasty tingle on the tip of your tongue.
Most people that have never had Vegemite before and taste it for the first time usually run to rinse their mouths out....about 20 times...before they are happy.
I love it! I was brought up on Marmite and when I came to Australia, my taste buds had to adapt to the more deeply intense and saltier version. I also (sometimes) add a teaspoon of Vegemite to my soup for additional stock flavour.
Vegemite is also part of the Aussie slang..."Happy Little Vegemites", which means that you're happy and contented.
The slang was part of a commercial jingle developed in the 1950's to market Vegemite and the original clip can be found on you-tube
here, and it just became part of the venacular.
We're happy little vegemiters bright as bright can be
We all enjoy our vegemite for breakfast, lunch and tea
Our mummies say we're growing stronger every single week
Because we love our vegemite
We all adore our vegemite
It puts a rose in every cheek
The jingle was revived in the 1990's with a newer clip and Kraft also re-played the original commercial on TV. So, a whole new generation of kids (including myself) now know how to sing the song!

