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Buenos Aires

Sep 2, 2005
South America 2005

Buenos Aires is amazing. I absolutely love it. It is my favourite place out of all the places I’ve visited so far. It’s completely gorgeous, and I could live here (if my Spanish were better).

It’s one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to, and I will be extremely sorry to leave it. This is most probably because it is like a big European city and I’m getting a bit tired of dirt tracks and mud brick houses. (Although these usually accompany the amazing orange juice carts.)

Maybe I’m a shallow traveller, I should appreciate the “rusticness” of it all or something, but I like my comfort and nice architechture :D

Plus (and you knew this was coming) the food is amazing!!! I have been spoilt for the rest of the continent! I can only hope that Brazilian food is just as good…

Since this post is a little bare… I would like to leave you with two sites and a question. The first is exploding dog, with many amazing drawings. They are quite marvellous. And the second is the marmite website. My question is this: why, when you hit a small sample of marmite with a teaspoon, does it go yellow? The first correct answer will receive a prize. And I mean this! There will be a real prize that won’t be crap! (Leave your answer in a comment; answers via e-mail will be ignored).

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3 Comments

  1. Mr Marty Q  •  Sep 3, 2005 @4:40 pm

    just a theory: hitting it creates heat which causes the yeast to ferment or do something that produces oxygen, a kind of foam inside the marmite which dilutes it and makes it look yellow?

  2. Amanda  •  Sep 18, 2005 @7:21 pm

    hey mark!

    just to make you happy the only time i’m going to post a reply is when drunk and to a science question.

    the marmite changes colour due to the mechanical stress put on it when you hit it, similar to liquid crystals. This can slightly alter the molecular arrangement, meaning a different spectrum of light absorbance, and so it appears a different colour.

    not sure, just a guess, but more on the phenomenon in liquid crystals here and here.

  3. Mark  •  Sep 19, 2005 @9:14 am

    Hehe!

    I emailed Marmite not long ago and they gave me their reply. I like all these theories, but I’m taking theirs as gospel. Nice one Amanda, by the way! You should write science textbooks :D

    Mark

    Update: Marmite did get back to me, actually, on the 6th September. Their reply is below:

    Dear Mr Kenny

    Thank you for your patience.

    The colour change will be due to air being beaten into the Marmite yeast extract. This effects the way the spread reflects light so the colour appears different but I am sure it will still have the same taste.

    I trust you will find the enclosed information of interest.

    Kind regards

    Jo
    Marmite Chief Mate