Toast Around the World

February 15, 2023 10:38 AM

Youtuber Beryl Shereshewsky regularly posts cheerful videos about the different ways people around the world eat various foods, showcasing submissions from viewers as she makes and tries the dishes, finding common ground through food. Check out her eight-part series on the many ways people around the world eat toast and get more new and delicious toast ideas than you know what to do with.

She's also done a multi-part series on the ways people around the world eat instant noodles, as well as other themes like comfort food, foods you eat when you're sick, and party foods. She does does videos centered around ways different cuisines use specific ingredients too, like potatoes, onions, jackfruit, and many more. Her channel features a wide variety of recipes from all around the world, and since she isn't a professional chef, most of them are pretty straightforward to make for the average home cook (though you might have trouble sourcing some of the ingredients).

posted by yasaman (32 comments total)

I can still feel the judgement from a long-time ago ex who looked at me oddly when I put butter on toast with salt & pepper. In India, this is super common and it's just how I've always had toast, but apparently it was the salt & pepper thing that threw her.

This is a great channel to follow, thanks for the share yasaman!! :)
posted by Fizz at 10:44 AM on February 15, 2023 [9 favorites]

A note: let's try to emulate the spirit of Beryl's channel and its comments section, and refrain from any comments in the vein of "how gross" or "that's nasty" or anything like that. A lot of these recipes may be unfamiliar to some of us, or use unfamiliar ingredients, but that doesn't mean they're gross, and we should try to refrain from engaging in what can often be racially or ethnically insensitive judgments of food that's unfamiliar to us.

That said, I enjoy this channel a lot! It's genuinely really lovely and moving seeing so many people share stories and recipes of the foods that are important to them and their cultures, and Beryl's excitement is infectious. I've learned about a lot of cuisines and foods that are entirely new to me, and it's super interesting and inspiring seeing so many different takes on something as seemingly straightforward as toast or instant noodles. If you're ever in a food rut, I bet you'll be able to find something exciting and new to try in one of these videos.
posted by yasaman at 10:44 AM on February 15, 2023 [10 favorites]

I recently discovered her channel, and I love it so much. She's curious and positive about everything, and the food all looks great. I can't even eat most of it, because I'm vegetarian, and I still love it just for the community and the vibe.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 10:59 AM on February 15, 2023

I haven't had time to watch any of these YET but I was just dreaming about some toast this morning. Perhaps I will make myself some toast (with butter and honey? or cinnamon toast?) this afternoon and settle in to watch a few segments.

This looks delightful, yasaman - thank you so much for posting it!

Yay toast!
posted by kristi at 11:01 AM on February 15, 2023

Where does the bread go?

[I love how what she asked for was the way people toast ("ching!") around the world and instead got recipes for toast.]
posted by chavenet at 11:32 AM on February 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

now on ep 3 of toast.
posted by atomicstone at 11:43 AM on February 15, 2023

woo for exploring different food ideas from around the world with an eye towards enjoyment.

My family has always considered me a weirdo because I would make toast with crunchy peanut butter, soy sauce and hot sauce as a snack way back in the 80's. (sigh.. way back... sheesh). I still make it today and if I'm feeling extra, grate some ginger and garlic in there because I realized it's basically satay toast (ish)
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:44 AM on February 15, 2023 [7 favorites]

based on her toast shows i hosted a pre 4pointpitch-card-game toast dinner for four people and served toast twelve ways. the vegan was happy, the picky eater was happy, and the two omniverts(me and Glen) were happy. not as happy as Beryl but then who is. but no one touched the Marmite.
posted by wmo at 11:47 AM on February 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

I can still feel the judgement from a long-time ago ex who looked at me oddly when I put butter on toast with salt & pepper. In India, this is super common and it's just how I've always had toast, but apparently it was the salt & pepper thing that threw her.

I've put butter & salt on toast before, but never even thought of butter, salt & pepper. I'll have to give it a try!
posted by fogovonslack at 12:04 PM on February 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

I love bolognese sauce and cheese on toast at the same time. Even better if it's garlic bread. YES. Nigella Lawson has toast with salt added, similar to Fizz and many on her twitter feed agree it's completely different than toast with salted butter.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 12:06 PM on February 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

I haven't watched the video yet, but my wife and I are huge fans of toast and I'm definitely down for that later.

One of my favorite tweets ever:

Josh
@LoserCrew
I fucking love toast, what absolute genius took a bite of bread and was like "cook it again", unreal

No idea if this originated with him but it's a winner regardless.
posted by Caxton1476 at 12:15 PM on February 15, 2023 [13 favorites]

The best toast: covered with baba ganouj and sliced tomatoes, with a dusting of Urfa pepper.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 12:15 PM on February 15, 2023 [8 favorites]

I love bolognese sauce and cheese on toast at the same time

A few weeks ago we had an open jar of sauce and some ricotta but I didn't feel like making pasta, so I spread it on toast for my daughter. It got rave reviews.

We are also a hagelslag household, and I panic when we run out of De Ruijter sprinkles. On homemade bread it's an unstoppable breakfast. Don't tell the Dutch, though, because sometimes we use peanut butter instead of butter-butter.
posted by uncleozzy at 12:22 PM on February 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

One of my favorite foods in Singapore was Kaya toast! So good.
posted by grumpybear69 at 12:26 PM on February 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Two pieces of Texas Toast surrounding a patty melt...
posted by jim in austin at 12:28 PM on February 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

No toast thread is complete without this classic comedy tribute song.
posted by emjaybee at 12:32 PM on February 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

I love toast. And if no one wants the Marmite, I'll take it!

(I have a SIL who lives in the UK and one year she sent me the Marmite peanut butter and you know what? It works!)
posted by Kitteh at 12:33 PM on February 15, 2023

Thanks for posting the toast series! I really like how each toast taste testing is preceded by the video explanation of the person who submitted it. It's such a simple choice to showcase the voices and faces of people who share the recipes but it really makes the video so much friendlier and embodies the intent of the project: "I'm using food as a way to travel. My goal is to cook a dish from every country on our planet."
posted by spamandkimchi at 12:55 PM on February 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Thinking about it as well - something simple like toast is such a great and accessible way to connect to another place. I love seeing more "everyday" type of regular food. The stuff you throw together as a staple "I need to eat and don't want to think too hard" snack/meal.

(And on the universality of toast, my 18 year old dog needs to take multiple pills per day - because he's 18 - and after years of wrapping them in cheese, pill pockets, deli turkey, peanut butter, etc - the one guaranteed hack is little toast cubes with the faintest hint of butter on them)
posted by drewbage1847 at 1:22 PM on February 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

Made some falafel a bit ago and had leftover tahini sauce in the fridge. Mrs. Fedora decided to try it on toast along with some butter, and informs me that it was very good indeed.
posted by DoctorFedora at 2:32 PM on February 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

There's a restaurant near me that is a mashup of East-Asian cuisines and bills itself as a "Taiwanese Fusion Cafe". For one of their desserts they've got these "Golden Toast" dishes which are really thick slices of bread slowly cooked in butter which I think would be a HK style toast, and then topped with various kinds of ice cream, whipped cream, sauces, and other toppings. I'm usually not a fan of HK style toast but it is a pretty good dessert. Definitely need a big group of people to eat it though otherwise you'll feel sick after eating too much of it.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:16 PM on February 15, 2023

Team whole grain toast (light to moderate toasted), butter, and a thin layer of vegemite. Reminds me I have to get around to trying different recipes for Vogels bread for the toast. I use Ezekiel Sesame Sprouted Grain Bread as a US available substitute - which is ok, but not Vogels...
posted by inflatablekiwi at 3:26 PM on February 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

ThankYouThankYou! We've been looking for new things to watch, and this is very much up our alley. With regards to toast, I've been very happy with peanut or almond butter and chili crisp lately.
posted by mollweide at 3:37 PM on February 15, 2023

toast with crunchy peanut butter, soy sauce and hot sauce

I tried crunchy peanut butter and Lao Gan Ma spicy chili crisp a couple weeks ago. It was good in an all-the-umami sort of way, but it needed something bright and/or sweet to bring it home, and I found myself at a loss as to what that would be. I’m still gonna try it again at some point. Hopefully after figuring out the other ingredient(s).
posted by fedward at 3:38 PM on February 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

fedward, one of the toasts featured in the videos is crunchy peanut butter with lime juice and cilantro, maybe give lime juice a try? That and the kaya toast were the ones I most urgently wanted to try after watching the videos.
posted by yasaman at 3:46 PM on February 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

Kaya toast is the BOMB - it doesn't taste super coconutty or eggy, but a nice balance of flavours, and goes well with or without butter.

One of my favourite recent spreads is salted egg spread - it's based on salted duck eggs (which have become a trendy flavouring in Malaysia/Singapore) and has a nice savoury not-too-salty flavour.

Fedward: try honey? What you're trying to accomplish sounds like satay sauce so recipes for those could help
posted by creatrixtiara at 4:33 PM on February 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

Yeah, peanut butter and hot honey is already a common quick snack for me. Honey didn’t feel right that first time, but I might give it a shot. Lao Gan Ma is really salty and it’s not like Jif isn’t also salty, so I feel like sweetness and acid are definitely what’s missing in some ratio. I’m realizing the plum preserves we have might be a nice combo. Maybe if we had some makrut lime leaves that would finish it, but those aren’t a pantry ingredient for us.
posted by fedward at 5:12 PM on February 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Oh, that's a good point about salt, nut butters, and chili crisp on the toast. I use unsalted nut butters, so I didn't think about it. I also use unsweetened nut butters. If you used a sweetened nut butter, that would provide enough sweetness for me.
posted by mollweide at 5:17 PM on February 15, 2023

I don't have a sweet tooth, so a lot of these are lost on me, but almost all the savory ones looked amazing -- the ones from Jordan, Malta, and Barbados especially.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:18 PM on February 15, 2023

When my wife and I started dating, we bonded over toast.
posted by NotLost at 9:02 PM on February 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

Thanks for posting this. I have nearly seen them all now. She is so sweet, she makes you want to eat things you thought you'd never eat.
posted by mumimor at 5:16 AM on February 16, 2023

This channel has become one of my favorite comfort watches over the past year or so. I feel like she really embodies the ethos of "cultural appreciation" not cultural appropriation. Having videos of people from the food's culture talking about it (not just how to make it but often the cultural significance) is a big part of that, as spamandkimchi pointed out, but also how much independent research she does into different cooking methods and the lengths to which she will go to procure the right ingredients (though I think she lives in Queens, which certainly helps).

I especially enjoy when there's a food that she's unsure about but ends up liking, or when there's something that's not her fave. She never trashes it or makes assumptions - she's really committed to embracing different food cultures even if they aren't her personal favorite.
posted by lunasol at 11:48 AM on February 16, 2023 [4 favorites]