Raise a Toast

As nostalgic as Mac & Cheese and less filling than Meatloaf & Mashed, toast reigns as one of our favorite comfort foods. After a day spent in the kitchen, slicing, dicing, tasting, stirring, smelling and more tasting, Lisa and me are often left with only an appetite for toast. My crisp slices are slathered with peanut butter, banana and honey, while Lisa, more of a purist, opts for creamy butter atop golden wedges of Wonder Bread.

It seems that we aren’t the only ones who hold toast as a sentimental soother. We took a poll and here’s what we discovered:

84%	of people said cinnamon toast (sans crusts) makes them want to watch “The Flinstones,” drink apple juice and play with their Lego,

79%	of people said that they’re “never too full” for a piece of toast,

72%	of people salivate at the sound of the toaster lever popping-up, and

69%	of people consent to eating toast in bed.

Still not convinced toast is the greatest thing since sliced bread? How about that artist Lennie Payne earns his bread and butter by creating portraits with toast? Did you know there are websites dedicated to immortalizing toast through art, song and haiku? Or, that there’s a Toast Bible and a huge community that collects toaster memorabilia? While we won’t be writing a book dedicated to toast anytime soon (good name for anyone who wants to: Toast of the Town), we’ll be looking into getting the same kind of toaster as the Queen (Dualit), the toaster you can watch your toast brown in (clear-sided Magimix Vision Toaster) or the toaster you can place croissants, rolls, and bread of any size atop to get its toast on (Hammacher Schlemmer’s Slotless Toaster).

In 1906, prolific author E.V. Lucas wrote that “…the noise from good toast should reverberate in the head like the thunder of July.” Over a century later, his words still ring true. Crunch on, our friends, crunch on.