Brown Sauce

Today, I was reading an article in a magazine about a guy who traveled to Japan. The article began describing all these differences he noticed the first few days like how clean the streets were without any rubbish bins or how quiet the subways were. Little things that natives never notice, but as a foreigner you can't help but to notice.

I continued reading the story while piling onto my fork toast with melted cheese o, baked beans, and brown sauce. I never would have imagined that this random assortment of food would be something I would eat for breakfast, but since moving to Ireland things that I once thought to be "strange" have become my new normal.

Brown Sauce: I heard my UK friends talk about it all the time while I was in Michigan. They missed it a lot and always wanted to put it on their food. I never really understand what it was. I imagined it being like some kind of brown gravy. When I first got to Belfast, someone described it more like BBQ sauce. After tasting it, I realized that it can't really be described, and it most be an acquired taste. It has a strong vinegar bite, but it adds a bit of flavor to your meal.

Wikipedia describes it as: Brown sauce is a traditional condiment served with food in the United Kingdom and Ireland, normally brown or dark orange in colour, and made from a varying combination of tomatoes, molasses, dates, tamarind, spices, vinegar, and sometimes raisins or anchovies. The taste is either tart or sweet with a peppery taste similar to Worcestershire sauce. It is similar but not identical to steak sauce in the United States, which historically derives from it, barbeque sauce in Australia, and tonkatsu sauce in Japan.

As the saying goes,

When in Rome do as the Romans do.

I'm trying not to compare the food from back home to here so much because I realized that much of it isn't a difference between what's better or best (except the chocolate here is much better), but rather it deals with what you grew up with and what your willing to try. I don't know why the pancakes are so small here or why baked beans are a part of breakfast, but you get used to it. Slowly over time it becomes the new normal as I add a little "sauce" to my life.