Sunday, February 05, 2012

Crumbs

The discomfort of having toast crumbs stuck in your flesh seems disproportionate to their tiny size, for some reason. Maybe if I was morbidly obese then they would be enveloped in my blubber and I wouldn't feel them under the crushing weight of my body. Or not. I'm sure there is a medical or scientific explanation. For now, it's a minor hidden peril of marking in bed.

I didn't realise there was a scientific term for toasting - The Maillard Reaction. Sounds like an episode of The Big Bang Theory but 'proper science', named after a chemist who first described the process, rather than being funny. Apparently there was a novelty song called Toast, released by a band named Streetband, in which they attempted to use toast as an instrument, with the sound of toast being scraped incorporated into the track. Here's a useful pic from Wikipedia comparing toasted and untoasted bread to illustrate these interesting snippets.

Goodness, there's so much to say about toast when you start thinking about it.... I just eat it and sleep on its crumbs.