Toast Magic

It starts with bread.
Heat is applied.
The Mallaird Reaction begins and the exposed surfaces of the bread get crusty and brown.

Delightful!

The bread has been transformed into toast.

Some languages do not allow their carbs to be transformed into toast. 

For example, in Serbian, there is bread - hleb.

And then there is grilled bread -ispečeni hleb. 

No toast emerges in their vocabulary.

The same for French. 

Bread = Pain

Toast = Pain Grillé 

The magic of toast happens in English. We English speakers hear the word toastand our minds immediately conjure up a distinct concept. 

Toast is all about the shape. 

Toast is sliced. It always has two sides. One side is usually buttered or smothered with a delicious topping of preference. 

Toast is the crispy comforting vehicle to move such preferred toppings from table to mouth. 

When no word exists for toast, then the mind can’t comprehend. Grilled bread is too broad of a concept and the brain goes wild. If I toss the entire loaf of bread into the griller and get it extra crusty, does this count as toast? Or is it just a very fat baguette? One can see how chaos could arise. 

Recently, people have been cutting carbs from their diets. Carbs are the enemy, but toast is not. We have replaced flourwith cauliflower. Even other hunks of veggie material can stand in, get sliced, get grilled, and get smothered with toppings. 

Restaurant menus rely heavily on the word and concept of toast to sell us cozy feelings. Toast is the shorthand for yummy flavor pairings in a comforting format. When dining out, would you choose a grilled slab of eggplant topped with harissa infused goat cheese, or do you want to try the MediterraneanToast(which just happens to be carb free). 

That is the magic of toast!