......a transplanted Northern chick writing about Myrtle Beach one experience at a time......

Thursday, July 28, 2011

I Tried Boiled Peanuts

There is one particular gas station/convenience store near my house and at various times I've gone in there and have caught site of folks fishing around in a pot for boiled peanuts.    

I love peanuts, but was never exposed to the boiled variety until I moved to South Carolina.   I've lived in the South before, but never noticed peanuts prepared this way.  

One day while walking the grocery store isles looking for inspiration;  I came face-to-face with cans of boiled peanuts.  I decided to be adventurous and try them.  

I was raised in a rather closed culture...everything I ate was,  for the most part,  Italian or Polish or Jewish.  There was very little variety and I think the spiciest thing we ever ate which strayed from the above-mentioned cuisines were the packaged Taco dinners we made when my mom and dad went out on the town and left us with a babysitter or when we ate Chili.  Other than those, our dinners were mostly comprised of classic American comfort food and Italian dishes. 

It wasn't until I went into the Air Force @ 25 yrs. old and was stationed in Asia that I began to develop a more discriminating palate.  It was purely out of necessity that I was forced to develop a sense of culinary adventure.  If I didn't I'd starve or have to buy Burger King (on base) everyday and you know how I feel about Burger King.


I'm not a fan of boiled vegetables all by themselves.  My cooked vegetables have to be hidden in and among other foods for me to eat them.   I love raw veggies, but cooked, the only one I can tolerate without any other ingredients is the all-un-nourishing...Corn !


At home... I popped open the can of boiled peanuts and found that  nothing at all about it was appealing...not to my eyes, not to my nose and definitely not to my sense of adventure.  I didn't want to eat them with a Fox in a Box or in the Rain on a Train or through a Funnel in a Tunnel.  


I tried one or two and I think the biggest problem was the texture.  My brain, when it hears the word "peanuts"...is looking for a certain crunch and firmness.  What I got was wilted and very vegetabl-y tasting.  


Now, if I were down and out and without food and someone handed me a can of boiled peanuts.....I would very much thank them and nourish myself.   
That is the scenario that would have to go down for me to eat them again.  I think I'd pull handfuls of grass from the ground and eat it first......way before I'd eat boiled peanuts.


But, I didn't grow up eating boiled peanuts... hence didn't acquire the taste.  
If you love them, then be of good cheer...there will be more at your disposal as I will not be helping to diminish the world supply.




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