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Does anyone know why peanut butter and similar products such as Peanut Butter Cups are so hard to find outside the US (basically Europe, Australia, etc)? I mean, they have peanuts, why don't they make peanut butter?
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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I think it has something to do with that famous American, George Washington Carver, the peanut pioneer.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Yea Nutella is the Peanut Butter of elsewhere, which made me sad when I was in Italy because I hate hazelnut flavored things. Beware, what you think is chocolate may actually be nutella. They even have nutellerias. Crazy stuff.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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I don't know, either, but I remember that when I lived in Israel, peanut butter was insanely expensive and came in tiny containers. That was a while ago, I admit I didn't check the peanut butter out on my most recent trip there. Posts: 5771 | Registered: Nov 2000
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mayhaps. that's probably the reason for why it started out that way, if they had hazelnuts growing, but no peanuts.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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What do they use for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches if you can't buy peanut butter? Don't tell me the rest of the world has no PBJs! <distraught>
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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The hazelnut is superior to the peanut. That's just a fact. That said, peanut butter is a very, very nice thing. It's one of the few things that make chocolate edible, for instance. (Hazelnuts are another. Sticks of cracker are another.)
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I heard there's a place in town selling fresh roasted hazelnuts... gonna have to go check them out.... Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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I've heard in some places they use almond butter, which i've never tasted. My yoga teacher was a huge fan of it though. Posts: 376 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: But you can't find Nutella everywhere in America either.
You obviously haven't been looking very hard. I've seen it in just about every grocery store in this area and we're not even all that international in these parts.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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I live in flippin' Alaska, and I can get Nutella at any grocery store. It's not terribly popular, but it's not hard to get, either.
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I live in Australia and have never had any problems buying peanut butter. Every supermarket stocks it.
Peanut butter cups however - well, Australian tastes just don't like the peanut butter + chocolate combination that Americans do. We have peanut M&Ms but not peanut butter ones. I think we have one chocolate bar with peanut butter in it, and it's not really popular.
I'm sure it's because our palates are more sophisticated. Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Imogen's right - we're really not a nation of sweet-tooths. Peanut Butter itself is easy to come by, but you'll find just as many Aussies putting Vegemite on their toast of a morning.
quote:Originally posted by Tatiana: What do they use for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches if you can't buy peanut butter? Don't tell me the rest of the world has no PBJs! <distraught>
Some of us have old and sophisticated cultures and wouldn't dream of putting jelly on bread. I mean, ick. Incidentally, what's with the horrible sliced bread you Americans eat? Not only does it last as long as cardboard, it tastes the same. Besides, slicing bread is good exercise.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Even our dinky little neighborhood grocery store has peanut butter. And we can get nutella here, too. And this is outer darkness.
Hey, kq, I'm allergic to hazelnuts, too! Except, I'm actually only allergic to the papery outer layer of them. That makes me stop breathing. But the rest of the nut is fine. Which has me happy, cuz I love my nutella!
Um, Fahim hates peanut butter. I think it's here for the foreigners.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Oo almond butter sounds like it would be good. I wonder if it would taste anything like almond paste, if it's not the same thing.
I don't know what I'd do without PB&J. It saved me when I was in Rome, but not without having to hunt down the PB first.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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hazelnuts are the superior nut to peanuts. Why? Because peanuts *aren't really nuts*. They're legumes. And disqualified. Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I once tried some health-food concoction called "No-Nut Butter". It is made from soybeans, for those allergic to nuts. The label rhapsodised about the benefits of soy protein, and told you how many grams of soy protein was in the stuff.
It was foul and inedible. I could dubplicate the taste and texture if I soaked some corrugated cardboard in sour milk, and ran the whole thing together in the blender with some blackboard chalk.
Why don't we have a barfing or a yucky-face graemlin? Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:Originally posted by ketchupqueen: I'm allergic to hazelnuts-- and I hate peanuts.
So much for us having similar food likes!
I love peanut butter and peanuts. And hazelnuts. And Nutella. And chocolate spread. And peanut butter cups. Especially the tiny ones in ice cream.
Soy nuts (roasted soy beans) are not bad either. But I agree, they make absolutely dreadful "butter." Bleh!
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:I like cashew butter. I wish I had some right now. I'd eat it happily with a spoon.
Hey Syn, if you were at Twin Oaks Community, you'd get to eat cashew butter all the time, since they buy it in bulk from East Wind...
(I've still got 10 lbs. of almond butter and 15 lbs. of cashew butter that I brought with me when I moved from East Wind, mmmm )
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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See, I can't stand roasted soy nuts (or really, anything soy except for soy sauce). The idea of a soy nut butter...oh, ugh. Gross. The stomach curdles.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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The peanut butter they have in Italy isn't really peanut butter. Just like the boxed milk bears no relation to real milk.
Sure, KoM-- go on about the superiority of European cultures while swilling irradiated, room temperature, dead milk.
They have Nutella at just about every supermarket I've ever been in, by the way. What they DON'T carry is a really good brand of olive oil.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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The peanut butter I had in Italy was pretty darn close. I also found some Skippy, which I'm pretty sure was peanut butter. Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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