My new favorite snack

So the last time I studied abroad in Germany was 12 years ago.  To be honest, not much has changed.  There is probably more garbage separation, but to be honest it's not that different a place than it was 12 years ago.  With one exception....Peanuts.

Now I know what your thinking: What the heck do peanuts have to do with anything?  Well, my friend, I'll tell you.  Germans do not really eat peanut butter.  If I were interested in making a cheap PB&J for lunch to bring with me, I would be out of luck.  First, their bread is WAY better than the crap you would make that kind of sandwich out of.  Second, while they do have bread for such sandwiches, it's not as good as our bread for such things...strange but true.  But it's a moot point, because there is no peanut butter.



This isn't a real issue when you could get peanut butter at any time, but when you can't get peanut butter somehow you need peanut butter all the time.  I actually have a couple of recipes that I use it for - there is this strange chicken dish that I got out of a cookbook one time, and the generic Asian peanut sauce which one would be hard pressed to make here.  But I make these things so seldom that I have to admit it's truly not the actual peanut butter that I miss so much as the taste.

Well, folks in the last 12 years they have developed something, which fills that void.  I introduce you peanut cheetos. Ok...they're not really cheetos - since the "chee" part of cheetos I think stands for cheese....but these have the equivalent consistency as cheese puffs (the generic equivalent of cheetos).  And the picture doesn't really do them justice.  I know they look gross, but trust me, they are tasty.   There are various brand names for these things, but most people recognize them as "Erdnuss Locken" (translation: Peanut Curls) or "Erdnuss Flips" (translation: Peanut Flips - What? "Flips" is an English word).  I think that they are pretty much required to contain around 33% peanuts, and they are supposed to replicate the taste of peanuts, but they are definitely more like peanut butter.

However, my favorite snack does not stop there.  For around 1.50 Euros you can get a bag of generic Erdnusflips. A jar of Nutella costs around 2 Euros.  Put the two together and you have something that tastes a little bit like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups - but crispy and with a slight hazelnut flavor.  I mention the prices because many American candies - like Reese's are really expensive here.  I don't eat them very much in the states, but if I did happen to have a desire for them, Erdnussflips and Nutella fill that void quite nicely.  YUMMM.