As I sit here eating a peanut butter and banana sandwich for breakfast, it occurs to me that peanut butter is one of the quintessential American foods. But I’ve heard comments from non-Americans that they find it disgusting. These people seem to find peanut butter as disgusting as a typical American finds Vegemite disgusting. (I’d venture that as many Australian households have Vegemite as American households have peanut butter. Incidentally, I love Vegemite!)
No non-Americans: Do you like peanut butter? If you haven’t tried it, do you have an opinion on it?
I’m American, but I just returned from Bolivia, SA where my friends down there informed me on the rarity of peanut butter. They said it was available in the larger cities, and was unreasonably expensive.
I am Canadian and I love the idea of this thing you call peanut butter. How can you go wrong with mixing such wonderful ingredients? I will stock up the next time I visit the USA.
Yes and no. There are plenty of Asian and African cusines that include what is basically peanut butter. Of course spreading it on sandwiches may be quintessential American.
I have never heard any furriners speak ill of peanut butter…only with disgust at the thought of eating it with jelly. (I’ve seen them eat it with Marmite though…bleh!)
Just in case you’re not pulling my leg: peanut butter is NOT peanuts mixed with butter. It’s butter made from peanuts. Grind up some peanuts until they’re pasty and you have peanut butter.
In an earlier thread on “peanur butter and jelly sandwiches”, someone from Britain maintained that the peanut butter sold over there is very different from American peanut butter (and American “jelly” isn’t British “jelly” = gelatine, either), so a poll mighty be comparing apples and oranges, if that’s true.
It’s true that there are different kinds of peanut butter here – Jif and Peter Pan and all those other processed and sugared brands vs. non-homogenized , unsugared brands like “Teddie’s” – but there’s not a gross difference in the taste.
When I was in seventh grade my (Mexican) Spanish teacher went to great pains to lecture us about peanut butter. She did that kind of shit a lot. To some up her point, NO Mexican would EVER eat peanut butter and we should be ashamed of ourselves for eating it. She was a kook though.
I think for me peanuts just aren’t that great tasting, when used as flavouring in Thai dishes its great but on its own they seem not that good. As for peanut butter and jelly, why not just have good jam (jelly) on the sandwich. The jam/jelly that goes into peanutbutter and jelly seems to be artificially coloured and flavoured sugar syrup, real fruity jams are so much better.
I like peanut butter, but a few years ago I had two room mates who barely tolerated it in the same household. People who don’t get that emotional but simply refuse to eat it are relatively common.
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.I’d venture that as many Australian households have Vegemite as American households have peanut butter. Incidentally, I love Vegemite![/QUOTE]
Most Australian households have a jar of peanut butter too. It’s just that we probably go through it a bit slower than you 'merkins.
It is the one food (and I’ve tried everything from balut to snake’s blood) that I cannot stand. Even the smell puts me off (I like peanuts though, go figure). My sister, OTOH, loves the stuff. As a kid my mum would have to make my vegemite sandwich first, because even wiping the knife clean wasn’t enough to make that sandwich inedible to me if she’d made my sister’s pb one with the same knife.
I loathe the stuff (and normally I’d side with the firing-squads-against-faddy-eaters brigade). It’s horrible. This isn’t just an anti-USA thing, since Indonesian cuisine has donate the equally disgusting satay sauce, which is just runny peanut butter.
However, the US conquest sweeps inexorably onwards, and my children have surrendered by adopting it as a favourite.
