Read below how American are considering Nutella. Like a rare, special European thing. So interesting…But, every time I even see in or even think about it, I cannot stop thinking that this chocolate extravaganza will finally end up in my love handles. Argh! Love-hate relationship….

caro:

josephweisenthal:

There’s something really irritating about the way Americans act in the presence of Nutella. It’s like, you can be having a totally normal brunch with perfectly respectable people, but then someone brings out the Nutella jar and everyone acts all crazy.

Everyone gets that same giddy smile; that same OMG-this-reminds-me-of-that-time-I-studied-abroad face.

I can’t think of any other food that provokes a similar reaction. Even other sweet foods, so I’m not sure what it’s all about.

It’s peanut butter for White People, tapping into the Europhilia that bubbled to the surface of the we’d-like-to-be-highbrow class during the embarrassing Bush era.  I’m pretty sure that anyone who gets giddy about it now is either looking for an excuse to tell pretentious I-studied-abroad stories or is the kind of person who first heard the word “arugula” on Top Chef.

That said, I think Nutella is very tasty, and this comes from someone who hates peanut butter.  I’m very sorry to hear you’re deathly allergic to it.  When I worked in an ice cream store, we served chocolate hazelnut ice cream and it was sort of our best-kept secret.  My spread of choice, by the way, is pumpkin butter.  I must’ve really weirded out the TSA when I checked a bag full of jars of pumpkin butter on the way back from Vermont that one time.

I might be wrong about this, but a decade ago it may have been tougher to obtain Nutella in parts of the States.  When I was in high school French class and we’d have the occasional croissant power breakfast, I recall that whoever brought the Nutella had to hit up a small specialty grocer (and I went to high school in a college town midway between NYC and Philly, so it’s not like it was total podunk).

Foodies, do weigh in!