Parenting Around The World: Italy’s Peanut Butter
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I’ve always been fascinated by other cultures. The different food, how the people dress differently, their beliefs about family, education, money. My husband and I love traveling, and before the baby came we often planned either a big international trip or several mini-trips across the country. From Morocco to London, to Italy, to New York City, we found many things to fascinate us.
Now that I’m a parent, there’s an added interest in my study of different cultures: parenting differences and similarities. What we take as a given in terms of how to raise one’s child here in the U.S.A. can be quite different in France, England, China. When I realized these differences, it made me confident that there really is no ONE right way to parent. Certain practices are advocated here by the American Pediatrics Association, but the opposite in other countries. Yet children in both countries grow up perfectly healthy. It gives me peace of mind that I can parent how I’d like even if it is against societal or cultural norms.
With that said, this series is meant to not just instruct but to definitely entertain. I, for one, am tickled pink with Italy’s version of Peanut Butter: the hazelnut chocolate spread called Nutella. I first heard of this brand when I was in grade school surrounded by second-generation Italians for classmate. They often had Nutella on toast, or Nutella on bananas, even Nutella on pancakes. It was a breakfast staple their parents, who grew up in Italy, brought back from their mother country. Of course, I had to ask my mom to buy me one too. The first bite on toast did not disappoint. Nor did the second, or third one. In fact, I liked it so much that I have often just taken scoops of it with a teaspoon and eaten right out of the jar (bad practice I know).
I have since converted my husband into a Nutella eater, and just yesterday he brought a jar to work. Once his Italian co-worker spied the container, he immediately raved about Nutella. In his words, he and all his friends, siblings, and cousins, grew up on the hazel chocolate goodness. Just imagine your childhood memories of Peanut butter, or sometimes Peanut Butter and Jelly (PB&J for short). Some of you ate nothing but PB&J sandwiches for days on ends, as picky as you were in what you ate as kids. PB&J may have been staples on summer afternoons between breaks from play. It may have been what your parents packed for picnics to the park or the beach. For some, peanut butter evokes such an emotional response, several jars of it must be in the pantry at all times or the pantry is just not complete, even as adults. That’s the same nostalgia attached to Nutella for Italian kids and for Italians who will always be kids at heart.
If you’ve never tasted it, check your local grocery store and try it!
Clive Wisbey says...
Yes Nutella is truly an institution here in Italy. The product is made close to where I live here in Alba by Ferrero, famous of course for their “Ferrero Rocher” chocolate range. Most of the local hazelnut production goes toward making Nutella, however its still not enough and the company now imports hazelnuts from countries such as Turkey to cope with demand. When the wind blows in a certain direction you can smell the Nutella being made all over Alba. Seriously!
Most shops selling ice cream offer a Nutella topping and restaurants offer a desert based on the product. Ferrero also make other products that include Tic Tac and pocket coffee. The company itself employs about 4000 local people and contributes greatly to the local economy.
Clive Wisbeys last blog post..Prunetto village in The Langhe
Science-mom says...
Nutella is a favorite all over Europe, not only in Italy. Europeans, on the other hand, are a bit wary of peanut butter - strange color, they’d say
- except the Dutch and perhaps the Brits. The Dutch love peanut butter and calls it Pindakaas - peanut cheese!
Now, if you go down under to Oz and NZ, you should try their favorite spreads down there - marmite and vegimite. Now, these are really something
MrsH says...
Thanks for the tidbit Clive!
MrsH says...
Raquel, I’ve tasted Marmite. I don’t get why people like this! To each his or her own I guess.
Science-mom says...
There’s a nutella snack bar in Frankfurt where you can have the stuff in different variations - baked in cakes, cookies, etc. I even have a nutella cookbook
Science-moms last blog post..Sleep, health risks, and gender