Last week there were a couple of American recent college-grads hanging around the office. They were here doing research and stayed late a couple of nights. On one such occassion they were heading out to dinner, but the guy wasn’t feeling so great. I offered a snack to hold them over until they got to the restaurant, “I don’t have much. Noodles, popcorn, or PBJ on crackers.”
They excitedly took me up on my PBJ (peanut butter and jelly) and crackers offer, asking, “Did you bring the peanut butter with you?” Uh, definitely not. The bag doesn’t really have so much space for “food.” But the people at Impulse had shown me around the city, including a grocery store that stocks imported foods (which is where I bought some $7 Ragu sauce); the peanut butter, though, was actually made in India. It’s just not available everywhere — although it is available in a few brands and either crunchy or creamy. They’ve also got foreign jellies…but I opted for the Meghalaya-made jam.
Unfortunately, though, none of that mattered when we got to the kitchen. I’d apparently eaten all the crackers. “That’s OK,” said the girl, “can we just have a scoop of peanut butter?” It’s funny how much peanut butter is a comfort food for Americans.
While the two Americans each took heaping spoonfuls of the crunchy brown goo, their Indian friend did as well. We soon learned it was his first time having peanut butter.
As soon as he told us that, I had a memory of my first year of teaching and another time of indoctrinating others into trying a new food. When the time came to teach the unit on compare-and-contrast essays, I brought in hummus (which I knew few students had tried before) and peanut butter for them to eat and then compare and contrast. After the day was over, I plopped down my teaching bag in the assistant principal’s office while I waited for him to stop dealing with all the crazy 7th graders hanging around. A fellow teacher saw my ajar bag and asked what food I’d brought. “Oh, I brought hummus and penis butter for the kids to compare and contrast.” Realizing I’d said something not quite, right, I tried to figure out what I’d said by asking my self (out loud), “Did I just say hummus and penis butter?”
Yeah…the 7th grade boys loved hearing that.
hahaha, penis butter
I love it! you should trademark that.