When I first arrived in Italy and was just getting to know everyone, Marta had expressed an interest in peanut butter, and recipes containing peanut butter.I remember bringing this up to Niki when she came to visit in June. Niki, being the coolest girl in the world that she is, sent me a package containing peanut butter as soon as she got back to the US. I had to assure everyone that I was not trying to start a drug cartel, and using peanut butter to smuggle contraband into the country.
On one of our slower days I was finally able to get around to producing some goodies with the PB. I made one of my all time favorite foods in the world, the toasted PB&J sandwich, and then of course, the traditional peanut butter cookie.
The PB&J bombed hard core!!! Out of the 8 employees that were in the restaurant only 2 really liked it (Marta & Spera). The others either straight up hated it, or wouldn't even try it. It was an interesting cultural experiment. Most people here have never seen or heard of peanut butter, so they are a little stand offish. There were a lot of issues with texture. It was kind of disheartening to see many of the poor reactions to something that I have grown up with and is very comforting to me. I can understand though, and I tried not to take it too hard.
