I’ve eaten in many restaurants around the world.  In some of the restaurants, the food served was unrecognizable to my uncultured eyes, but I usually understood the point of the dish after it was explained.  That doesn’t mean I tried it, or liked it if I did.  I am an admittedly picky eater; this is well known to my family and friends.  

One type of food that exists in many countries is nuts.   I generally like nuts, especially salted, and especially peanuts (I know, they’re cheap and not the most nutritious).  Different countries emphasize different nuts, of course.  But there is a way of preparing nuts that I’ve only encountered in the front of airplanes: heated nuts. 

Why heat nuts?  It’s not as if they are cooked, they remain in their raw and crunchy state.  It’s not as if there is some storage reason (do they keep them near the jet engines?).  Nuts don’t spoil, and they aren’t served hot enough to kill any bacteria.  The heat doesn’t seem to enhance the flavor in any way.

But here they are, heated. And I don’t like it.