cheese-tuiles.jpg

One of the (few) advantages of being late for a food blog event is that you get to enjoy the efforts of other food bloggers long before you have to worry about your own post. I am glad to see that the world is indeed in love with what I like to refer to as Hazelnut Gold, otherwise known as Nutella.

As for my own post, let’s just say that I’m fashionably late for World Nutella Day hosted by Sara of Ms. Adventures in Italy and Shelley of At Home in Rome. Better late than never is what I say.

Having read so many of the entries about World Nutella Day, I think we’ve pretty much covered the history/origins/significance of Nutella to food bloggers and the world at large. There is, however, one crucial bit of Nutella lore that has not been covered.

It is the age-old Nutella question:  do you spread with a knife or a spoon?

There are very few things that will get me as worked up as this little query. And while I realize that a knife is featured oh-so-prominently on the label of Nutella jars, I can say beyond the shadow of a doubt that Nutella is to be spread with a spoon.

Never, ever use a knife! Never! The only reason there’s a knife on the label is that on the particular day the photo was taken, there were no spoons. Perhaps it was during the year of the Great Italian Spoon Shortage. I don’t know. What I do know, is that to use a knife to spread Nutella, is to sink a knife deep into the heart of Cream Puff.

And why would you want to hurt Cream Puff?

Nutella should always be spread with a spoon. Using a knife is an indication of stinginess of spirit. I mean how much Nutella can you possibly pile on to the thin blade of a knife?

A spoon is a different story. You can sink it deeply into the jar and with a gentle twist of the wrist you can scoop up a glorious creamy mound of the stuff. Then, slowly, you bring the spoon to a waiting slice of bread. You begin by smearing on as much of the Nutella as you can. Of course some of it will be caught in the spoon’s gentle indentation.

This brings me to what I call the Moment of Nutella Thrill, for now you have a choice. You can either pop the spoon in  your mouth and enjoy the appetizer to your Nutella sandwich. Or, you can use the corner of the bread to scoop out the bit of Nutella that remains in the spoon. Either way, you’ll feel that little thrill as the moment of Nutella consumption is near.

So please, put away the knives and embrace the spoons.

Happy belated World Nutella Day!

Ciao!

Technorati tags:  ,