Peanut Chews and Nougat Rolls

Goldenberg's Peanut Chews is the coolest site - I haven't freaked so happily for a web design since I saw Manu Chao. (Manu Chao has now unfortunately been redesigned and is not what it was. So go visit Goldenberg's.)

For many years I have loved Goldenberg's Peanut Chews. As my traveling companions could tell you, I search for them, futilely, in every convenience store I pass. They aren't sold in the south, I guess.

Now, it appears, I could buy them through the mail via the website. I don't dare, though, at least not now, in the summer. I don't want to make the same mistake twice...

See, when my son was recovering from cancer treatments he was able to attend a wonderful summer camp, Camp Simcha, run by Chai Lifeline. They make this opportunity available almost for free! (Your kid needs to be some flavor of Jewish but even the extremely reform are welcome.)

At camp - where the kids are delighted to discover the drink machines have been hacked so you just press the button, no coin necessary, and the drinks fall out for you - he became quite enamored of a candy called a Paskesz nougat roll.

He asked me to get him some. Since he basically never liked anything, back then, and had no appetite and said "no thanks" to every delicacy I could think of, it became a matter of great urgency to find these nougat rolls.

Since everything at Camp Simcha is kosher, the suppliers are somewhat arcane. Needless to say, I couldn't find a place to buy Paskesz nougat rolls here in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

After a fairly intense internet search, I sent away to Koshermania.com for a big box of them.

When the box arrived, tragedy. Every bar had been melted and remelted till the crushed peanuts that were supposed to be all over the outside had migrated halfway into the epidermis. The bars were limp and strangely shaped and stuck to their wrappers. I put them in the freezer and they were ok enough, but not an experience to repeat.

I found the Goldenberg site via Prepare to Meet Your Bakerina, a wonderful blog recommended by Michele. I'm planning to hang out over there, drooling, from now on.


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