Boiled Peanuts!

Boiled Peanuts! from Richard Mageau on Vimeo.

So simple, yet so ridiculously delicious! I like to call it the caviar of the South. (That's right, you heard that one here.) Growing up, my family used to go to Destin, FL every year (before it became overrun with mini-putts and t-shirt shops) for summer vacation. Like clockwork, we'd stop at a roadside produce shack somewhere in Alabama or northern Florida and pick up a hot, steaming bag of boiled peanuts. And I do mean STEAMING. They would be so hot you could barely touch the shells but were compelled to anyway because of the promise of salty, mushy peanuty goodness inside. The juice would run everywhere and it was a total mess but we didn't care. The salt would make your fingers prune and dry up like you'd been sitting in the bathtub for an hour.

We're not sure the exact way that boiled peanuts are made, aside from, well, boiling water. Oil? Definitely salt. And how long do you boil them? We suspect a long time. What we do know is that it is by far, the best snack food ever. Pairs quite nicely with a Moonpie and an RC Cola.