I was just informed that peanuts are not nuts. Repeat, they are NOT nuts.

How misleading! I am bewildered by this revelation. It’s almost as baffling as the time I discovered a tomato is actually a fruit and birds are dinosaurs’ cousins!

Apparently the beloved peanut is in fact a legume as it spends the early stages of life in a pod. Just like other legumes.

When I think of peanut shells I always remember this club we went to in Hamburg. All anyone remembers of this particular club is that there were monkey nuts. Why were there monkey nuts in a club? I don’t know, but they got everywhere – we were finding them for days after that.

I found out another interesting fact about peanuts too. My friend told me that George Washington Carver, a black guy (which was a big deal back in those days) is not only responsible for peanut butter, but also came up with over 100 other peanut recipes! Apparently peanuts were pretty useless before he came along with his nutty (I couldn’t help it) ideas! So all in all, a fantastic thing.

I personally like eating peanuts just how they are, but I am definitely open to other ways in which they can be enjoyed, for example in curries. Maybe I will research his recipes. I didn’t particularly like peanuts before I came to Chile but now I eat them all the time.

I didn’t know I had so much to say about peanuts but turns out they are fascinating.