Event Fri Dec 14 2007

German Nuts in the Loop

If you haven't yet tried this year's Christkindlmarket at Daley Plaza, know that it's where you can quickly and in passing grab a bag of some thickly candied nuts. One outdoor vendor in a wooden shed keeps a large pot with a motorized mixing blade aside a counter filled with trays of pecans, almonds, macadamia nuts and peanuts in either coconut, cocoa, cinnamon, amaretto, or just plain sugar flavor (depending on the nut) - and Vienna almonds (vanilla, I think). I tried a few varieties in my visits. Their nuts are reliably crisp, well coated with tasty sugar, and with the fragrance that comes from nothing but a nicely roasted nut. Wash them down with Glühwein, a "traditional German holiday market hot spiced wine" from another shack. My last time there, I was off to meet friends at a bus stop and had six minutes and three downtown blocks to go. I was led astray en-route by a sweet nutty smell that I recognized with smiles. A German-sounding-accented gal scooped cinnamon-sugar pecans into a paper cone that she had on her scale. I was off a minute after the aroma first came to me, and at the bus stop sharing crunches of sugary pecans after another two minutes.

— Chris Brunn / Comments (0)