Sunday, November 27, 2011

The Great Peanut Mystery


As some of you may know, I grew up and spent most of my life in Israel.

As a kid, One of my All-time Favorite snack was "American Peanuts".

They look like this.

When I went to College in Florida, my mom used to send me care packages every once in a while, with all my favorite snacks from home.

One day, in one of many "homework parties", I opened a package of those great American peanuts...


They are absolutely delicious, and have a perfect balance of sweet and salty!


As I was eating them, my friend look at me asking: "Hey, What is that thing you are eating over there??"


"What do you mean?" I said... "it's AMERICAN PEANUTS!"


He looked confused... From what he said, they never heard of those "American Peanuts" in America!!


I was left puzzled... "How is it possible.. That they Don't Have AMERICAN PEANUTS in AMERICA???"

I was very curious about this, and tried to investigate the origin of those crunchy-sweet-and-salty-delightful snacks. When I couldn't really find anything about it, I just forgot about it...



Years later, I went to a local 7/11 for a midnight snack.


At the corner of my eye, something familiar caught my attention.


I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!!! IT WAS..... "AMERIC...."



"JAPANESE PEANUTS????"


I tried to not freak out. I remembered that back home they have two very similar kinds of those peanuts. One called "American Peanuts" and the other "Kabukim"

They look like this.

The two are very similar in taste but has some differences in shape and their crunchiness.

it made sense! Perhaps the "Kabukim" are originally from Japan?? and served as snacks at the traditional KABUKI Theater shows??

But then why would they call them American peanuts too?


While I still can't completely solve this America-Japan-Israel mystery, I'd like to believe that if I ever walk the streets of Japan, I'll see something like this:


12 comments:

Taylor Clutter said...

Heh, great story and images! I think your only solution is to visit Japan!

Luke Heathcock said...

If you buy Camel cigarettes in America, on the bottom you will see the phrase "Smooth Turkish blend". If you buy Camels in Turkey, on the bottom it reads "Smooth American blend". Marketing I guess.

Sweet storyboards Avner!

Tomer said...

What a mystery!
Gadol! and like Taylor said now u just need to go to Japan and ur mystery is solved.

Betsy Bauer said...

Hahahaha! Very flattering drawing of me on the couch. :) Nice stuff, Avner!

avneriginal said...

MMMMM Kabukim........ (it makes me homesick)

It's great to see you take something so simple and rather trevial and turn it into an entertaining story.

Well done mate!

(The other Avner)

Javo said...

Its funny that about two months ago, a friend of mine was having the same story. Here in Mexico we know this snaks "Cacahuates Japoneses" (japanese peanuts) and those are very common. This friend, is actually a Karate Master, and his sensei is from Japan. when he was here we were very surprised when this old man said to us that there's no such thing as Japanese Peanuts in Japan :s (I hope that in time this mistery will be solved)
Thanks for sharing and I apologize for my bad english!!

Wayne Parker said...

Ha, ha, Betsy that is tooo funny. I miss those "homework" parties with Yezi, Nilah, Dongin, Nick and Jess. Avner, the offer still stands, comics are your new thing when animation is not it anymore - which I know is not going to happen anytime soon ;)

Take care man, you put a good spin on a bad night... great stuff.

jriggity said...

Well Told Story man!! and excellent illustrations ta boot.

jriggity

Avner Geller said...

Thanks guys! this mystery gets bigger and bigger every day! But we shall solve it!!

Wayne - Can't the two live in peace?? maybe?

Alex Terry said...

Thats marketing baby!

Maya Shavzin said...

hilarious post, Avner!!

we never really bought "American" peanuts in my house, so i never put them in the equation - BUT - ever since i was little i asked why they call the nut thingies "Kabukim" (which now, seeing the name printed on a package in English, makes me doubt the "-IM" suffix is from Hebrew..? so "kabuk" doesn't really exist?)
so now that you've opened the discussion: What do they have to do with the Japanese theater!?? someone, anyone, PLEASE???

Nikhita P. said...

haha! Hope you solve the mystery!