Nuts about Nutella.

The thing I dont get the most (ok maybe not the most) about America is the lack of love for Nutella.
I mean sure you can buy at the supermarket, somewhere between PB and J but I can't just go out and get a Nutella crepe, Nutella on a baguette, Nutella croissant and or a Nutella-smothereened waffle like you can anywhere in Europe. Man I love Europe. They have their priorities right over there.
Hazelnut and chocolate in its finest liquidy goo form is clearly priority-worthy material. Don't even think of leaving any European country without indulging in one of these fineries.

I decided to do a bit of research on my favorite substance to lick from a spoon and found to my surprise that Nutella was actually created in the 40's when there was a shortage of chocolate (what an awful world that must have been) and so hazelnuts came to the rescue to create Nutella and extend the chocolate supply. This all happened in Italy thanks to a man named Mr. Ferrero (aaah a certain 'Rocher' comes to mind). See, I thought Nutella was from Belgium but I was wrong. Those Italians sure do know their food. First Mascarpone and now this? It just makes all us non-Italians look so bad.

Anyway, the story gets better. The original form of Nutella was in the form of a tin-foiled wrapped loaf called "pasta gianduja" allowing moms (or mamas as they would have called them) to cut slices of the Nutella and place it between slices of bread. However when kids started to throw the bread away and only eat the hunk of Nutella (very smart kids these were), the company transformed the product into its current gooey joy paste form. Utterly fascinating. Just think if the kids had just shut up and eaten the bread.
Now I quote: "The early version of Nutella spread was received very well once introduced, since it was a much more inexpensive way for people to enjoy something that tasted so good… a kilo of chocolate at the time was 6 times the cost of a kilo of pasta gianduja. So Nutella was a product that everyone could, and did, enjoy. The product became so popular that Italian food stores started a service called "The Smearing". Children could go to their local food store with a slice of bread for a "smear" of "supercrema gianduja."

WOW. Now that's what I call customer service! What a brilliant idea! I think I should open a "Smearing" store!