Mani (peanuts)

You can boil or steam, shell and eat them while hot. You can enjoy them as candies or as a jam. Or you can enjoy them fried and salted like the ones in the photo. I am, of course, talking about peanuts. My husband likes to buy them raw then we’d boil them at home in salted water and eat them while watching TV or while chatting in the kitchen. But the fried peanuts like those in the photo… oohh, the first time I tried them, I was about five years old. I accompanied an aunt to church and she bought me a balloon and a small bag of fried peanuts after mass.

These deep fried salted peanuts are a popular pulutan (starter, appetizer) in the Philippines. In bars, they are often served for free when you order a beer or two. You can buy them in supermarket stalls or from ambulant vendors whose carts are equipped with portable gas stoves. They are not sold by weight but by volume. Vendors have drinking glasses in various sizes–the smallest about the size of a shot glass and the largest would be a medium-sized tumbler–with which they measure the amount of peanuts they sell. There is usually a fixed price that corresponds to every glass size. The best way to enjoy these fried peanuts is while they’re still hot–almost hot enough to scorch the fingers and mouth but not quite. Mmmm… peanuts…

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