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Image from marshmallowfluff.com
Strange City is a column depicting the odd idiosyncrasies that make Boston Boston, through the eyes of a total stranger.
Last week I asked around to try and find out exactly what a “fluffernutter“ is. I know it isn’t a word. A real one anyway. Maybe it describes a type of personality? A person? Like, an odd person (hence nutty, hence ‘nutter’?). It can’t be a thing to do. Or a food. Can it?
Oh wait, I’m in Boston. Of course it can.
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Wandering around Boston, especially the more touristic destination, where street vendors are selling printed tees and other Boston paraphernalia, I kept seeing a t-shirt with the word “fluffahnuttah” on it. Proud of my knowledge of Boston, and the Boston accent, I (successfully and correctly) assumed that it was a “fluffernutter.” What that meant though, I still had no idea. I could have googled it, for sure, but why google when I have the handy dandy Dig staff to ask?
So I asked. And boy, did I receive reactions.
I’ll confess, the whole peanut butter craze seemed a little crazy when I first moseyed over to the States, (I still can’t quite wrap my head around peanut butter on apples), but I’ve come to accept (and maybe even really enjoy) some peanut butter. But Marshmallow Fluff? What even is that?! That sounds absolutely repulsive. Marshmallows themselves are already a kind of weird, spongy-but-not-quite texture. But then to make a spreadable cream out of the already kind of gross “corn syrup, sugar syrup, vanilla flavor, and egg whites” concoction just seems like it’s taking it kind of too far.
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But okay. I’ll accept that on days when you can’t enjoy a smore, and your kids are being incredibly frustrating, you can just slap some marshmallow fluff on a graham cracker with some nutella. I’ll just about accept that. As dessert. Never a snack, but maybe dessert. But combining it with peanut butter on bread, and feeding that unhealthy mess to children just seems like an all-round bad idea. Forget the fact that an apple a day is being transformed to a fluffernutter a day. Health choices are up to families to make. But why, why, WHY would anyone ever want to give a child the exact combination of food that is guaranteed to result in hyperactive running around, yelling and a sugar rush? And don’t deny that there would be a sugar rush.
There pretty much is only sugar in marshmallow fluff.
And as if that wasn’t enough, Massachusetts has time and time again considered proudly declaring the fluffernutter its “State Sandwich.” What does that even mean? Boston, come on. You have some good food options to be proud of. Some great creations, like Boston Cream Pie. The fluffernutter is not one of them.
When will people learn that peanut butter cannot go with absolutely EVERYTHING?! Peanut butter and marshmallow fluff seems like the kind of match that should never have been made. No, opposites don’t attract. Not always. Not when you’re talking about peanut butter and marshmallows. Slapping peanut butter and marshmallow fluff together just seems like it would result in jamming mouths together.
On second thought, maybe that’s the point.