Pistachios

If you gave me a 20# bag of pistachios, I would eat them - nearly all of them in one setting. I would force myself to stop- knowing that eating too many nuts can make me ill. It would be hard to stop. I love pistachios. I came late in life to pistachios. Didn't have my first pistachio until I was 24, and that was in ice cream. Initially, I didn't like that ice cream (it's a texture thing) but over the years, that ice cream- specifically Double Rainbow White Pistachio ice cream has become a favorite.

There was a year when I couldn't stomach a pistachio and that was right after the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. Maria and I had to strain all the rotten smelly ice cream down the sink. Double Rainbow uses so many pistachios that the ice cream wouldn't strain and we had to dig our hands into the spoiled unrefrigerated dairy and dig the nuts out. We wished we wore gas masks.

Shelling pistachios is just enough work to feel as if I've earned the fruit -like nut but not too difficult of a chore to dissuade my continuous pursuit. It fills a need when I'm nervous or pondering; better than pulling out my hair or biting my nails. Eating pistachios has a similar quality to biting my nails but is much more of a socially approved behavior. No one ever looks at my hands and says, "you eat pistachios, don't you?" And if they did, I would answer
yes, yes, yes! The way I guzzle pistachios is only matched by the way I consume popcorn; send me away. Avert your eyes. I barely breathe.

Pistachios. Pistachios. Pistachios. I love pistachios. I should provide the history, nutritional content and the folklore of pistachios. However I don't care about any of that. I just want to eat pistachios, pistachios, pistachios.





This man couldn't wait. He drove to the land of pistachios and began eating Pistachio Place.
I don't blame him.





By the way I can also pop popcorn on the stove top to the last kernel. It's a talent. Some people are mathematical geniuses, some people can hit a baseball 500 feet, some people can write. I can pop popcorn. And eat pistachios.