I think walnuts taste like almonds crossed with pecans (pronounced peh-cahns) minus any cherry tones and with a bit of bitter in its place.
Ironically, isn't it so that cyanide smells/tastes like almonds? Talk about your bitter.
[edited to prove I can spell]
I think that the reason walnuts are in grocery stores at all is that they are less strongly-flavored than peanuts (they can go into salads) but $3 per pound cheaper than almonds. I don't think I can even get pecans in a grocery store (or Whole Foods bulk, which is where I get my nuts), but I can get cashews. And actually, I don't know about hazelnuts: I never see them sold shelled, the way I do almonds and walnuts; so, maybe they're only sold with shells on? And for some reason, over in the produce department.
Dammit.
Now I want donuts.
Granola and yogurt != donut.
Donuts = bigger hiney region
sigh.
My favorite nut is pistachio; cashews would be second. I think plain peanuts actually beat plain almonds to show, although I do loves me some smokehouse almonds.
Filberts and brazils are the two I don't get.
No pecans in a grocery store? You must be in a weirdass market or something. Pecans are not exotic. Good, yes. I don't think of them as particularly expensive, but that may be my bias showing. (Pecan orchards everywhere in the southwest. There are some just below my parents' neighborhood even.)
Work is so dead today. I've received one e-mail in almost three hours.
The server is maxed out.
They are flushing the standpipes in the building. One is opposite my office. LOUD.
Has anyone figured out why people hate the word "Vagina" so much?
This has to be a hoax, right? I mean, "The Hoohah Monologues"???? I refuse to buy it.
Hazelnuts are the only nuts I actively dislike. I find them strange and offputting.
I love walnuts but they don't have an evil bitter taste to me. Just slightly bitter which contrasts beautifully with both chocolate brownies or maple syrup.
They're a little like pecans but not as buttery, darker, that edge of bitter. Again, if you don't have Shrift's tongue (or a comparable one) they taste extra good with chocolate.
Peanuts are not nuts, so they may not ping the nut people. They're legumes.
I think that the reason walnuts are in grocery stores at all is that they are less strongly-flavored than peanuts (they can go into salads) but $3 per pound cheaper than almonds.
But I love walnuts for their own walnuttiness! They have a texture and a taste that are distinct from other nuts.
Pecans are chewier and sweeter than walnuts. I love them too but when I want a walnut I want a walnut (for example, in the salad I'm going to be having for lunch where the walnuts will go perfectly with the blue cheese).
That said, I love all nuts. I have not met a nut I do not love. See, also, vegetables.
