Mandelhörnchen

Here's another reason I had to blog again: I had to tell y'all about this marvelous discovery I made the other day at Bristol Farms. I am not one to shop at Bristol Farms, mind you, I'm Whole Foods and Trader Joe's all the way, but traffic was so bad on the way home from work that I pulled into a Bristol Farms parking lot just to get off the road for a while. I figured I could get some shopping done, and hopefully by the time I'd be done, the traffic would have cleared up. So I pick up a few things, and guess what I stumble over in one of their bakery baskets?

It's one of these lovely, delicious, absolutely incredible Mandelhörnchen (faithfully translated on the wrapper as "almond horns"). They consist of a lot of marzipan and almonds (yay, protein!) and sugar and eggs (alright, alright) and if you haven't seen one before, this is what they look like:

Now if you're German, you're probably thinking: So what? They sell these just about everywhere. But honestly, I have never ever seen one in California, or anywhere outside of Germany for that matter. A decade without almond horns! And I was raised on these things!

And these particular ones are not just ok or so-so, like most other pseudo-German pastries, cakes etc (don't get me started on that travesty that they sell as "German" chocolate cake over here). No, these Mandelhörnchen are the real thing! They are mindblowingly succulent, sweet, moist, chewy and heavy with marzipan that just melts in your mouth. In short, they are perfect.

And Bristol Farms carries them every day, as part of their regular inventory. Who knew?

Good thing we're on a break from boot camp. There's not enough push-ups in the world to make up for one of these...