When The Hub and I last went to Ikea to pick up some inexpensive bookshelves, I stopped at the carry out food place to buy him some of the Swedish meatballs that he likes so much. They didn't have the "Princess Torte" that I like so much, so I bought the product that the young man recomended in it's place: Punschrolls. I should have known better. It says right on the front of the package "filled marzipan roll with cocoa-flavored icing".

I hate marzipan. Mind you, I've used a great deal of it in cooking. There's nothing better for making little fruit decorations to go on top of a cake, but I don't even like the smell of it. To me it smells like bitter almonds, which, I guess it is. From the way my family always ate and enjoyed it, I thought there was something wierd about me....

...but, then, my family are a lot German, and they put marzipan in everything. When I was a kid I can remember being given marzipan candies as if they were a great treat - colorful translucent lollypops, or pastel colored candies. Yuck! What a nightmare!

That having been said, I've had cakes and confections with a little bit of marzipan in them and tolerated it okay, but to me a high concentration of it was always inedible. Just as well, each little punschroll has about 250 calories a piece. Even The Hub didn't like it.

The dog enjoyed it, but he is, after all, a dog.

So, I brought them in to work. As I've mentioned before, we have a really diverse population in here, and there are some folks who will eat just about anything if it's free. My co-workers are all daring people, they'll try a bite of a new food. "Cut it up into little pieces and just try one before you decide on it." I warned, "it's got an awfully strong taste."

"What's it taste like?" everyone asked the first sampler.

She made a face. "Rum. Like pure, unadulterated rum. Yuck." she said.

That was the consensis in my work group and the surrounding work groups. Yuck. Not a single person liked it.

Desperate to get rid of the punschrolls - and I hate to throw away good food, I sent Friend Will an e-mail down in the QA department.

"Tea, these things are lime green and brown. That does not bode well for a new food experience." he said. I have to give him credit, he ate more than one bite before pronouncing it a "thumbs down"

"Take it down to QA, see if anybody likes it." I suggested.

"I"m trying to keep my friends down there!" he said.

Translation: I'm not wierd, everybody else hates it as much as I do!

Maybe it's an aquired taste. But, I'm standing by my original assertion: it's just gross.