Yup. Butterfingers. Go figure.

I was never much of a Butterfinger eater as a child, or even as an adult. Outside of the "fun size" bars bestowed upon me at Halloween, I could probably count on one hand the number of times I consciously chose to eat one. I didn't hate them, but I didn't love them either.

One of the causes of this newfound desire would, I imagine, be the fact that around the Christmas holiday a fellow volunteer received a care package from home which contained a couple of bags of Butterfinger Minis. Fortunately for his compatriots here in Eastern Europe, he was generous with them, and something about the flavour, flaky texture, and low-quality chocolate coating was just heavenly. I generally like to think that I've refined my palate to the point where I no longer have much desire for most chocolate or candy easily found in a supermarket aisle--once I learned to recognise good-quality ingredients, the commonplace stuff lost a lot of its appeal--but the desire still pops up now and then. Sometimes it's a specific flavour or texture combination that can only be found in a certain food item (Milky Way Midnights would be an example of this), and sometimes it's simply that I haven't totally lost my taste for crap. It requires a specific mood or set of circumstances, but the times do come when I find myself really craving some overprocessed, packaged junk, and wilfully choose it over something of "quality".
I'd like to think that this is a good thing. Sure, it's nice to be able to eat a $500 meal and really appreciate it, to identify the complexity of flavours and understand the creativity and imagination that is required to come up with ingredient pairings and new cooking techniques, to marvel at the skill necessary to construct the experience. I enjoy being able to winnow my desires down to something very specific because I've got an accumulation of familiarity with a wide range of foods, and the enjoyment that comes from satisfying that obscure desire. I even enjoy cooking experimentation, trying out on my own what combinations will work well, or having enough basic knowledge to do some culinary off-roading, looking at a recipe and figuring out how to tweak it so that it will be closer to my preferences, or cannibalising several different recipes and putting the pieces together to get a Frankensteinian dish that is quite good, while bearing little resemblance to the originals that went into its creation.

But being able to appreciate, perhaps not simplicity, but (more pejoratively) lowbrow culinary pursuits is also a valuable skill to have. Still being able to enjoy a regular candy bar, or product off a shelf that can be found anywhere, is something I'm very happy I can still do. There's a whole realm of experience and culture that goes along with tacos from a drive-thru, ravioli out of a can, hot dogs from the dive on the corner, fried chicken served through bulletproof glass, cupcakes with injected cream filling and frosting that peels off in one solid disc if you're careful enough. And the lowly, lovely Butterfinger. Would that you could be found here.