beans, beans....

The more you eat…. Well I couldn’t. Alert readers will remember that I enjoyed the Saveur “100” of interesting and little known foodie things this year, and was intrigued by number 32, the Lupini beans which got a rave review from a reader from Florence, Italy as being a great snack (which you can read for yourself):




So, ever on the cutting edge of culinary exploration, I hustled out to my favorite purveyor of international cuisine, Shoppers Food Warehouse, and after some searching found them and picked up a bottle – not the Victoria brand, but Cento which I have always found reliable.



Note the “Ready to Eat” prominently displayed in the little green box on the label, and in fact it was also mentioned in the Saveur blurb. Great! Pop the top and dig in. Easy. But, not so prominently displayed nor mentioned by Ms. Lapham, was the little “instruction” box neatly tucked on the side label giving further advice on the “ready to eat” part:



Hmmmmm….. not quite ready to eat... But, okay we’ll follow the tip. Open the bottle, no problem. Rinse a few, a bit messy and wet, and as instructed we’ll just pop that skin



and guess what? No amount of pinching force would eject the little bean from its leather like casing. Pinch top, pinch bottom, sides, nothing. Bean occasionally shot across the kitchen, but still encased. Nature protected the little bean from intrusion very well..

what followed then was a series of attempts to get to the (allegedly) delicious little snack. The “smashing with a spoon” technique resulted in getting to the “meat” (so to speak) but it also resulted in a smashed bean. Maybe trying to gently bite the bean would be better. This also worked, but then you had both bean and casing shards in your mouth which you had to either fish or spit out, neither of which were very appetizing. Only with a sharp fingernail was I able to extract the whole bean intact, but not very hygienic.



So after finally having an actual bean to try, instead of a luscious little snack such as I would take to a movie (?), I found no trace of a “salty, nutty tasting bean with a delicious snap”. Instead after laboriously producing the edible part and popping it in my mouth, it was a bland mealy piece of soggy material without much taste. I can’t imagine settling into a darkened movie theater and going through all that! What would you do with the skins? I can only believe that in Italy, there is much post processing of the little rascals before they wind up at the concession stand.

But, you never know till you try. And at least for this little experiment, I didn’t have to

DFD