Boy, this town loves a bean.

I’ve joined the hoards of lalas food-shopping at Trendy Joe’s for the good prices and cleverly packaged snacks and pre-peeled/ pre-cut veggies (ok, and the cute slogans & product names)And apparently I’m supposed to be eating edamame, cause they’re everywhere. I know, they’re as main stream as pretzels now, and the hairy little beans, whole, peeled, dried, and tofu-ized are all over TJ’s. I don’t remember Path Mark in Bergenfield NJ having so many edamame options, but TJ’s convenient healthy snack packaging (snackaging?) really enables the “six small meals a day” thing so popular among active lalas.

I like the hairy beans, but I much prefer lupi’ (emphasis on the pi)–aka Lupini Beans. I grew up popping these little suckers like candy, and they are the BEST snack, so much tastier than edamame, in my opinion. My mom always kept a big jar of ‘em in the back of the fridge, next to the gardiniera jar (which i also used to pull the sour carrots out of . Also, lupi’ have almost as much protein in ‘em as edamame (though i didn’t care when i was 10), and they’re more fun to eat.

    Lupini have a little white culie* hole on the end of em. Bite off the culo, then squeeze the bean to pop it out of its skin and into your mouth.  Squeeze the bean! Squeeze the bean!

    They taste a little briney and a little starchy. If you like olives and you like chick peas, you’ll like lupi’.

     You might not wanna pack ‘em in your work lunch if you eat in front of people. I put ‘em in my husband’s lunch one day (he loves ‘em) and he said they were too embarrassing to eat at work. This made me picture him, sharp in his nice suit, nipping the culo off bean after bean. You have been warned. You wouldn’t wanna be seen squeezing the bean at work, would you? And whatever you do, don’t flick it.

    Buy a jar on your next shopping trip. Then, dear God, eat them in the privacy of your own home.

    

    

* see Itanglish