Dork Chow

Archive for May 15th, 2008

The ancient Greeks were afraid to eat beans because they were supposed to contain dead people’s souls or something. I wonder why they thought that. And then there are Mexican “jumping” beans. I have seen them. They really do jump and wiggle because they are infested with the larva of an insect inside the seed. The bean picture below is not an animation. Steal it, put it in your animation ripper, and you will see that it’s just one static frame. I use this picture to illustrate that beans are crawling with fiber, minerals and good healthy protein.
If you cook black beans with epazote, (chenopodium ambrosioides,) in English known as skunkweed or wormseed, and often considered a true weed, it cuts down on the fartiferous effects.
Here is a great educational PDF if you are interested in epazote. The epazote adds a taste that takes getting used to, but once you are used to it black beans don’t taste right without it. Epazote grows wild in the southern states of the USA and in Mexico. You can often buy it at farmers’ markets, or you can grow it quite easily in your own herb garden. Once you are familiar with it you can pick it wild. However I caution against eating anything that grows roadside because you don’t know what pesticides it may have absorbed.
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