Adventures in Food: Black Beans

I never knew before arriving here that there were so many ways to eat black beans. The only way I ever had them in America was as a Mexican food side dish. They are always just wet beans, with maybe some (very light) spices.

Here, I’ve seen them every way but this one. I’ve seen them (most frequently) as a paste, inside some sort of pastry or bread. “Fish bread” is everywhere, which is basically a fish-shaped pancake filled with different stuff. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and find a custard-filled one (which is delicious), but usually they are filled with black or red bean paste. I’m not a fan.

Recently, my boss came by and handed me some dried crunchy beans from a can. I must have looked confused, because she said, “Snack.” They had a good crunch, but not much flavor, bean or otherwise.



Yesterday, one of the Korean teachers was crunching on a snack and offered some to me. It looked like popcorn, but she said it wasn’t. It was popped beans! I was surprised that beans could be popped, but not that Koreans would eat them.

I’ve seen black beans in other forms also- like 15 others! (Including shampoo!) It’s pretty impressive how creative millennia of poverty and colonization will make you.