Edamame

I was dining with friends at one of my favorite restaurants, Good Earth, when we decided to try something new to us - an appetizer named Edamame. The menu described them as steamed soybeans and frankly, they didn't sound that appetizing. They were delicious. Our waitress told us how to eat them. "Put them in your mouth and suck on them. Don't eat the pod. Suck the beans out of the pod and eat those." Good thing she said that because we would have gotten that wrong and tried to eat the pods like an unfamiliar person might eat the corn husk on a tamale. The salt on the pods gets in your mouth and the beans inside were delicious. We ate every last one. As a child, I would not eat my vegetables. I hated canned peas the most. Canned green beans were awful and I didn't like cooked carrots. Don't even get me started on sauerkraut. I did like corn and tomatoes. If I was to go back in time and tell my 8 year old self that I would grow up to love vegetables and to be a vegetarian, she would never believe it. She'd be sitting there alone, at the dining room table, sentenced to sit there until she finished her canned peas, waiting for people to get busy so she could bring those peas out to Tilly the Weimaraner. I just know she would shake her head in disbelief. I still cannot stand canned peas. I love fresh peas. I can tolerate frozen peas if they are served cold. I love raw green beans but cannot eat them canned unless they are french cut and in a hotdish. I prefer my carrots raw but will eat small pieces if they're mixed in with other things or stir fried. And sauerkraut? I'll eat only a small amount on a hot sandwich.