edamame

today i've decided to blog just about one thing. hopefully i'll stay on track, as that usually does not happen, i'm trying to make sure i write often in case i take a sharp turn into writing. so anyhow here i am sipping on my homemade soy milk thinking about the benefits of soy beans. a few stories of my life to be shared about this amazing legume.

1) when i was a little kid, i often loved when my parents bought fresh soy milk home, it was usually warm and i would have to wait forever for it to cool, or i would climb up the freezer to get some ice. (i still owe my parents a fridge when the current breaks down) i love soy milk, i love the way it taste and so when i tried the 'American' version i finally found out why people hate soy milk. it taste weird, i mean not in a bad way, but it has a very soy flavor that is not very appetizing kinda way. which is odd because i always loved the stuff, and never took into account that some people were not having the same stuff we called by the same name. freshly made soy milk is yummy and there are some really good asian breakfast places (i think it is common for Taiwan  and parts of china) where its hot/warm soy milk both savory and sweet dipped with a special bread/dough and that's always a fun way to enjoy soy milk for the

 dunking loving breakfast peoples. and for those who are interested in making your own soy

 milk, there are these machines that look and operate like a coffee machine, it cooks/grinds/filters soybeans into a hot yummy soy milk. we add just a touch of sugar for it, so we enjoy it more so like a sweet beverage but of course it's not as sweet as drinking soda or anything like that. check your local Chinese emporium store and ask around or look for it online, we bought ours for $100 and its been so great making weekly soy milk. i say its a nice way to have something healthy to drink. if you can pour water to soak up the beans and work a coffee machine, you can make your own soy milk. check on it. 

2) edamame- there are so many ways to preparing these little pods and eating them is so much fun. my little nephew eats them slowly by pushing the beans out on one end. i usually pull them out with my teeth, everyone has a different way of getting the beans out. overall a great thing to eat, both fun and good for you.  while i was attending college in los angeles, i went to a

 restaurant in the marina and they had the edamame appetizer dressed in some sauce and it was soo addictive. i came back to the place a few more times to try to get a better understanding of the  recipe, i ended up solving it and went home to make it just like the restaurant did. my friends were so happy that i figured it out and they were able to eat it for free at my home when they came over for movie night. the odd part about the story is the chef or the person who came up with the spicy edamame is my current boyfriend. i told him this story and he laughed, i guess i do have good taste. i also recently went to a robata restaurant where everyone in my party was raving about the unique taste of the edamame, even my Japanese friends loved it, no one could figure it out. since it was my first time eating here, i was excited to find out what they loved about the place. as i tasted the edamame, there was something very distinct about them, very different yet very subtle which is why everyone

 couldnt figure it out. thankfully (at least this time) my sensitive palate was able to pick up on the secret ingredient. the water they boiled the soy beans in had corn cobs. i check the menu and they had corn, so what the chefs were doing were cutting the corn off the cobs and tossing the cobs into the water and the soybeans would boil in the slightly corn flavored water. mystery solved, and that will be the next party snack food at my home movie nights. 

3) natto lovers. i've come to adore this preparation of soybeans, fermented soy beans. yes it sounds gross, it smells gross to the untrained nose, its sticky and slimy. if you're a kid or have a kid this might be the messy healthy food that you will fall in love with. i found the natto in the frozen section of the asian food market and at all japanese markets i've been to. it varies in the brand in how nutty the natto will be and if they give you a mixture of broth and mustard, or the seasoning packs are separated. either way, topped with some thinly sliced green onions over hot rice, makes for great breakfast. very filling and I'm not as hungry as i would be if i had an egg sandwich for breakfast, very good for you and fun to eat. 

historically, soybeans have been grown and eaten in asia for over 5000 years. so with that amount of time, of course this stuff is good for you! so go out and eat it, regardless of the form, soy milk, tofu, edamame appetizers, natto, miso, black/yellow/green, whichever you choose i hope you incorporate them into your daily routine and you wont be disappointed. 

eat extraordinary everyday. 

*just a note, these pictures were collected from flickr and google images. i did not have any photos on hand so i used online sources.