Beans? You Said You Liked Beans?

When I think of the word beans, many things come to mind: Jack and The Bean Stalk, Bush's Beans, the song from Into the Woods the witch sings regarding beans and of course the infamous kidney bean. I had never truly liked beans. I always thought them to be far beyond my palate and plus, I never ate them as a child. I kept thinking, "Who in the world eats beans?" Well, traveling to Latin America, Costa Rica specifically, I began my descent upon the kingdom of beans and rice. I would never return a hater, but in fact, a lover of all things bean.

Being a Spanish minor and always being interested in South and Central America, I knew beans and rice dominated plates near and far. I knew upon landing that I would have to face my disgust and distaste for beans. At our first location in Palo Verde National Park, I experienced that beans and rice were the only means of nutrition because it was cheap and could feed a lot of people. I remember sitting down at the table in the lodge away from the mosquitoes of the day as it slowly faded in to the cooling howler monkey noised evening. There they were, the beans. Looking around, many of my American counterparts were also unsure of this feat. We do not eat beans in America as often as the rest of the world because we are blessed to have money to buy more expensive products. There is something liberating about not eating meat constantly and the processed foods of the United States. I put the beans on top the rice and went for it instantly without hesitating. As the food poured into my mouth, the negative ideas of old turned into new thoughts of delicious reality. Beans....were..... amazing.

As time marched on in that beautiful country, we all began to love beans and rice. It is the cultural dish of so many.It sustained us and silently, with its delicious integrity, pushed us on. On the flip side, by the end, many hated rice and beans and dreamed of a day where steak would be an option again. I was to never be one of those. I learned so much about the different flavored juices we guessed upon each evening and the immense amount of flavor different beans could add to the rice.

The day my sister picked me up at the airport, she took me to Wendy's because they obviously have the best fries, but I could not stop thinking of the rice and beans that would forever dictate the diet of my future. Rice and beans, I love you.