Your Ice Cream Bean Team
We are walking around in the colonial center of Trujillo when we see a man with a wheelbarrow causing a bit of a ruckus. Being generally interested in both wheelbarrows and ruckuses, we sidled over in that direction to see what the fuss was about.
This group of people huddled around the wheelbarrow would break up and release one person at a time carrying what appeared to be a large green stick . As we got closer, we realized that these sticks were actually some sort of gigantic green colored bean pods. some of the people carrying them were ripping out the soft interior and eating them.
Big, tough looking beans.
We decided pretty quickly that gigantic green beans probably ought to be investigated. We watched in interest as someone else purchased them and saw that the mystery monster bean pods could be purchased for a single sole each (about CA$0.40). This was well within our budget and the instructions on how to eat them were free!
Crack open the tough exterior to see the treasure.
Oddly, one does not actually eat the beans themselves. The yummy stuff is the spongy foam padding inside the pod that surrounds and protects these beans. The spongy stuff looks very dry, but is actually moist and sweet and quite delicious.
The before and after of Christina’s carefully cleaned bean.
We later found out that the bean is nicknamed the ice cream bean due to the smooth texture and sweetness of the spongy goodness.
