Beans are my friend!

I've been trying to decide today which section of my list I would tackle in this post. The issue is that many of them are intertwined, obviously; how could you have discussion about radiation safety without mentioning hot dogs?? I'm just kidding, those two are unrelated. Since it's been a while since I wrote about food I've decided to do that first. It's also because I'm hungry and thinking about other topics when I'm hungry is a task I have yet to master. So, today's thoughts will circle around beans, not so much about beans themselves, but in relation to burritos, coffee, and friends, as I mentioned in my last post.

Perhaps, like me, the first thought that pops into your head when you think about beans is the associated gaseous release, also known as passing gas, windy poo, farting, breaking wind, or the infamous and occasional "shart" (shit+fart). Unfortunately, none of what I have to say today is on this topic, but I wanted to get your attention. Now that I have it, I want to talk about burritos. Last week during a dinner with some of my new friends, a card was brought to the table with 9 stamps on it from a place called "Nanna Mexico", and the stamps were for the 9 burritos which had been bought by the owner of said card. This card was given to someone as payment for a lost bet as to who would finish writing their thesis first. The recipient was so excited because he knew he was getting a free burrito and was telling everyone how good this place was. This got me a little excited because it was close to my office, and I love burritos. Let me tell you why I love them.
a) As many people who know me can attest, I love to mix foods together. I love the combination of flavors, textures and temperatures and a burrito does just that.
b) A burrito has everything in it basically, it's like the Canada's food guide wrapped up in a tortilla.
c) They are highly customizable, in that you can put in whatever you want, so they are always a crowd pleaser.
d) I love everything inside of a burrito, individually, but the product is greater than the sum of it's parts.

My ideal burrito contains the following ingredients:
1) Beef - Beef is my favorite burrito meat, generally ground beef (but I will do steak as well on occasion) seasoned with those delicious Mexican seasonings
2) Beans - Refried beans are the best, but any kind of seasoned beans in there are good
3) Guacamole - Essential. That creamy avocado and zesty lime with a touch of cumin and coriander...... YUM
4) Rice - any rice will do, but if it's nice spanish rice that's the best :)
5) Veggies - salsa, onions, peppers (sweet and hot), tomatoes, lettuce, corn
6) Sour cream
7) Cheese

My ideal burrito is then rolled and placed in something like a panini press so that it's becomes a crispy tortilla on the outside and a hot, gooey, spicy, delicious concoction on the inside. Sounds delicious right? You want one right? I want one too. So I went to get one at "Nanna Mexico" after hearing how good it was. WRONG! Let me tell you what my ideal burrito turned into:
1) Beef - plain ground beef, no seasoning whatsoever.
2) Beans - plain kidney beans, no seasoning
3) Guacamole - this part was the only good aspect
4) Rice - plain white rice, no seasoning
5) Veggies - lettuce, 2 jalpeno slices
6) Sour cream
7) Cheese

This was rolled up and handed over the counter, "uncooked".  So what I ended up with was a soggy, flavorless, mild, tepid burrito for my lunch, and it ruined my day. Which brings me to point b) from my last post; Word of mouth in relation to food. I generally rely on this because for the most part, if someone is going to tell you something is delicious, or a restaurant has great food, it's because it is and it does. However, this nameless person, clearly has not experienced a burrito the way that I have. I should make him one the way I like it and see what he thinks. Or maybe he likes burritos like that? I guess it's all personal preference. In any case, I have learned my lesson not too get my hopes to high before investigating foods in the UK.

A couple of days later, this same group of friends came to our house to have to tea and cake, and we all decided to play a game after. Now you're asking, how does friends playing a game have any relation to beans? Well, when you play a game called "Bohnanza", beans have everything to do with it. The game is German in origin I think, but the language doesn't matter because anyone can play. Essentially, the game contains a deck of cards, and on the cards are pictures of different types of beans (red beans, green beans, coffee beans, soy beans, etc) as well as the value of a crop of those beans. Each person has two "plots" in which beans (cards) can be planted and when you have enough of the same type of bean you can "harvest" and sell the beans for coins, and then start a new crop. The aim of the game is to have the most amount of coins. The interesting part is how it's played, which is slightly confusing to write out, but basically it involves bartering and trading beans and making deals with other players. So, you can imagine how friends can be made, and lost, in a game like this. The "new girl angel" on my left shoulder told me to play nice and have fun, while the "competitive girl devil" on my right shoulder said, "crush these Europeans!". Lets just say, competitive girl got her way, and I crushed them all (with my very profitable coffee bean crop!), including the guy who gave the bad burrito recommendation. While that was satisfying, I did feel a little bad at beating them at their own game my first time playing, so I made them all the cheesecake the following day which seemed to restore their appreciation for having me around. Initially, I had cut the cake into 8 pieces because there was 8 of us there. Fairly standard sized cheesecake pieces. But they said to cut them in half. So I cut it into 16 and everyone had a piece. Two minutes later, everyone at the table had the other half of their piece, and it was all gone. I like to think that it was the perfectly cooked, moist, creamy cheesecake that made, but in all honesty it was likely mom's raspberry coulis recipe that did them in. In any event, I have some pretty cool friends here already :)

While coffee may have cost me some friends during game time, it has made me a couple of friends at work. I love coffee. I used to hate coffee, I thought it was awful. But now that I am able to discern the different flavors and roasts and the subtle intricacies of the bean, I love it. Coffee beans to good coffee are like grapes to good wine. In this city, there is no shortage of whole coffee beans and coffee shops, all making extremely good coffees. Unfortunately, those same shops are also the ones with the pastries, so I have to be careful. Sometimes, or all the time, (lets be serious), I need a coffee during the afternoon to get me through the work day. Not because I need the caffeine (well, sometimes that's why), it's mostly because I need to take a break from what I'm doing because I have lost interest or have become inefficient for some reason. So, like most work places, you round up the crew and go get a cup a joe. At this point, I really don't know enough people to do that, so I would go on my own. But the other day, the other post-doc from my lab, Francesca, was in the office, along with Nisha who is a PhD student from another lab, and they took me to show me how to work the coffee machine in our "tea room", which took my money and dispensed no coffee. Regardless, Francesca is going be a good friend of mine, I can already tell, from one thing that she did that afternoon. Before I tell you what she did, I have to tell you that she is as Italian as they come, fresh out of Italy, she'll tell you anything and she has a contagious laugh. So, when we came back from unsuccessfully attempting to get coffee she sat down at her desk, with a 4 pack of those drinkable yogurts, and DOWNED two of them. First of all, I didn't know you could consume yogurt that fast. Second of all, and I only found this out after, she is lactose intolerant! According to her she was, "going to have a good night after that!", hahahaha I'm laughing just thinking about it now. Maybe she should hang out with this guy. So, I like her because a) she will endure a bit of pain to eat something that she thinks tastes amazing, and b) she has no problem talking about digestive issues. So the moral of this story is, you never know who you will meet over coffee.

As you can see, and as weird as it sounds, beans have played an important role in my social life here!