Lupini beans in de huis again. Casa Bocage is the only place in Amsterdam to get them (they're called tremoços in Portugese), and obtaining the precious golden beans involves a ritual which typically goes like this:
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Me/Mara: Hi! Do you have tremoços?
Casa Bocage Employee: (shaking head sadly) No, not today.
M/M: Boo. Do you know when you might have some more?
CBE: (thoughtfully) What day is it today?
CBE: (thoughtfully) What day is it today?
M/M: Thursday?
CBE: (hopefully) They should be here on........Friday?
M/M: So...tomorrow?
CBE: (with conviction) No, the next Friday. Or the one after.
M/M: Ah. So, in two weeks for sure.
CBE: (smiling) Probably.
M/M: OK! Thanks! See you then.
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It's all extremely good-natured. Of course we never remember to go back in two weeks, and the whole conversation happens again six to twelve weeks later.
Today, I popped in to Casa Bocage randomly b/c baby bird's chomping beak is in overdrive at the moment, and lupinis are one of her favorite things, and...they had some!
I think I remember the first time I tasted them, or at least I'm inventing it with extreme clarity: it was in her parents' kitchen maybe 15 years ago, and at the time I found them a bit hard to love at first, aside from the addictive bit where you bite a hole in the skin and pop the bean into your mouth. But now I'm a fan of their weird uncooked texture and slightly cheesy taste as well.
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Unrelated to lupini beans, I was just reminded of this, and it's worth reading if you haven't. This eight-part travelogue is one of the primary pieces of writing that introduced me to eGullet a few years ago. It's basically the story of one woman's semi-impulsive trip to Mongolia and the absolute misalignment of her expectations and the reality of "sightseeing" in Mongolia.
For technical reasons, the links within eG don't work anymore, so here are most of the eight parts:
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