Urizun

店で見つけて思わず買ってしまった「うりずん」。
沖縄で食べたあの四角豆だ。懐かしい。
考えてみると沖縄の気候も風土も、本土よりはこっちの方がいろいろ近いかもしれない。
変な形だけど、しゃきっとした歯ごたえでくせもなく美味しい。
こっち風？に、ブラックペッパー風味に料理してみた。
なんかやっぱり懐かしい。（沖縄に住んでいたわけではありません、念のため）



切り口はこんなかんじ
Cut edge

I run into this bean at a shop and I couldn't resist buying them; Urizun.
It is that "four angled bean (or winged bean)" I ate in Okinawa, southern island in Japan. Technically, Urizun means wet early summer in Okinawan dialect. Okinawan people call this bean Urizun because it has beautiful light green color like the leaves in the season. Come to think about it, the weather and environment in Okinawa seem to be more like here than Japanese mainland in many ways.
The bean is in odd shape, but it's crisp and good-tasting. This time, I cooked them with black pepper sauce borrowing from a local dish.
The beans let my mind drift back over Okinawa...