Today we've got yet another edition of "I can't believe we haven't done this already!" as we stroke the furry napes of these bliefly blanched hairy beans and erupt into some spontaneous poetry (citation needed). Our thirst is slaked by prizes, ravens, crows and rooks before we lick our salty fingers and erupt into a spontaneous apology segment.
Edamame by bbno$ and Rich Brian
Molly 0:04
Hi, I'm Molly,
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:05
and I'm Matthew,
Molly 0:06
and this is spilled milk, the show where we cook something delicious, eat it all, and you can't have any.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:11
And today we're talking about edamame, yes, and
Molly 0:13
we have, like, Well, for one thing, we've just eaten lunch together, but our lunch consisted of two different types of edamame, situation, plus
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:23
completely unrelated tacos. Yeah,
Molly 0:25
wow. Here we are. We're talking about edamame. I can't believe we've made it all the way to Episode 687 before hitting edamame. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:34
What episode number do you think it will be where we've actually talked about every possible topic? Oh, God. You
Molly 0:41
know, in the past, I would have said like 400 Yeah, right, but you know, it's anybody's guess. Now,
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:47
okay, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, next we're gonna, we're gonna, like, cash out next week. Oh, okay,
Molly 0:52
wow, okay, episode 688, stay tuned. We're gonna just hit a wall.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:58
All right, Molly, do you have any edamame, Memory Lane, or enema memory lane.
Molly 1:02
Oh, nice one, you know, just a little one like I remember so Tokyo Japanese restaurant in Oklahoma City. On Western is the first sushi bar I remember in Oklahoma City. And my parents loved it. And I just remember it feeling really, really special to go to, like, eat at Tokyo, as opposed to getting takeout and having warm edamame. And that was my first encounter with it. That was that.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:33
So I'm not sure when I first became aware that these existed, but I'm guessing probably at the same time as you because, like, sometimes when we do these episodes, and I'm like, you know, I feel like this, we started seeing this food around, like, 1987 and then I look it up, and it's like, you know, this was hugely popular by 1952 No, this in this, in this case, like I remembered edamame becoming popular in the US, like, around the early 2000s and that's exactly right. Oh, really. Okay,
Molly 1:59
well, I was an early adopter then, because I remember eating a lot of it like before I went off to college, I had already eaten
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:08
mid to late 90s and then kind of ubiquitous by the early 2000s I feel so superior, I think I probably also first encountered them at a sushi place, and that would have been in the early 2000s because that's when I started eating sushi, maybe at Shiki and Queen Anne, but that's just a guess. And yeah, so the New York Times reported in 1999 that frozen edamame were becoming available in western supermarkets, and the Word was added to the OED in 2003 okay, okay, all right, a little earlier than early 2000 so, and I think for at least a lot of us who were around during that time, our introduction was to the bean in the pod served in the Japanese restaurant context, but then it quickly leapt out of the pod and onto like salad bars everywhere, and into various like
Molly 3:02
succotashes,
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:04
yeah, that's why headlines like this bean just leapt out of the pod.
Molly 3:08
Anyway, no, then it started showing up in all kinds of other places. Yep, yeah. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:12
Would you like to know what these things are? Well, I
Molly 3:15
have a feeling that I know a little bit about them, which is that I think that their scientific name is glycine Max,
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:22
yes. So these, these are soybeans, lysine Max, and you can become a glycine Max, super member at spell belt podcast.com/donate,
Molly 3:31
that's right, that's what we call our $20 a month level. We're
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:34
not supposed to talk about this during the pledge price episode, we made a pact with our listeners, no, and now we have to fulfill we've broken the pact. What are we gonna have to do? Eat the whole bean in the shell. Oh,
Molly 3:49
God, no, thanks. Okay, okay, here we go. So what are edamame?
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:56
So they are exactly what you think they are. They are young soybeans that are boiled or steamed. That's what I thought they were. You're right. Okay, what? What did you think? I
Molly 4:03
don't know. I guess I didn't think about the fact that they were young. Oh, they're young, okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:07
boiled or steamed, and usually served salted in the pod, according to Wikipedia. Quote, there are a couple, there were a couple funny Wikipedia things that I picked up for this episode. Quote, the ditch has become popular across the world because it is rich in vitamins, dietary fiber and isoflavones. Do you think that's why it's become popular? You
Molly 4:25
know, my all my favorite foods are rich in isoflavones? Yeah? No,
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:29
I like, I'm more into dietary fiber metaflavones. Yeah, the word Edamame is from Japanese and means, like, stem beans or branch beans, because they got like, a little bit of stem on them. Okay, okay. And so they are picked 35 to 40 days after the plant flowers, and are sweeter than soybeans that are picked closer to maturity. I realize this means you're gonna now ask me, how many days after the plant flowers are mature soybeans picked? Do not know. Okay, I didn't realize fresh ETOM. On they are extremely perishable. So, like, if they're picked, like, you know, fresh, they can last a couple days in the fridge at the most, if you keep them moist, but are best eaten the same day. Wow, that's really interesting. Yeah, really, like, one of the most interesting things you've ever heard, no, but it's
Molly 5:14
surprising, because you would think that it would be like an English pea, or maybe like a green bean,
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:20
although, I mean Francis lamb on the on the peas. Episode many years ago, talked about the freshness, yeah, that like fresh, fresh peas, like, are really only fresh for a very short time or something. I've
Molly 5:32
forgotten it was literally, like over 600 episodes. Yeah, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:36
think it was. I think we recorded that episode around the time edamame first came to America, yes. So, so most of them are sold frozen. And of course, they freeze very well. And I bought some frozen ones at Safeway. Hold
Molly 5:46
on, when they're sold frozen, they're frozen raw. Is that correct? Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:51
yep, okay, no, they're briefly blanched and then frozen, I guess, briefly branched is a is a redundant
Molly 5:59
you just said belief branch
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:03
they're branch beans. Well, hold on. Well,
Molly 6:05
then it's remarkable that they don't come freezer burned, because, well, there must be some really fancy equipment for blanching beans and then drying them and freezing them. Yeah, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:15
think so. Okay. Also, according to Wikipedia, quote, The pods or shells are discarded. Citation Needed.
Molly 6:22
I'll go out of citation according to me. Yeah. Okay. So how long have these things been eaten in Japan?
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:30
Edamame had kind of a parallel development in Japan and China. It wasn't clear to me, like, you know, sort of who was ahead of who at any given time, but they have been eaten in kind of the same form in China for about the same amount of time, and still are but we have more history, or at least I was able to find more history on them from Japan, partly because I can read Japanese and I can't read Chinese. Okay, edamame, as we know it, as we know it today, dates to the early Edo period, to like the early 1600s and the first clear reference to it is in a poem from 1638, I was hoping to be able to quote the poem to you, but I couldn't really understand it, and wasn't sure if I'd found the right poem. But we could. We could write a poem. Oh,
Molly 7:10
we could. Let's write a poem. I love you edamame.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:14
I never eat your shell, and
Molly 7:17
when it's dry,
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:20
it's what right
Unknown Speaker 7:26
what?
Unknown Speaker 7:31
Sorry,
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:33
wait, yeah, so, so some researchers found that there was a there was an edamame Drago sock from 1638,
Molly 7:49
wait, let's try again. Let's try again.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:53
You start all right, thy, thy green and lustrous pod. It's like, like a romantic foam, like
Molly 8:08
I touch that line furry nape.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:14
I slipped the open with my thumb
Molly 8:21
and with you my thirst, ice lake
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:25
poetry, okay, wow. Oh, we just want a Pulitzer Prize. Oh,
Molly 8:31
my God. Hold up. Oh, wait, hold on. The phone's ringing. The Nobel people are calling.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:37
The Nobel people calling. They said, Fuck the Pulitzer people. It's like that we can only accept the Nobel prize if we disclaim the Pulitzer Prize because there's a there's a beef.
Molly 8:47
Oh, okay, well, thank
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:49
goodness we won the Nobel Prize for Literature, yeah, which I think comes with like a big cash prize. Oh, we can buy more enemas. Exactly. There was a 1771 71 book in Japan, called something like the origin of modern crafts, which says that edamame were sold on the streets of Edo in the summer and were a popular street food to eat while walking around. That checks out. I believe this. I have to imagine, back in those days, people would just like, throw the pods on the ground, right? Which, which is kind of like, kind of fun to imagine. Yeah, I don't, I don't think I would want it to happen today, and like, I would feel bad if I did it. But the like imagining, like a bunch of people, like, you know, in like, old timey garb, walking around in the summer, flinging pods, I
Molly 9:31
think there are a lot of crows out there. Definitely some crows, ravens, who would be psyched. Maybe some, yeah, to see your edamame
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:41
pods? Yep, that's true. In 1920 3c V Piper and Joseph W Morse wrote about edamame in their book, The soybean, but without using the word,
Molly 9:50
what was this? Some sort of like thriller, ulipo
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:56
stunt. What is ulipo? Oh, um.
Molly 9:59
I just that word just came out. But
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:01
Isn't she a singer? No, I'm
Molly 10:03
pretty sure that what I'm talking about was this, like French group of writers and artists who were really interested in working with, like, formal constraints. So some dude famously wrote an entire book without using the word E. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:16
so I think you misunderstood what I said. They used the word soybean in their book The soybean. They just didn't use the word edamame because it hadn't come into English yet, right, right? So you're thinking, like, like a George Peck thing, yes, they wrote
Molly 10:36
a whole book about soybeans without using the word soybean.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:39
Yeah, this is, this is like one of those rare moments when
Molly 10:43
you said, it's clear they're describing.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:48
The book was called a certain plant, and it's 560 it's all about soybeans. They never say the word. There's no picture.
Molly 11:00
It is an incredible feat of artistry that they pulled it off.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:04
Yeah, that's the fact that we both knew, like, Josh, avoid like is, you know, sometimes like, there's a hint on this show that maybe we're smarter than we let on. Yeah, maybe I don't know. Yeah, don't worry. It doesn't happen often. Yeah, I
this book was called the soybean. It was, it was like, you know, a book about plant husbandry. Is that a thing? Sure. Okay, sure. They describe like eating, you know, peeling and eating young soybeans. But the word edamame hadn't come over into English yet, and there are pictures great. The first known use of the word in print in English was in the journal folklore studies in 1951 I don't have any something
Molly 11:46
that would have been published out of Portland or Brooklyn. It sure does in like 2010 Yep. So let's talk about eating these things. Are they eaten in in Japan, in the way that you and I first encountered them in sushi bars, like in the pod and salted, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:01
super common Izakaya, like, bar food. Like, you know, the thing that I think is so great about Edamame is it gives you something to do with your hands, you know, like, like, there's
Molly 12:10
a lot of licking, there's
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:12
a lot of lick, like, it's, you know, if you eat, if you share edamame with some people, you're gonna, like, get to know them a little better than if you weren't. I
Molly 12:19
feel like, yeah, yeah, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:20
agree. Because there's something, there's something, like, you know, what's, what's the word I'm looking for, like, you know, very, very tactile.
Molly 12:30
I mean, it's kind of, it's, it's like a few ate crab or crawfish with except that
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:38
it's much tidier, yeah, it's like, it's like a plant crawfish boil. That's right. So, yeah, so like, often, you know, Watsa and I will go to an isekai in Japan. We'll order some edamame to eat while we're deciding what else to get. And
Molly 12:50
edamame and beer are quite delicious together. I mean, maybe it's the salt on the edamame, but
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:55
no, I think it's the flavor too, like, and this is, like, assumed to be like a natural pairing in Japan. So you will often seen see edamame in beer ads and vice versa. Ah, I love that. Yeah, okay. There's a popular variety of edamame in Japan called Sapporo Midori. Midori, meaning green, which was developed by the snow Seed Company in 1974 and is still considered a premium variety today. I don't know that I've ever seen it advertised, but I wasn't looking for edamame varieties, so I'll keep my eyes peeled next time. Great. I'll keep my eyes peeled like a like an edamame. When I was looking at edamame seed varieties to see if I could, like do a quiz for you, which I we're not doing a quiz, but I was pleased to see that one thing that people that seed varieties advertise is a high yield of three bean pods.
Molly 13:40
Wow, yeah, because there is nothing worse than a one bean pod,
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:44
right? Most of them are two or three, like, I just opened a two bean pot.
Molly 13:47
Okay, I wonder if these are Sapporo Midori. I feel like
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:51
they would trumpet that on the package if they were rather than just saying, like, Safeway signature brand, okay,
Molly 13:57
okay. So what else do people do with these young soybeans?
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:04
First off, I made a little salad. And this is, this is a like a szechuanis recipe that I got from fuchsia Dunlop book, every grain of rice, and it is edamame out of the pods, boiled and then removed from the pods, tossed with a little like blanched carrot and red pepper. Some shark high sweet red pepper. Yes, this was a Fresno chili. So, like, like, a tiny bit of heat to it. Okay, some shark high chassis, preserved vegetable and sesame salt and sesame oil. That was really tasty. That
Molly 14:34
was very tasty. Yeah, and how, like, what is this meant to be eaten with?
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:39
That's a good question. It strikes me as probably drinking food. Also, yeah, it
Molly 14:44
could be very pleasing to sort of just pick up some soybeans and these little carrots while you're
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:50
Yeah, and oh, these are called Mao do hairy beans in Chinese. Oh, that's delicious, yeah. Also in Japan, they're really popular ingredient in. Taki komi Gohan, which is mixed rice, so like rice cooked with well. So there's take komi Gohan, which is rice cooked with other ingredients and tossed together. There's also maze Gohan, which is rice cooked separately and then mixed with other ingredients. You see these for sale, like, like at a deli counter in Japan. And edamame are a very common ingredient in both.
Molly 15:20
Is it sort of the the Japanese, like, rice salad,
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:23
yeah, kind of okay, yeah, for sure.
Molly 15:26
I mean, are they ever like, mashed I mean, I know that when these were really at the height of their popularity, maybe they still are. But people were like, mashing them into, like, you know, purees and spreading them on toast, okay, which,
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:39
which, yeah, like which you can do. The mash that I'm familiar with is called zunda, and is a specialty of the Tohoku region in general, like Northeastern Honshu, Japan, but also the city of Sendai in particular. Okay, and I've never been to Sendai, but I'm planning to try and go soon the way they typically show up. So, so the first time I ever became aware that this existed was I went to this, like, fancy tea place in Ginza, and they serve a little sweet with the tea, and it was a zunda mochi, which is zunda wrapped in mochi. So, and I didn't know what it was at the time, and I think I had to, like, ask around later, and someone explained it to me. So, is zunda? Is it green? Like, it's very green, and it's sweetened, so it's, so it's like, it's like the edamame equivalent of like a red bean paste.
Molly 16:29
Do you get the bean flavor in it? Absolutely. So you could, if you closed your eyes, you could taste the difference between like a zunda product and red bean paste. Yes.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:39
And the texture is quite different, also because, like, red bean paste, like the beans are, like cooked until soft, and like edamame, like, they retain a little of their texture. Okay, so I happen to know if you go to Sendai, just, I know this from watching YouTube videos, like, you can get zunda mochi everywhere. But also, there is, like, a famous place that makes zunda milkshakes, which I absolutely want
Molly 17:00
to try. I am very curious about the, like, the texture of azunda milkshake. Yeah. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:05
if, if I try this, I will let you know Watson and I are planning to try and do a day trip to Sendai on our next trip. How
Molly 17:11
far would that be from Tokyo? It's
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:13
like 90 minutes on the train. Wow, yeah. Okay, so it's not, it's not that far up into Tohoku. Okay, cool. Apparently you can grow edamame in Seattle. Have you tried it?
Molly 17:24
I have not tried it. Okay. No, no, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:26
hadn't thought about it. Have you heard the apparently very popular rap song that I didn't know about until I started researching this episode called edamame by baby, no money and rich Brian,
Molly 17:37
wait a minute. Is that a great caring that is so good. Like, wait, baby, no money and rich Brian, yes, that is, so
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:44
is that excellent? I love like, like, it's yeah, like, you know, Fate brought them together, right?
Molly 17:50
Okay, and the song is called edamame. The
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:51
song is called edamame, yeah, it's pretty, pretty catchy. Okay,
Molly 17:54
cool. Um, wow. Well, this episode has been filled with learning for me. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:59
So one thing I like about eating Edamame is that you get salt on your fingers, right? We did. We talked about this already. You mentioned, you mentioned, like, like, licking your fingers, but like, when there's a little, like, coarse salt on there, and you get to, like,
Molly 18:12
question for you when you cook them in the pods, I know that on on the package, there are a number of different ways you can warm them up, microwave, boil oil.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:22
I think you can steam them, put them like in your pants, and walk around for a while. What do you like to do with them? Boil in salted water, okay, and then drain them. And
Molly 18:31
then do you put Kosher salt on them? Yeah. And do you kind of like put a little bit in the bowl kosher salt, little bit of edamame in the bowl, kosher salt. How do you distribute it? I only time, like yours, your salt seems to have stuck pretty well. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:44
mean, mine does, to be honest. What I did was I sprinkled some salt on then, like, I put my fingers in the bowl and tossed them around, and then sprinkled a little more and tossed them around with my fingers, so I've touched all of these. Oh, good. Okay. Anyone else want to come over? Oh, wow, I
Molly 18:59
can't wait to eat some more. That's, that's
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:00
the thing I said, like, like, you know, eat. Sharing edamame with someone is very intimate experience is I feel so close to you right now. Yeah, if Yeah, like, come over and touch all your food. I'm available, like, but not cheap, yeah? Well, and you have to, maybe, know, you have to govern his travel expenses. That's true. You've got to be a rich Brian, yeah, rich Brian's only Baby. Baby needs a new pair of monies.
Molly 19:26
Okay, Matthew, do we have any spilled mail? I
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:28
think we do. Would you like to read it? Yes.
Molly 19:37
Oh, wow. We're back with Tiger Tail ice cream. Okay, so this is from listener Benjamin. Hello, Molly and Matthew. So excited to be able to contribute my own memory lane to your episode about Tiger Tail ice cream. Do you think Brian knows the episode was a while
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:52
ago? I mean, I don't think it was a while ago. To Benjamin, it's like we we record these, you know, we don't want. Have a situation where, where, like, you know, our bowl of episodes is cached. Is that? Is that? What the Where we're like, Baby, no
Molly 20:06
episodes where we're like, we
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:08
don't want to be baby, no episodes. So, so we try, we usually, like, try and bank these up when we can, just to avoid that situation. And so sometimes, you know, a listener, Benjamin, will hear the episode right in with Tiger Tail memories, not knowing that we and it for you and me, it was like, six months ago, yeah, we were like, What is Tiger Tail? Okay. But
Molly 20:27
anyway, let me, let me finish listener Benjamin's email. I live in Canada, and Tiger Tail ice cream does still
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:33
exist. Like, came back for another round, okay. However, I see
Molly 20:37
it mostly in the freezer aisle of the grocery store and not at the local ice cream shop. When I was a kid, growing up in Ontario, though it was very popular. I remember my dad taking the kids for ice cream one day, and he ordered Tiger Tail ice cream for himself. He is from Denmark, and absolutely loves black licorice items. He always had a bag of licorice all sorts in the house. I asked for a bite or two of the ice cream, and thought it tasted pretty good for my birthday in August, I told my parents I wanted an ice cream cake made with Tiger Tail ice cream. They warned me, this might not be a good idea, but I was certain. When the cake was cut and served, I realized there is a big difference between a few bites of Tiger Tail ice cream and a whole cake of it. I don't think I was able to finish even one slice, as the licorice taste was so strong and I did not enjoy the cake at all. I have never had the slightest desire to try Tiger Tail ice cream or any licorice flavored products since then. The one exception is I will occasionally, like every few years, have a few pieces of all sorts. For nostalgia's sake.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:38
Do you think this made listener, Benjamin's relationship with his dad really, like, distant and awkward after this. Listener,
Molly 21:44
Benjamin, I you know, right in how are things with your dad? No, but seriously this, oh, these are, like, the moments of like, when I witness moments like this in my own children's lives, I find it so painful to just sort of like, let it happen. I know, right. It's so hard. It must have been really hard for your parents to just like, roll with this. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:07
No. If it were me, if I was the parent in this situation, I would have been like, No, I don't think that's a good idea, because it might attract actual tigers. Oh yeah, because my favorite thing is to try and convince a child of something ludicrous that isn't true. And then when they ask, really, I say, No, Ash
Molly 22:23
likes to do that. Yeah, it's really fun. Okay. Well, our producer is Abby sercatella. You can rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts, and you can chat with other spilled milk listeners at everything spilled milk.reddit.com.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:35
Yeah, I feel like there's some edamame stuff that I that I left out, that I didn't think of, didn't learn. I
Molly 22:40
mean, I'm pretty sure that applies to all of our that applies to all of our episodes. There's always edamame stuff that gets left
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:45
out, right? Yeah? Like our first 686 episodes, we rarely talked about edamame at all for so we are so sorry for that omission. Yeah, we I want to apologize to Sapporo Midori. I want
Molly 22:58
to end and I want to apologize to the hairy beans. Yep. Wait,
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:01
is that what they're called? That's what they're called. Well,
Molly 23:03
hey, thanks for listening to spilled milk,
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:06
and we will now close, as we always do, with an improvised
Molly 23:10
Po. I'm Molly,
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:15
and I am not.
Molly 23:18
I am not. Matthew
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:22
money, have you come
Molly 23:30
and the answer is no,
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:38
that's how I usually conceptualize eating is just like taking stuff, slamming it into the stump. Stum, hey,
Molly 23:46
I don't hear you in my headphones. Oh, well, let's
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:47
see if we can change that. Yeah, how about that? That's better. Okay, yeah,
Molly 23:52
that's better. Thank you.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:53
I like the immediacy, or did you mean you want to hear even less of me? No,
Molly 23:57
no, no, no, no. It's good.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai