#stinkbeans

All righty! A few non-SEA ppl I’ve spoken to have expressed interest in this strange-sounding stinkbean thing I keep talking about so I’m going to make an introductory post for it. What it lacks in cool trivia/esoteric knowledge it makes up for with sincere and unabiding love

Ok so first of all the stinkbean is a bean (wow)

It grows on trees in clusters that look like this. You’re supposed to pop the beans out of the pods nobody eats those!

The size of the bean seems to vary depending on whether u get them from the jungle or from someone’s homegrown stinkbean crop. Jungle stinkbeans are far superior because they are richer in flavor and firmer/meatier in texture, probably because all kinds of jungle bugs and small animals conveniently die next to the tree roots and fertilise them idk i’m not a scientist

So what does a stinkbean taste like? 

(note: this paragraph only applies to the jungle ones because I don’t waste my money buying the terrible supermarket ones anymore) When eaten raw it is pungent, bitter and grassy. If you cook it, which is what I’ve seen most people doing, the pungency loses its sharpness, and the bean acquires a gentle sweetness accompanied by a very subtle fattiness. The bitterness remains, and in quite a few of the beans you eat that will be one of the stronger flavors. But the most important and powerful flavor of all is the weird farty one that makes ur mouth smell like methane afterwards. Yes, very sexy. Nobody orders these on dates unless u two are fuckin ride-or-die for each other already and even then it is not the wisest of moves

I do think though that a big reason why stinkbeans are so fun to eat is also the texture! Springy and firm with a nice crunch.

“But what does a bad stinkbean look like??? How do I tell the difference,” you wail as you are obviously already halfway out the door to buy 6 kilos to eat right now. From my experience, the not so good ones look like this

Lame!!! One look at them and I already know they will not satisfy you. Some people prefer these because they say the pungency is stronger but the flavour is less complex to me. What you should look out for instead is this:

Flatter and wider. 

Flatter and wider.

That is the key.

Ok! So now we all have a decent idea of what stinkbeans look and taste like. Which leaves the question: what on earth do you do with them? I would link some nice Malaysian stinkbean recipes but I got too excited writing this post and now I’m emotionally burnt out sorry. If u would like to jump straight to Stinkbean Appreciation Tier 40000 during ur first sampling, you can do what I do and roast the beans while still in their pods in a toaster oven for 13 minutes on about 166 degrees Celsius. After that u pop them out of their pods and eat them on their own! Or with sambal belacan (NOT sambal olek)/nam prik sauce. Btw you will see that the de-podded beans come enrobed (forgot the right word) in an opaque white skin. Don’t remove this, just eat the whole thing as is. It will taste and feel better!