edamame, katuray and squash flowers

(note that photos are not mine. the sources are watermarked on each one.)

after realizing i've had too much meat sometime ago, i decided to shift to eating more vegetables. last week, i cooked my own version of pinakbet with squash flowers. i realized squash flowers are better off eated steamed and on its own. tomorrow, i shall troop to the wet market and buy them at 10 pesos a dozen. i shall steam them and eat them with boiled rice. yummy.

katuray flowers are colored white and are often dismissed by people who have no idea they are edible. unlike the squash flowers which have no taste at all, katuray flowers can have a bitter taste. the best way to prepare them is to removed the pistil and end up with a pile of the white petals. these should be washed and blanched. the best way i enjoy katuray flowers is making it into a salad with chopped onions and sweetened vinegar. in the wet market, bees are always on top of the katuray leaves.

as of the moment, my tummy is filled with a pound of edamame or boiled young soybeans. i know i read about this but dismissed it as trivial. i even saw a sale and disregarded it. but last night, things changed. i became passionate about it and spent the whole afternoon looking for it around my area. after going to cartimar yesterday, cash and carry, walter mart, landmark earlier, i finally found edamame at a japanese-korean store right across goldilocks along pasong tamo (street about a couple of kilometers away from my home).

i knew it was bound to be addicting. i finished half a kilo earlier. i boiled it for a few minutes and seasoned it with salt and cayenne pepper. i still have half the pack in the freezer and definitely, it's bound to be my junk food soon. the frozen pack costs P175. i know i can get it fresh sooner or later. the fun is in the eating - putting the whole pod in the mouth and pulling it through the upper and lower teeth so that the seeds will be left on the tongue. the seeds taste like boiled peanuts with a lesser sweetness. it's not fun eating and cooking merely the seeds on its own.

tomorrow, sunday, i will be off to the wet market to buy chicken feet for my tinola (chicken broth with lots of ginger and unripe green papaya). my mutts have a treat tomorrow as i have to make sure their dinners are something of interest. half the chicken feet will be cooked with a sweet and spicy sauce. okay, so i don't want full meals - just nibblers. but i did hear that chicken feet are good for collagen or something - for the joints.


mmmm... i think my eating habits will be healthier. i now have time to go to the market and eat what i want. incidentally, i discovered a soy bean store in cartimar and i might just frequent it.

and edamame, even if it's under the family of beans, has yet to cause my joints to be in pain!