Growing up, my family didn't eat a lot of beans. In fact, my idea of beans were only in Minestrone soup. And we never, ever fried them. Our protein consisted of what 'normal' Americans eat: chicken, beef, pork. But these little red things? Never.
I knew I liked beans and was willing to get used to them because I was well aware of the fact that typical Hondurans eat beans every day. For the first week or so, I religiously ate beans -- in the grain, mashed, blended and fried... any way possible. I ate a lot, I ate a little, I just ate what was served to me.
But one or two weeks later, my stomach had had enough beans. It was simply rejecting all the goodness from the frijoles and decided to make me as sick as a dog. So I didn't eat the beans that I so much enjoyed and had to slowly recover from feeling sick almost the entire time I was awake. I drank a lot of Alka-Seltzer water (gross) and laid around, pain shooting through my stomach and body like I had been torturing it.
It took me a while to recover from the sickness, taking medicine and drinking so much water I think I almost exploded. Now, I eat beans daily. It's weird not to eat beans. Actually my typical diet has changed so much that if I eat a heavy dinner consisting of meat, potatoes, etc. I feel sick. My body has adjusted to beans, tortillas, cheese and maybe hot dogs/chorizo/bologna for dinner. It's a strange concept to have changed your dietary habits after 25 years of eating the same things, but it doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would.
Hondurans have a typical food called the Baleada, which is a freakin' joy to eat and one day soon, I'll describe in depth this amazing, simple, easy food.
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