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[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

Lynda wrote:

> {{{{{Hugs}}}}} and lots of positive energy.  Hope the job turns out to be a 
> good thing!
>
> As to the favas, I first experienced them back in the 50s when one of our 
> neighbors was from Egypt.  Hmmmm, seems to me they were called ful 
> (pronounced fool) something or another.  Reminded me of refried beans with 
> lots of garlic and cumin but also a taste of lemon.  Quite good.
>
>  
That's it!  I couldn't remember the name.

> However, I don't like them because they are a PITA. <g> 
?  Is this some reference I might find vulgar? :)
Eventually things will normalize with a consistent high-fibre diet, dear.

> Being a history nut 
> (both history history and food history), I found it interesting to follow 
> their path from deep in the Mediterranean to them being considered to 
> somehow be credited as something English.
>  
You might have heard the story about how Pythagoras was opposed to 
eating beans (favas, of course) and forbade all his disciples to eat 
them as well.  It's been speculated that he had favism (a severe allergy 
to them).

I'm not sure when the first crop was harvested in England, but it would 
not surprise me if it was in Roman times or earlier.  That was several 
cultures ago, in human terms.  So that makes about as native an English 
food as need be, since the typical person would not think of their 
broadbeans as Mediterranean, after such as long time.  For instance, if 
you look at the different words for turkey, you can see that absolutely 
no folk wisdom about the origin of foods can be taken seriously; 
continental Europeans thought that turkeys came from India (and all this 
confusion came about within only a few centuries).  People don't eat 
favas as much in England today, but if you believe John Seymour, they 
were once as common a food item among the peasantry as "habas" in Spain 
or favas in Italy.  He even admits to eating small favas, skins and all.

Bill
S. Oregon coast