The Origins of Edamame

Apparently Saturday night was my turn to cook dinner, a task I've come to loath even more now that I moved back home and the kitchen is a shared domain. I further loath having to cook when I am really hungry, as my brain shuts down and is completely incapable of making intelligent decisions about what constitutes a well balanced meal (What do you mean Dairy Queen blizzards don't make a great dinner?).

This particular evening I decided to make shrimp, with brown rice and edamame. All I really wanted were chocolate brownies, a side of ice cream and maybe some edamame on the side, for protein. Edamame,in case you didn't know, is a fancy name for soybeans. They are often served in Japanese Restaurants and are wonderful steamed with sea salt sprinkled on top (Wonderturtle introduced me to them and we're a great match).

Re-reading this post, my meal sounds rather healthy. However, since it is blog worthy, there must be a problem.

The problem here is not the freezer burnt shrimp imported from Thailand, nor the 90 second microwave in the bag, Uncle Ben's brown rice with enough sodium to keep me afloat in a freshwater lake. The problem is the delicious Edamame purchased at my local Shoprite, by me, and, oh, that's right, MADE IN CHINA!

Never, ever did it cross my mind to check the origins of my frozen food!

This might seem ridiculous, given the fact that the garlic we used to buy in Chicago came from China; however, it truly never crossed my bleary, "I hate grocery shopping, even though this is probably easier than hunting a woolly mammoth for dinner", mind, to see where the food I eat at an Asian restaurant is made.

By all rights I had to return the food to the store and get my money back, if that was even possible.

I did not return it though. I continued to cook dinner, microwaved the Edamame instead of steaming it and instead fumed about how ridiculous it was to check where everything you want to buy is made.

Dinner was lousy, by the way. There's not much you can do, that I'm aware of, to make freezer burnt shrimp taste, well, even edible. Luke claims it was good but I suspect he was trying to end an earlier argument and was relived that he wasn't the one cooking tonight.

We had Dairy Queen Blizzards for dessert. I don't know where the contents of my blizzard were made and I didn't ask!

I wonder if all Edamame comes from China, or just the store versions. I sure do love to eat it.