Happy International Bean Day!

Here I was, getting ready to go to my local panadería (bakery) to pick up a rosca de reyes to celebrate Día de Reyes, the day the three kings arrived to honor baby Jesus with gifts, before Amazon delivered gold, incense, and myrrh. Día de Reyes is cool because you get to eat a special circular bread adorned with bits of dry fruit. It represents a crown with jewels. The panaderos (bakers) hide a few plastic figurines representing Baby Jesus, usually two to three in a regulation rosca. Everyone takes turn at cutting their own piece. If you get one of the figurines in your piece of rosca, or if you touch it as you’re cutting into the bread, then you’re the lucky winner, and your prize is to make tamales for everybody on February 2, Día de la Candelaria. Darn, I should have written about this whole Día de Reyes thing instead of what I’m going to write about… 

One last thing about Día de Reyes. On the day before Día de Reyes you’re supposed to put one of your shoes by the door. When you wake up on Día de Reyes you go get your shoe and hope that the Three Kings left you a nice present, just the way they did when they went to visit Baby Jesus! When you have siblings, you can each tell who each present belongs to because the Three Wise Kings lovingly put your shoe on top of your present. They really are wise, huh? Ok. I’ll write about that in depth next year.

So, I was ready to go to my local panadería to pick up a rosca de reyes when I found out that today is not only Día de Reyes, but it’s also International Bean Day!

Yay!

Ok. So, I just wanted to quickly share with you that at Papalote Mexican Grill, where Papalote Salsa was created, we serve three different types of beans. Woah! Three Kings… three beans… coincidence? Yes.Whole black beans, whole pinto beans, and black refried beans. And you know what? They’re all vegan. The reason we decided to make our beans without lard, especially our refried beans without lard is because we find that many of us don’t always finish our burrito on the first sitting… and so we ask for a piece of aluminum foil and throw it in our backpack, or in our purse, or just put it in a little paper bag. Next thing you know, a few hours later, you remember you have a little snack right there, and you take it out and start munching on it. It’s when you get your first bite, and the back of your teeth are coated with coagulated cold lard, that you regret the move. Ok, maybe avoiding that experience wasn’t the original intention, but it’s a nice bonus we discovered later on.

The reason we do not use lard when making our refried beans or when we fry the rice to make our Spanish rice, is because most vegetarian and vegan customers are accustomed to having a rice and bean burrito as the only “vegetarian” option available to them, simply because they’re avoiding the meat options. If they’re lucky the establishment will throw in some lettuce, but that’s the only option that’s been available to them for decades…even though both the rice and the beans are traditionally prepared with lard.

Incidentally, at Papalote Mexican Grill we do offer a nice variety of vegetarian burritos. Plant based we offer our veggie filling: potato, carrot and mushroom. Delicious. Our grilled veggies: grilled eggplant and zucchini. Delectable. We also offer grilled marinated tofu, marinated in achiote and grilled to create an earthy, robust offering. We also offer tofu mole, with lightly seasoned and marinated grilled tofu smothered in our house mole (my dad’s recipe). We also prepare a mean soyrizo burrito. Beautiful. New this year, we’ll be launching our lion’s mane al pastor. Holy smokes! It’s amazing! (We haven’t officially announced it yet, so wait for it… wait for it…and shhhhhh!). And of course, we offer the truly vegetarian Rice and Bean burrito, with whole black, whole pinto, or black refried beans!

One of the questions we get asked the most is why we don’t offer refried pinto beans. When we first opened Papalote Mexican Grill we did use pinto beans. The challenge we faced is that traditionally refried pinto beans are a lot heavier and more, shall we say, substantial, precisely because of the lard they were prepared with. Vegetarian pinto beans feel weak, sort of watered down. We’ve been conditioned to expect a certain thickness and density when savoring pinto refried beans. That’s not the case with black refried beans. There’s not Pavlovian reaction when you see a plate of black refried pinto beans. There’s the element of surprise. Black refried beans evoke a sense of novelty and a certain (unintended) sophistication. 

Finally, what makes Papalote burritos special is the combination of simple rice, beans, and pico de gallo, coming together to celebrate the fillings that are featured in our burritos. Whether it’s our traditional freshly grilled carne asada (not carne adobada), our flaky sautéed fish, or our savory soyrizo, our beans do not interfere with the flavors of our veggies and proteins, or try to steal the show with over the top trendy spices. 

Our beans are simple, classic beans everybody can enjoy. That’s it. Simple.

Now, if you want to take it to the next level. Next time you serve beans at home, even if they’re out of a can, actually, especially if they’re out of a can, I hope you will treat yourself to the deliciousness that occurs when you blend in a little Papalote Salsa into your beans as you’re warming them up in a little pot. The silky, robust flavors that Papalote Salsa delivers blend in perfectly with the subtle flavor and taste of the beans. That and that little kick you get from your favorite variety of Papalote Salsa, Original (red dry chiles), Serrano-Tomatillo, Habanero, or Chipotle, really do elevate your bean experience. And I rarely use the word elevate when I talk about food, especially beans. I think I will form now on! Ooh, the Papalote Chipotle + beans. Out of this world!

So, happy International Bean Day! ¡Feliz día de Reyes! And since I haven’t seen you since last year, Happy New Year! Ok, now I’m off to the panadería. Wish me luck.