Beans, beans the magical fruit

China has beans. A lot of different kinds of beans actually. Red, lima, soy, some black, some other kind of black, and so many green beans. But the point is there aren't any pinto beans. Starbucks isn't my favorite coffee, but in the least they supply me with my favorite bean. Beans are cultural, and taken for granted as I have found. They thing about beans is that you do not recognize how much they influence your gastronomy until you move continents and the beans around you remind you of the Twilight Zone.

I'm Mexican-American, among many other things, but at this point in time, this label suits my plight. I like pinto beans. I was taught that beans and rice are one word, and are to be eaten together. Living in Southern China gets me confused and disoriented; I find rice everywhere I go but without beans accompanying them like they ought. I like rice, and I love Chinese food. I miss pinto beans.

I found a place I like to go on Wednesdays, Tekila, a Mexican food restaurant. On Wednesdays they serve half-priced fajitas. It used to be that every Wednesday I would go with my buddies after work to get said fajitas, until I had a side-swiping revelation. I'm at a Mexican food place, and I'm here to buy fajitas--which DO NOT come with beans and rice?? How long have you been allowing this to happen, Annaliisa Garcia? Like one of those moments in a cartoon with a funny little conscience character sitting on my shoulder I felt ashamed I had wasted so many Wednesdays not eating any beans and rice. I learned the err of my ways; now I go to Fajita night for enchiladas--much improved.