How to eat Edamame Beans

I was at Sakura International Buffet some weeks back.

Sakura International Buffet at Clementi Woods, Singapore

There was a wide variety of food there, ranging from Sushi, to Pizza to desserts. I had a blast of a time, trying out the different food there.

After a while, I noticed it – edamame beans.

Edamame Beans
Picture courtesy of Aloalosabine

Looks very cute doesn’t it?

Having heard of the virtues of edamame beans, I was very keen to give them a try. Excitedly, I took a plateful. It looked similar to a French bean so you eat them the same way don’t you? Innocently, I put the entire bean in my mouth.

It was horrible! It wasn’t like french beans at all! The skin was fuzzy, making it feel like I had caterpillars in my mouth and no matter how much I chew, the skin still remained fibrous.

Urgh!

It was only on my second visit that I found out that you’re supposed to squeeze the beans out of the pod to eat them. Turned out that they are actually quite tasty.

The video below shows you how to eat edamame beans. And hopefully, you don’t experience what I had 😛

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16 Replies to “How to eat Edamame Beans”

  1. oh no!! hope you didn’t finish the plate the first time round!

    I love edamame beans!! and I think there’re people who gets the kick out of squeezing out the beans. Saw minitoon selling these small keychains shape of the edamame beans and you get to squeeze out beans with faces on it. too cute!

  2. Claudia

    I took a plateful the first time and after the initial try, I so disgusted that I wrapped it all in a tissue and hoped that the staff didn’t notice me. Quite a bad habit for a buffet.

    I didn’t realised that you could only eat the beans inside! It looked like french beans so I assumed that I could eat it like french beans too 😛

    Haha! I should take a peek at minitoon for these keychains … it sounds like a riot!

  3. Hillary

    I really didn’t know that you should only eat the innards. The friends that I was with, didn’t know either … ROFL!

    There is always a first time eating edamame, eating wasabi, eating rhugetta …

  4. Edamame beans are one of my favourite ways to fritter away time at a Japanese restaurant. I like their taste and the fact that they are packed full of vitamins, proteins, minerals and all the good stuff. Yummy!

  5. I just bought a pack of frozen adamame, cooked it and then eat it. Yes because I’m such a bright guy I also ate the skin. I don’t know how I did it but I was able to chew the skin on the first one but failed on the second.hehe. Then I thought, I can’t possibly eat the skin so it’s probably just the beans! =)

  6. I just got edamame beans for the first time (Chinese New Year today!) and I ate the pod too, because when they were still warm, they didn’t seem to open up. Now that they’ve cooled down, they are easy to pop open. Anyway, even if you aren’t traditionally supposed to eat the pod, I thought the pod was actually good, kind of like chewing on pumpkin seeds in the shell. I won’t eat many that way, but it’s not bad if you do. (mind you, I sometimes eat shrimp tails too when I have no place to dispose of them!).

  7. marlon

    Hahaha, I bet that you didnt expect that! Eating edamame skin is really horrible with the fibrous and hairy skin that just wont go away.

    CMJ

    Uh, shrimp tails? Edamame skin? Oh dear, I think I need to take you to places that serves nicer food 😛

  8. I too have eaten the pods of edamame! I went out to dinner with my boyfriends family, and decided to order the edamame because I had heard of how good they were. I had no idea how to eat them, so to save face I just put the whole thing in my mouth. Everyone thought I knew what I was doing becuase everyone at the table tried them – pods and all! Now that I know how to eat them I love them. Though I must admit – that first experience really wasn’t all that bad. Like an earlier poster said – they taste a bit like pumpkin seeds, kind of chewy. And it didn’t hurt that they were coated with salt!

  9. Don’t think much of the shell. First time I bit into the bean pod the bean popped out and I went from there. I like mine boiled, lightly salted and dusted with wasabi powder, the real stuff not that green horseradish stuff, wait 10 – 15 minuets and consume – to die for and come back for seconds.

  10. I had edamame for the first time today, it came as a side dish with the bento box I had for lunch. I had no clue how to eat them so I just popped a whole one in my mouth! It was horrible! One end was like a twig and poked into the roof of my mouth, and I felt as if all those little hairs were cutting me, like the tiny hairs on a blade of grass! I had to spit it out haha…
    I opened up all the rest and ate the beans from inside, and immediatly came to google “How to eat edamame” and found this blog… I knew I was missing something!

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