Mung Beans, Milk, and Sugar Is a Revelation
While some people wax nostalgic about the hot chocolate or freshly baked cookies they ate as an afternoon snack as a kid, my memories go straight to warm, sugary cups of mung beans. It’s a recipe my mother brought with her to the dusty roads of Fresno, California, from her childhood home of Mariveles, a fishing town on the tip of the Philippines’ Bataan Peninsula. While my brothers and I grew up catching dragonflies and wrestling our rowboat from the tangles of water lilies, my mother would tell us stories of growing up in the rainforest, showing us photos of her smiling on rocks slick from waterfalls or clutching a guitar under the shade of palm trees.
When she came to the United States and settled in Fresno in the early ’90s, my stepdad, who is...
