The Tale of the Mystic Mung Bean

After our group dance practice last Friday, we went to the cafeteria for our normal lunch. I peeked at the display window of food and noticed the brown soup-like dish. Yeah! It's Friday and it's "ginisang munggo" day! For some odd reason, our canteen normally serves ginisang munggo (sauteed mongo) every Friday. We ordered for a meal and settled for a table and started to eat. While tasting a spoonful of the soup from Alex's soup bowl, I asked them, "Saan ba nanggagaling ang munggo?" (Where does mung bean came from?) And I got several responses:

"San nga ba?" (Yah! Where does it come from?)

"Uhmm... Sa toge?" (Uhmmm... in beansprouts?)

"Para ata ung green peas... parang pod.. tapos bubuksan mo!" (I think it's similar to green peas.. it's like a pod and you need to open it to get the seeds.)

And then today, I remember having this mung bean conversation. So I opened google.com and typed mung bean, and I got the list of some mung bean definitions but not I wasn't able to find the answer to my question. I turned around to find my cubemates Tina and Rey and asked them..

Melai: Saan ba nanggaling ang munggo? (Where does mung bean come from?)

Rey/Tina: Sa toge? (From beansprouts?)

Melai: Eh san nanggaling ang toge? (Where does beansprouts come from?)

Rey.Tina: Ah... Sa munggo? (From mung beans?)

Tina: Para yang chicken and egg... Hahahaha! (It's like the chicken and egg logic...Hahahahha!)

Then Ahjussi Rey got serious and told me to try checking "mongo vine" in Google. And so I did try to check and was able to find this from this website.

"Mung beans are tropical (or sub-tropical) crops, and require warm temperatures (optimally around 30-35°C).  They are warm season annuals, highly branched and having trifoliate leaves like the other legumes. Both upright and vine types of growth habit occur in mungbean, with plants varying from one to five feet in length. The pale yellow flowers are borne in clusters of 12–15 near the top of the plant. Mature pods are variable in color (yellowish-brown to black), about five inches long, and contain 10 to 15 seeds.  Self pollination occurs so insect and wind are not required. Mature seed colors can be yellow, brown, mottled black or green, depending upon variety. These round to oblong seeds vary in size from 6,000 to over 12,000 per pound, depending upon variety."

So there you go ladies and gentlemen, there is such a thing as "Mongo Vine" and mung beans came from pods!

And that ends the tale of the "mystic mung bean". Bow! Bow! :)