Beans

Mak thua beu is the Lao name for the familiar French or runner bean, usually eaten whole, like mange-tout beans.

The yard-long bean (or long-podded cow bean, as it is sometimes called) is mak thua nyao in Lao. Its scientific name is VIGNA UNGUICULATA. It is not often as long as a yard, but it is a very long bean indeed, as the drawing below suggests.

Mak paep is something rather different. It is CANAVALIA GLADIATA, the sword bean, a name which needs no explanation beyond a glance at the drawing on the right. This species is very close to CANAVALIA ENSIFORMIS, the jack bean of the tropics of the Americas. Both the sword and the jack beans may be eaten as vegetables when the pods are young, green and tender. (The ripe, dry seeds may also be eaten if certain precautions are taken, to wit removing the seed-coat and boiling the seeds in two changes of water.) The sword bean appears in recipe 110.