Tamba Beans

It calls as “Kuromame” in Japanese. There are several breeds of black soy bean and the Kyoto one is classifies as one of the largest bean.

The main production area in Kyoto is the South area far from the central Kyoto.
Its skin is black but the ingredient and the taste is same as a normal soy bean.
The Kuromame bean of Kyoto calls as “Tamba Mame”. The harvest season is on October.
The area is hot and humid during the daytime and the night cools down and fog appears.
At the same time, it rains properly in the evening.
The land is rich to make a good quality bean. But if it cultivates continuously the bean, the soil becomes impoverished. So the most of the farmers of Tambamame makes rotation of the product what they made between beans and rice.

Preparation

Tamba Beans is an indispensable material for a dish of first day of the year. It prepares as broiled and the bean should be prepared deep black using iron and sodium.
At the same time, the surface of the bean should not have any folds. The preparation was invented a famous restaurant “Yaozen” of Tokyo during the Edo period for one of a dish for the first day of a year, however it became a famous dish of Kyoto during the passing through the time. The word Mame which means bean in Japanese has another meaning of “Diligent” with same pronunciation but with different Kanji symbol.
The people to be able to live diligently “Mame” the year, eat bean “Mame”.
The broiled bean with the preparation can be able to keep several days, so its good to prepare for the first days (normally several days are off in Japan) of a year, not to cook hard since the beginning. But as it takes time and labor, lately people obtain prepared black beans for a dish.