I found a place that sells black beans at a reasonable price. The problem is that I’m not sure how to cook them. I used a slow cooker back in the US. My rice cooker is one possibility but I want to ask if anyone has actually cooked them here. Thanks 
1 Like
The problem is that the beans widely sold here are Adzuki beans, not the variety used for Mexican/Latin American cuisine. Hence, they have a different flavor and take longer to cook.
You could try anyway but it takes skills to make those beans taste remotely similar to the Western style stuff.
Go through the whole process: soak overnight, cook 8 hours. Prepare a spice blend. I add Vietnamese cilantro for extra flavor. But I use imported canned.
2 Likes
Y’all are making me hungry.
1 Like
You can get lentils and garbanzo beans from the Indian store Trinity, but proper beans…dunno.
1 Like
I think most of us want to see these mythical proper black beans in taiwan haha. They are easy enough to cook. But more than likely they are soy beans. And their skins are tougher than the “mexican” ones.
I reserve doubt they are available here. But I REALLY hope I am wrong !!!
Most local groceries do as well, in dried form. Have seen garbanzo/chick pea at even rt mart type places the past year or so. More and more common.
Was in the grocery the other day and saw red, yellow and green lentils. Garbanzo have been available for many years dried as well.
Proper black beans seems to be the unicorn. Though I do see canned ones in a “ranch” sauce. They are insanely expensive and pretty shitty. When I use them, I rinse them, soak for an hour, rinse again. Just to try and remove that nasty sauce they can them with!!!
Got a Pic of the beans? Even for my blurry eyes, they look like the usual round black soybeans.
Them being from China almost confirms it 
Side note. You cna get Canadian soybeans cheaper than Chinese ones. Probably a little more trust worthy 
although for sure still shitty agricultural practices.
If you’re having trouble cooking those, search out recipes for black soybeans. Their skins are more firm, probably why you are having issues
I thought they were regular black beans. The search continues.
Definitively not soy beans.
And actually, yes, we still have to soak the proper ones overnight and cook preferably in a pressure cooker, then prepare a special spice mix for them to be properly served. But at least they do not taste like you are gargling marbles, which is what happens when you use adzuki ones and add to a savory mix.
1 Like
Beans and chickpeas need to be submerged in water for at least 8 hours (better more). Then, to cook beans the water doesn’t need to be hot at the beginning (tap water temperature). For chickpeas, water must be boiling before adding the chickpeas. Both, but specially chickpeas, don’t like when water temperature goes down once it started boiling. So, be careful when adding ingredients, specially if they are cold from the fridge (not recommended, really).
Lentils ate super easy. No need to soak them and they are ready in under an hour of cooking. No need for boiling the water first either.
I don’t have experience cooking soy beans “a la española”. Honestly, I don’t want it. But I would treat them as chickpeas. 10-12 hours soaked in water, boil cooking water first and always keep them boiling. Some of the pinto beans that can be found here are harder than the ones we use in Spain.
2 Likes
Cheers. I am still holding out for pics of that person’s actual beans though (labels are often innacurate).
Only reason I think so is that Pic above looks quite round, very soy bean like. Black adzuki beans I think are still smaller and more elongated no?
I for sure could be wrong, but they don’t look the same
I agree. I’m not a soy bean expert but these beens don’t look like traditional black beans. False alarm folks.
I am sorry but I stick to the canned black beans here and prepare them like my tia abuela used to. Expensive, yes, but it is the closest.
Garbanzos con costillas de cerdo/pork ribs or chicken wings. Lentils with chicken wings. Would use chicharrón but going all the way to the Filipino store would not be convenient.
If I could speak to the dead, a dearly departed friend cooked the most fantastic beans. Alas, he died too soon. Miss your cooking among other things, A. And you took your secret recipe to heaven.
Is it possible to share where to buy the canned ones? I’m not against canned, but the ones i find are called “ranch style” and have a thick gooey sauce which kind of ruins the beans.
We do not have much choice, there is Goya and another brand in Carrefour. Back in the day they were bringing a Mexican brand but that I haven’t seen in ages. Now, if we had some Ducal…
That’s the truth!
Are the Goya brand dried? That would be awesome.
The ones I have found look like these. Don’t have a can on hand to double check, but for sure that “ranch style”. Haven’t found plain black beans yet 
https://www.amazon.com/Ranch-Style-Black-Beans-Ounce/dp/B00DSG27UE
These days Carrefour usually has this:
But I regularly use the ranch style too. Many recipes recommend rinsing before cooking anyway in my experience.
The Goya that also show up are canned.
3 Likes
Very cool! Are they black beans or black soy beans?
Are these just beans? Probably in brine. Or are they also the goo styled ones?
I loath the ranch style, it’s nasty in my opinion. Even after rinsing, the stench still lingers haha 
Eh our black beans usually have “broth”. We make black soup, which is just the black beans, a hardboiled egg and spices, served with rice on the side. I mean, the water in the can is not meant to be rinsed, at least where I come from.
If by goo you mean refried, nope. Not the same.
Ya proper bean soup is wonderful. I mean a thick gooey chemical preserve gravy style crap. It’s pretty horrid and requires rinsing. Which leaves very few beans from the can haha. Will take a Pic next time in the city.