Black Beans Have Brighter Sides Too

They build health.

- Rajshekhar Pant

Black to look at and texture-wise also providing a kind of a feel that is suggestive of its typically rustic antecedents, there is hardly any doubt that despite its distinct aroma and highly palatable taste Maichulas – a staple in the diet made of kala bhatt, or black soybean (Glycine max), consumed from November to June, in ‘Chakata region’ corresponding to the modern Bhimtal and Nainital townships of Uttarakhand – could not occupy a commanding place in the characteristic cuisine of the Central Himalayan region. It will not be out of place to mention here that kala bhatt or black soybeans, with a wide variety of genomes (over 45 in Uttarakhand alone) grown in the semi-arid, stony and rain-fed slopes of Chakata hills in the Central Himalayas, are famous all over for their taste and fetch comparatively a good price.