Butter Me Up

In addition to sweet potatoes, I've been digging another member of the vegetable family lately: butter beans.

I've been surprised by the loveliness of this legume. They've tasted so yummy recently, I've been wondering: Can butter beans really be the same as the dreaded lima beans of childhood? Yup.

Perhaps the adjective in their name has something to do with the improvement.

I had butter beans on a recent trip to Mississippi with the Spoonstress. At Oxford's Ajax Diner, I enjoyed them as part of a veggie plate--that odd, enjoyable institution where three sides make a meal.

Then this week, I enjoyed butter beans as a side to a fried chicken lunch at the Mecca Restaurant, whose name derives from its status as a meeting spot blocks from the state capitol, not any religious leanings. The crunchy-skinned chicken was tasty, but played second fiddle to the butter beans. Wow, I can't believe I just wrote that (and that I mean it).

I almost repeated my veggie plate order at the Raleigh institution, with an eye on some mac 'n cheese. Luckily, my lunch partner Alex noted that it was macaroni salad. Yuck. Can you imagine expecting the creamy goodness of noodles and cheese but getting cold, oily or mayo-soaked elbows instead? That'd almost be as bad as a plate of lima beans.