Hi Everyone, There was a period of time when I was going to secondary school that chickpeas (aka channa, garbanzo beans) were scarce. As a result, the snack vendors replaced the much loved and highly demanded boil ‘n fry channa with boil ‘n fry black eye. The black eye was a good place filler but once chickpeas were back on the market, boil ‘n fry black eye was quickly dispensed with. Forgotten. It was almost as if it never existed. I just want to say thank you black eye, for being there to satisfy our cravings and to fill our hungry bellies.
As regular customers, we students were skeptical at first about this boil ‘n fry black eye peas. First of all it did not look as attractive as the beloved channa – plump, khaki-coloured, sometimes with a hint of yellow if it was cooked with turmeric. Instead, here was this sea of black-spotted, tiny peas.
What would it taste like? Our regular snack-lady encouraged us to give it a try. We did. It was okay. Alright, it was better than okay but we only admitted that begrudgingly because it could never take the place of boil ‘n fry channa. Or could it?
Each subsequent day after the first sampling of the boil ‘n fry black eye, we’d ask the snack lady if she had channa. Every day we hoped the channa would be back. She’d shake her head and then we would resignedly ask for the black eye. After about 3 weeks, it was clear that channa was not going to be back in the channa bowl anytime soon so we stopped asking for it. Soon, not only our regular snack lady was doing brisk business with boil ‘n fry black eye but so too was the canteen and the other vendors scattered
