When I was a high school student, I always looked forward to having lunch at an Italian restaurant at the basement of Daimaru department store after shopping. It was not exactly a restaurant, it was a Italian deli counter, where you can buy antipasta and something like that. Their dishes were very delicate and sophisticated, especially I loved their white bean salad appetizer.
It was very new to me to eat beans as a salad. My mom cooked beans as "nimame" -japanese sweet stewed beans or tomato stewed beans. And I did not like either of them so much.
Since then, I always remember the nice feeling of having lunch with my mom and excitement of finding new dish whenever I make bean salad.
