Beans Around The World.

My mother-in-law invented this recipe as a way to feed herself and her five children on a tight budget. I confess that I didn't understand it at first, because the only goulash I had eaten was in a red sauce over noodles, whereas this recipe has other starches and has a firmer texture. However, I've come to think of it not only as comfort food, but as a kind of "stone soup" recipe, since I would not have thought to combine those particular ingredients. The stone soup thought led me to the trainyard setting, a place where all kinds of people from different backgrounds gather. It's a total coincidence, yet a happy coincidence, that I submit this illustration on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.