The colour of the above photo is misleading, as it was taken in the night with a strange lighting, but it is actually olive green (by the way, I ate this in a restaurant in Agios Isidoros near Plomari in Lesvos. It is just below Mirsini Hotel. Regardless of its location, it is very local, good and value-for-money restaurant as all the neighbourhood restaurants should be; recommended!).
Ambelofasoula is beans, but of the kind that we eat shells, like runner beans, green beans, string beans or French beans (I think some of these are actually different names for the same thing).
In Greek, ambelo- something is something related to vine. In this case, the name should be an association with the vine ivy.
I found it in Laiki market the other day and decided to try.
It is a summer vegetable and I don't see it in other seasons. Now it costs about 1-3 euros a kilo.
It is about 20 to 30 cm long.
I boiled it, as I ate in Agios Isidoros, but comparing to the one I ate there, it was less succulent, tougher and had more fibre. Although it was good, I still miss the one I ate in Lesvos.
Afterwards, I cooked it in a Chinese way; fry it first, then stir-fry with minced pork, chili, soy sauce and Chinese/East Asian spices. It was one of Hubby's favourite Chinese dishes when we used to live in Birmingham UK. Now that I think, these ambelofasoula look like East Asian Snake Beans; maybe they are the same thing.
It turned out to be quite good. As I don't find French beans here, I can substitute it with ambelofasoula. Good to know.
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After some time, I went to Carrefour Marinopoulos. Here are some prices, just for my memory.
Nescafe 200gr + 100gr Greek coffee 5.24euros
Calgon (big package) 24.30euros
Lurpak Spread 500gr 4.85euros
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