Wednesday, August 09, 2006

introduce thyself, vegetable.

we love super 88, our local asian supermarket, for its totally affordable produce and herbs (cilantro, 50 cents a bunch! mint, one dollar!). so we happily ignore the fact that we can't read some signs nor ask most staff for help. it usually works pretty well, but every once in awhile we come home with foodstuff that we thought was one thing, but turned out to be something else entirely.

like this:

vegetable 2
it looked like a sweet potato, it felt like a sweet potato, but now we're just not sure it is a sweet potato.

because of this:
vegetable1
white interior, not orange.

cassava? i think not.
regular potato? not an option.

can anybody name the tuber?
at

17 comments:

  1. Ashbloem8/09/2006 2:36 PM

    I thought sweet potatoes can still be quite light on the inside; as light as pale yellow. Have you tasted?

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  2. Ashbloem8/09/2006 2:50 PM

    Ah, never mind. You said white. Idunno.

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  3. ann & dabney8/09/2006 3:57 PM

    no, definitely not a sweet potato.

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  4. Anonymous8/10/2006 7:38 AM

    jicama?

    -sy

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  5. ann & dabney8/10/2006 9:23 AM

    jicama is rounder and squatter. good guess though.

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  6. LP8/10/2006 12:48 PM

    Yuca. It looks like the yuca- commonly eaten all over Latin America with lots o' butter and salt.

    :)

    -L.

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  7. ann & dabney8/10/2006 12:51 PM

    nope. definitely not yuca. we've made yuca before and it is usually longer, skinnier with a more bark-like exterior. good guess, though.

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  8. Anonymous8/10/2006 1:51 PM

    I am guessing kotobuki -
    see http://www.saturdaymarket.com/nakashima.htm

    - eg, friend of sy

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  9. Anonymous8/10/2006 1:54 PM

    coworkers says: i guess the texture would be the biggest clue
    did they eat any of it?
    was it starchy on the inside?
    http://www.saturdaymarket.com/nakashima.htm one of the pics here looks sorta like what they got
    the kotobuki
    -sy

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  10. ann & dabney8/10/2006 3:12 PM

    eg! you might have hit upon something. kotobuki, huh? looks promising...

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  11. Anonymous8/10/2006 5:13 PM

    what about a yam? Is it not a yam? They look almost the same as the orangey/yellowy sweet potato.

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  12. Anonymous8/10/2006 5:14 PM

    Like this:

    http://www.foodsubs.com/Sweetpotatoes.html

    martha (girlladyfriend's friend)

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  13. ann & dabney8/10/2006 7:46 PM

    hi martha!

    i love that foodsubs.com site. what a great idea.

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  14. Anonymous8/13/2006 10:22 AM

    I yam what I yam!

    Dunno what that tuber is, tho.

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  15. Anonymous8/15/2006 12:11 PM

    Are you sure it's not a sweet potato? Have you cooked it and consumed it? Sweet potatos in South Africa looked like that not the freaky orange of the yam.

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  16. ann & dabney8/15/2006 10:49 PM

    i think the latest thinking is that it is a variety of the sweet potato - perhaps kotobuki. no, we haven't eaten yet. we were waiting to identify it before we are it.

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  17. Anonymous2/18/2007 11:53 AM

    Hi,

    In case you haven't gotten a definite answer about the suspect sweetpotato, I can tell you, based on the picture, that I am 90% sure it is a sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas L. Lam.) with a white flesh, (and probably starchier variety). Contrast this to an orange variety we normally call yams. Then there are purple-fleshed sweetpotatoes, salmon-fleshed, etc.

    Trust me on this. I have a Ph.D. in sweetpotatoes (well, Horticulture, but I have worked with this species in the last 20 years).

    Arthur in Louisiana

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