All Knowledge Is Contain In Livejournal - food query

[coraa]

When I was at Uwajimaya shopping yesterday, I picked up an interesting-looking root vegetable on a whim. It's quite large -- maybe a foot long or possibly even larger and too thick around to circle with one hand although small enough to easily circle with two hands. It has tan skin with evenly but irregularly-spaced darker spots, and out of each darker spot comes a few thin fibers like hairs. The flesh is smooth and just off-white (sort of cream-colored), with no appreciable odor. The label for the vegetable called it a [Something] Potato, and there might have been another, non-Anglicized name. Unfortunately, I did not write down what it was, and I have since forgotten.

It's definitely not a lotus root (no holes), and I'm pretty confident based on size, shape and appearance that it's not a regular potato either. It's also not jicima. It doesn't look like any sweet potato I've ever met, but that doesn't mean it isn't. My best bet right now is that it's tapioca root -- does anyone have any experience with tapioca root to confirm or deny?

Any ideas?

(Uwajimaya has more Japanese food than any other food, but it's pan-Asian, so this isn't necessarily a Japanese vegetable.)

EDIT: paperclippy has solved the riddle -- it's a yamaimo, or mountain potato. Yay!

Comments

[erik]

Tapioca sounds reasonable from your description. Any chance of a picture?

Re: yamaimo

[erik]

Aha! I don't think I've ever seen one of those.

[coraa]

paperclippy has identified it for me -- it's yamaimo, or mountain potato. :)

[cwendy41.livejournal.com]

Is it taro? Picture?

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Hmm, possibly, although the skin looks less -- well, hairy. I'll see about getting a pic up at lunch.

[paperclippy.livejournal.com]

Japan has a variety of different vegetables/roots that are called XXX-imo. "Imo" means potato in Japanese. There is something called a "yamaimo" which literally is mountain potato, and various other sweet potatoes (none of which are anything that an American would call a "sweet potato"). It sounds like it might be a yamaimo . . . here's a photo:



Does that look like it?

[coraa.livejournal.com]

That is exactly it. Thank you!

[rowr.livejournal.com]

oh yah that! grated it becomes rather slimy.. not my favorite.