Produce Guide - Y

Yams

More than a few Frootique customers asking for yams are treated to a lesson on the difference between a yam and a sweet potato, which is often what they actually want. In fact some people have been confusing the two for such a long time that they won't believe me until I show them the tubers side by side. There's no mistaking the shaggy, dark, bark-covered yam for its smooth-skinned namesake. And truth be told, the two aren't even related botanically - the yam came from Africa, while the sweet potato originated in South America. The confusion started 300 years ago when transported slaves from West Africa used the word nama, or nyama, to describe the American sweet potato, the vegetable most similar to their indigenous tuber. And before you leap to the wrong conclusion, the yam's other common moniker, ñame, comes from the Spanish, who translated the West African name as igname.

Few people outside of North America would make the yam/sweet potato mistake, because from Africa to Latin America, India to the Caribbean, and Asia to the South Pacific, yams have long been a staple. And although cook-books frequently suggest using the yam and the sweet potato interchangeably, the yam has a white or yellow flesh, crisp rather than mealy, and its flavour is not sweet so much as mildly nutty. The aggressive spices and seasonings of ethnic cuisines are well-suited to the relatively bland taste of the yam.

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