Thursday, June 01, 2006

does anyone really know the difference between a sweet potato and a yam?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

In my experience yams are more orange and sweet potatoes more pale yellow...but that's hardly scientific....so, cause I'm a sucker for a research problem, I found this: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990604b.html - personally I thought the most interesting thing was that yams can grow up to 7 feet in length - who knew?
I should also tell you that I didn't just stop with that...I spent the next hour reading about various edible tropical roots and tubors - cause I'm geeky like that!

Anonymous said...

OK I'll do you one better - I am in love with Wikipedia...it's just this unbelievable I-have-a-question-and-it-has-the-answer cache of information. So go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_potato and then follow the links through yam...and then just to trip things up, this thing called the New Zealand Yam which is neither Yam nor Sweet Potato.
And then check out the other stuff that Wiki offers - not just encyclopedic stuff...it's so great.

S'Mat said...

lindsey, you rock! i had no idea about the link of sweet potatos to morning glory. hehehe. and 6 foot yams? wikipedia really does have everything.

Isabel said...

Yuca!

The Straight Dope used to be published in the Montreal Mirror, in the 80s. Along with Akbar and Jeff.
Ah, my youte.