The Skinny on Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes and yams are actually two very different vegetables.

While American grocery stores use the terms interchangeably, what they are always referring to is actually a sweet potato, not a yam. Garnet Yams and Jewel Yams, for instance, aren’t yams at all — they’re sweet potatoes! Candied Yams? Nope, sweet potatoes. Confused yet?

In fact, chances are that you’ll never accidentally buy an actual yam instead of a sweet potato at your local grocery. You can find “true” yams as well as other varities of sweet potatoes in Caribbean and Asian specialty grocery stores.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

State Fair of Texas

The State Fair of Texas is underway, and between the fried Oreos and fried butter (not joking), there are three sweet potato dishes to be found in the chaos.



Sweet Potato Fries, found at The Dock restaurant, located in the Embarcadero Building on Nimitz Dr.

Piping-hot sweet potato fries sprinkled with Lawry’s seasoned salt, covered in shredded cheddar cheese and broiled to perfection. Brown sugar and cayenne pepper are dusted on the fries followed by a topping of crumbled bacon. Served with a side of Ranch dipping sauce.

Fried Sweet Potato Pie

Fried Sweet Potato Pie, found at the following locations: Cottonbowl Plaza 2 (in front of the Lagoon); Front Gate 2 (near the Auto Show and the Exposition/Parry Avenue entrance); Tower Building 10 (in front of Cotton Bowl).

A generous portion of third-generation-recipe sweet potato pie filling is spread on a soft flour tortilla and lightly fried to a crisp. Served plain or with a light sprinkle of cinnamon and powdered sugar.

And finally without a photo...

Twisted Yam on a Stick (HINT: It is not actually yam, how hard is this??) Found at Front Gate 2 (near the Auto Show and the Exposition/Parry Avenue entrance)

A delicious, towering, spiral-cut sweet potato on a 13” skewer is fried to a delicate crispy texture, then gently rolled in butter and dusted with cinnamon and sugar.

0 comments: