Taiwanese Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Have you ever used Yams and Sweet Potatoes interchangeably? Do you even know the difference? Up until last week, I probably couldn’t tell you the difference. I was one of those people who couldn’t tell the difference, I even thought they were of the same species. BOY WAS I WRONG! So the title of this post went from “Taiwanese Roasted Yams” to “Taiwanese Roasted Sweet Potatoes” back and forth a few times until I got it right. After some research, I find out that Sweet Potatoes and Yams are totally different, not even the same species as a matter of fact. I feel a bit smarter now, thank-you-very-much.

In any case, when I went to Taiwan, I hung out with my folks one Saturday morning and we went hiking with their friends. We headed out to Kuan-Yin Shan, which is a hill/mountain in the outside of Kaohsiung. During our hike we stopped by this small town’s farmer’s market where they were selling roasted sweet potatoes. There we a couple of places in fact. Some, like the photo below, you roasted yourself in a self-made mud “oven” and others they roast for you.

As you can see, these kids where having a ball playing with dirt. I remember doing that as well at that age…playing in the mud that is. Those little mounds of dirt you see are the sweet potato ovens.

We bought ours from the vendor above. We were kind of in a hurry, so we just bought the sweet potatoes they had just roasted in an over-sized portable oven.

Yet another vendor…this one sold taro too (that big dark root to the far left).

Yummy goodness right here folks. Yeah, it probably has a boat load of carbs, but who’s counting. After all, you don’t go on vacation to watch your weight. Besides, I did hike half the darn mountain to get them, so I don’t feel so bad. What is the difference between a Sweet Potato and a Yam you ask? For one, its the color…Yams are typically orange and sweeter. Plus, they tend to grow very long, so they are usually sold precut in sections. Sweet Potatoes, like the one above, have a yellower flesh than a normal potato would and (as the name implies) its sweet!
So how would you go about roasting some for yourself? Go to the grocery store, buy yourself a batch, wrap with foil, pop it in the oven and enjoy!