Things I Love 1

October 8, 2010

Yama Imo, the mysterious “mountain potato” of Japan, has the most exotic texture of any food I know. Pure white, it has a bite, a crunch, a crispness that quickly dissolves into a creamy paste and then, while you are chewing, breaks down again, becoming stickier and stickier until it is pure slime. This transformation never fails to entertain and delight me, and I love to carve it into sticks and eat it for breakfast, with umaboshi (the plum paste of Japan, for which it has a great affinity), or simply drizzle it with soy sauce. It creates a little circus of the mouth, the perfect way to start any day.

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  • Mona Nomura says:
    October 10, 2010 at 3:12 pm

    Wow. This is the best articulation of yama imo I have ever seen and I love that you eat yama imo like we (the Japanese) do. It’s also amazing how you eat umeboshi — it is an acquired taste!
    Do you also put slivers of unflavored nori on top? We cut slim pieces from the large sushi/hand roll nori as a garnish; that adds another dimension to the flavor combinations. Almost ocean-like.

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