In the film Tampopo, an epicurean gangster character describes an unusual meal on his deathbed. He explains that Japanese wild boar survive mainly on yam in the winter. After shooting a boar, a hunter should cut open its guts straight away and grill them over an open fire. The intestines should then be sliced and eaten hot - yam sausage. His girlfriend suggests that they would be good with horseradish and soy sauce. My question: is there any factual basis to this? Do Japanese boar hunters eat the yam filled intestines of wild boar?
It seems to me that what you find in a boar’s intestines is not yams, but boar shit. I have my doubts that it would taste good.
Mmmm…I don’t know, but I’ll try to find out?
Don’t underestimate the power of your thread – I may be back! 
Wow, InvidiousCourgette, I guess you weren’t joking when you called it a crap thread.
I also heard a rumour that a “true” haggis (eaten by a true Scotsman of course), being enclosed in a sheep’s stomach - ground beef, pearl barley, liver, spices - is the sheep’s last meal. Feed the sheep, kill it immediately, cut out the stomach, cook it.
No evidence for this whatsoever.
In keeping with the crap thread motif, I offer the following.
In Diane Fossey’s book, “Gorillas In The Mist,” she mentioned one of their less endearing habits. Gorilla doody, it seems, is much like an apple in size, shape, and appearence. Many times she witnessed a gorilla taking a dump who’d reach back and grab one before it hit the ground. Still steaming hot from “the oven” they’d go to munching on it just like an apple. Sorta grossed me out.
Chitlins have an Eastern cousin?
coughBULLSHIT!Cough
[sup]Sorry, it has Snopes written all over it, no?[/sup]
Yams aren’t indigenous to Japan, and they aren’t farmed, so I would have to say “probably not” unless we’re dealing with a bad translation of some other vegetable.
Yam is a broad term and includes plants in both the morning glory family (Convolvulaceae) to true yams, Dioscorea (Dioscoreaceae). The yam referred to in the legend is Yamanoimo, also called the "glutinous yam. It is native to Japan, and eastern Asia. That “bad” translation is actually a good translation since the Dioscorea are the true yams, while the “sweet potato” are not.
My mistake, I did not know “yamaimo” was in fact a yam. It doesn’t taste like a yam to me, and people around here usually translate it as “mountain potato.”
The scientific name is Dioscorea japonica.
It’s sort of like the difference between cherries and peaches, both are stone fruits but they don’t taste like each other. There’s a Philippine variety called ube which is pretty much used exclusively for desserts (Dioscorea alata). It’s quite different from the mountain yam, and is a rich purple color (enough that Americans tend to be afraid of trying it… even though it is excellent… you can get the yam in jars, and i’ve seen the actual root being sold in Asian groceries here.