And any suggestions on what to do with it? Found in a farmer’s market in Okinawa, Japan. The tiles are 1" square, for reference. And larger specimens (about 3" diameter) were also available. They’re fairly soft and kind of the texture of a cooked potato inside.
Thanks!
Looks like taro root to me. I’ve seen it but never tried it.
ETA. Wiki says it’s poisonous if eaten raw. :eek:
Hm. No, not that. They sell that, too (I’ll have to pick some up, looks interesting), but this is different. It’s much smaller, for one (these are about 2" long max), and kind of gray in color. The Taro root is firmer, kind of a tan color, and bigger.
I will WAG they are taanmu, called taimo in the rest of Japan. They are a predominantly Okinawan taro variety. Treat them more or less as you would regular taro.
ETA: Thispage gives a brief description and some recipes. (In Japanese)
That’s definitely the right vegetable. Too bad the recipes are in Japanese :), although that gray mush in the second picture looks distinctly unapetizing. I’ll try it with some of the taro recipes.
Satoimo is absolutely delicious when peeled, lightly breaded, and deep-fried. Crispy on the outside, ooey-gooey on the inside.
That said, as with all taro varieties, a lot of people are put off by their mucilaginous texture. But if a mouthful of okra doesn’t gross you out, then you probably have what it takes to eat these guys.
And, as KRM warns, taro varieties do have a lot of Calcium oxalate. But it is not something to worry about. Cooking them or letting them soak in water overnight is enough to clear out the bad stuff. Calcium oxalate is in a few different edible plants, including spinach (albeit in much lower quantities than in taro).
Sorry for the double post, but the other recipe looked pretty good so I figured I’d give a quick-and-dirty translation.
Basically you clean and peel the taanmu, then cut them into fairly decent-sized (think steak fries) rectangular strips. Then you prepare a sweetened soy sauce marinade by mixing 4 tablespoons of soy sauce with 4 tablespoons of sugar and 3 tablespoons of water. Deepfry the suckers until they are slightly firm with a crisp outside. (no time given, might have to eyeball that. It says “As much as you wish”) Then soak em in the marinade prepared earlier.
I imagine that would make a tasty dessert or sweet snack.
Oh, they’re slimy? Bleh. Also, deep frying is right out–what a mess. So this might be my last purchase of the little gray things. At least I know now. Is all Taro slimy? Should I try the big ones?
I’ll saute a couple tonight and see if I can tolerate them, but any mucilaginous-ness is probably going to be a deal breaker for me.
Thanks for the help, I’ve been seeing them at my farmers’ market for months now wondering what they were.
Don’t try to make poi. Poi is awful.
Yeah, all taro is pretty slimy. Not as bad as okra, but still pretty gooey. That is why I recommend to fry or saute them. Helps cut down on the mucilage.
I don’t blame you for not wanting to deep fry them, oil disposal in Japan is a PITA.
Try sauteing them. If you like em, great, if not, hope you didn’t pay too much for em. 
ETA: Yeah, poi basically tastes like wood pulp.
