Boniato

Also Batata, Batata Dulce, White Sweet Potato, Cuban Sweet Potato, Camote

Now here’s a pretty mess: In the 1930s a very sweet, orange-fleshed sweet potato was introduced as a Louisiana “yam,” a marketing ploy that was intended to distinguish it from the similar, but firmer variety that was grown in New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. That orange variety is not in any respect a true yam, nor is it what most of the world recognizes as a sweet potato (nor, for that matter, is a sweet potato related to what we call a potato, if you want to really tear out your hair). In the tropics and subtropics, where almost all sweet potatoes grow, the vegetable that most people would identify by this name is white- or yellow-fleshed, rather dry, and slightly sweet, with a chestnut-like flavor. This is the rule world-wide; our sweet potato is an exception. Now, thanks to the same growers that brought us malanga, yuca, and calabaza, we have a large crop of these light-fleshed varieties growing in Dade County, Florida. Because the growers and immediate audience are Cuban, the light-colored sweet potato is being marketed as a boniato, adding another name to the confusion.