White yam (Dioscorea alata), or ñame blanco, is also called water yam (ñame de agua) and a handful of other names—in my neck of the woods alone. “It is what many people in the world refer to with the word ‘yam,’ or its translation”, says Franklin Martin, who refers to this most widespread of species as wing-stemmed yam. This is the yam I see in any market, whatever its ethnicity, that carries yams. So prevalent and so different are its forms that I have unwittingly cooked four different shapes, thinking they were four distinct yams. Fortunately, the tasting notes concurred and set me straight.
