We’ve been teaching after-hours English lessons to Charles, one of the office guards, and his wife every night when we stop by to use the internet after dinner. To thank us, the couple has taken it upon themselves to resolve the mystery of the unidentifiable root vegetables I’ve been seeing at the market. On Sunday Charles showed up on our doorstep with a steaming plate of what looked like long whole purple yams. He called them “patates malgaches.” Francesca immediately got very excited; she recognized them as what she grew up with in Haiti, calling them “Haitian yams.” Sure enough, despite their color they tasted like the sweet brown-skinned yellowy-orange yams – the candied ones of American Thanksgiving with marshmellow topping – that I knew.
Yesterday (Monday) around lunchtime Charles was back again, this time with a bowl of long, pale, stringy-looking starchy vegetables, which he called “manioc” [see picture, double-click on enlarge]. I was familiar with the name, and we gratefully accepted his offering. Manioc proved to be rather bland, but piping hot they were satisfying and filling. Last night while on the phone with Robin he pointed out that I had already tried manioc – it’s what Cubans call “yuca,” and we had had it in March at “Cuba” restaurant in New York City. Then, it had been fried in oil and flavored with garlic, so I hadn’t recognized it here in Madagascar! Upon further research, it seems that certain crops are quite popular across the globe in tropical and/or island nations, with manioc/yuca being a prime example!
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