Indeed. There are several species of wild yam in the north of
Australia - they grow on a vine-like plant and the Aboriginal women
dig them up with a shaped stick, following the vine root down into
the ground. (Not sexist - it's just 'women's business'). Here the
'sweet potato' was a white fleshed tuber which was great for frying
in thin discs but it has been overwhelmed of late by an orange
fleshed type (Jubilee?) which is quite different in texture and boils
well - a good substitute for the hard squash we call a butternut
which is the best curcurbit around (aka Trombone Squash). I use the
orange type with chicken in a risotto.
Cantalope is a very confused term. Locally (Victoria) it is used for
what is more properly called a rock melon - the term used in Sydney.
This is the less sweet, orange fleshed melon that the French use as a
starter, often with ham. When I were a lad in the UK, the proper
version was unavailable so the middle class francocuisinophile
Epicureans used to serve a sweet melon like a honeydew instead which
was quite inappropriate.
Here there's a wild melon, the Padi or Paddy melon that grows by the
roadside in the north but is unfortunately inedible, even to most of
the wildlife which includes a small wallaby called a Pademelon - now
that's a potentional confusion!
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 11/03/2007, at 7:31 AM, Winsor Crosby wrote:
> An American yam is a sweet potato. Just a word usage. It is not a
> potato. The true yam is grown in Africa and other tropical hot areas
> something else entirely. There are lots of varieties of sweet
> potatoes from the deep red ones I grew up with and we called yams to
> the pale creamy fleshed varieties.
>
> Never ever have I seen a green fleshed cantaloupe. Sometimes there is
> a thin green layer under the skin if it is not ripe. Musk melon is a
> big group that includes cantaloupes, cranshaws, green fleshed
> honeydews and canteloupe like "musk melons". My local farmers' market
> that sometimes sells what they call musk melons. They look like a
> canteloupe, but not as good tasting to me. I suspect you call
> canteloupes musk melons down there because you like the sound of
> it. :-)
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