The Sweet Potato Project: Part 2

If you’ve been following Chowder’s little saga, you’d know that purple Hawaiian sweet potatoes (aka Okinawan sweet potatoes) are, in my humble opinion, the greatest thing since round-trip tickets to Honolulu. Waiting for them to arrive, however, is worse than medieval torture.

After placing our order, (i.e. calling my Hawaii-based mother and pleading for a few measly taters to be sent our way) we waited. Three excruciating days later—okay, it wasn’t that long, but we were seriously hungry by this point—a FedEx box arrived at Chowder HQ containing the coveted—and perhaps illicit—spuds (Hawaiian sweet potato growers are required to quarantine their crop before shipping to the mainland, but we decided not to investigate the matter any further).

As you can see in the photo above, from the outside, purple sweet potatoes really do look like regular sweet potatoes. But oh, how different they are.

Because moms are cool like that, two were already roasted for immediate eating. After a few minutes in a 300-degree oven, the potatoes were perfect—sweet, steaming, and delicious with just a dab of butter and a sprinkling of sea salt.

Of course, part of the pleasure was knowing that I was eating something otherwise unattainable in Boston—or so I smugly thought. Two days after the arrival of our beloved Okinawan potatoes, I made a sad (or was it happy?) discovery: Ken Oringer’s meat mecca KO Prime has them on the menu. As a side dish. With fried shallots. For eight bucks. Blast!

Stay tuned for Part 3: Iron Chef Boston, Battle Sweet Potato. It’s Amy T. vs. Donna G. Who will win?