A thing or two about taro

I always get a bit worried doing my Taste Sensation! posts. I always feel like a bit of a dill, thinking that the whole world has tried these things before me, but nonetheless, I still feel I need document my adventures more as a note to myself about what I should look out for again, and what I should avoid. And also for remembering the fun times we had trying something "new".

Yesterday I posted about our taro ice cream tastings. Taro isn't too common in Australia, and while I always see it on the menu in many of the Asian restaurants nearby, it's something that hasn't filtered into the Australian mainstream.

A little more on taro:

It's quite a bland vegetable, tasting quite chesnutty, but also a bit potato-y too. Like potatoes, it has to be cooked, or it's poisonous and can be boiled, baked, roasted, mashed, crumbed/fried. The skin of the taro can be a bit irritating, so wear gloves when washing and peeling it. Of course you can check wikipedia for notes on its cultivation, if that tickles your fancy.

By rubber slipper

You can find taro fresh or tinned in your local Asian grocer (although I've only found 2/5 of our local ones stock it fresh). Apparently you can substitute it for potato in almost any recipe. My friends tell me taro also tastes great when combined with coconut milk. Australians generally have an aversion to any dessert or sweet drink that has a vegetable in it, such as sweet potato, pumpkin or taro. But I always think "Surely if a food is that popular and common, it must be good?" (Sometimes that thinking gets me into trouble - case in point: Red bean) but as I found on Sunday evening, taro ice cream is delicious.

Taro plantation: By Monroe Broadway