Camote del Cerro or What is Nagaimo doing at the Mexican Market?

[kare_raisu]

I first noticed this mountain yam or tuber at a Mexican swap Meet in San Diego, Ca - which I could recognize as the Japanese Nagaimo. I am interested if anyone knows the uses of this in traditional Mexican cuisines. My poor translating ability has picked up only that it is served boiled with a salsa primarily in west Mexico.

[kare_raisu]

To answer my own question months later....

I finally found a reference to the elusive use of the mountain yam in traditonal Mexican cuisine in a piece by Jonathan Gold of the LA weekly:

"In most circles, Lent is about penance, abstinence, meatless Fridays at a minimum. At La Casita Mexicana, Jaime Martin del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu’s showplace of serious Mexican cooking in Bell, abstinence never had it so good. The weeks before Easter here see feasts based on the traditional Lenten foods of Jalisco and Michoacán, a collection of recipes and produce that rarely makes it to the United States, including a kind of wild yam, camotes del cerro, with the light, slippery crunch of Japanese yama-imo, dipped in egg, fried, and served in a tomato sauce; "
http://www.laweekly.com/eat+drink/cou...

[Steph_gonzalez]

I love Camote del Cerro !!! This is something that when it is in season in my hometown in Mexico man it is the best. it's slimy so you really have to know how to cook it. we always boil it topped with Guava leaves it really brings out the flavor and it gets rid of the sliminess of it. But the way to eat it is after cooking it let it cool and then you just add salt lemon and Chili. I know it sounds simple but man it is the best treat. it can be breaded and added to different chilis but the truth is that where I am from we mostly just eat it at room tempature with the lemon , salt and chili.

[bulavinaka]

The Japanese revere this tuber not only for its culinary assets but for its health benefits - much of it supposedly coming from the sliminess, or "zuru zuru." The same for okra, natto and anything else that is of that texture.

[buttertart]

What a delicious expression for sliminess.

[cgfan]

While "Zuru Zuru" would not be out of context when grinding Yamaimo, the phrase actually refers to the experience of grinding rather than the resulting texture. Because of that it would not refer to Natto or Okra.

"Neba Neba" is the term used to refer to the actual texture of the ground Yamaimo, as well as for Natto and okra or for anything else that is similarly slimy.

[buttertart]

Also nice and onomatopoeic. Must study Japanese.

[bulavinaka]

Please pass this on to my mom - she was born/raised in Hiroshima. "Zuru zuru" is what she calls it - I'm not going to argue with an 80 year-old. :)

[cgfan]

No disrespect was intended in my post, so I hope we're OK on that front.

However as I've said above "Zuru Zuru" indeed is correct when referring to the act of grinding. Perhaps you observed her "Zuru Zuru" comment and took that to refer to the resulting texture rather than to the experience of grinding?

Nevertheless it still stands that "Neba Neba" is the correct reference to the texture of all that is slimy.

BTW here's a very complete on-line resource, though unfortunately it does not provide the Romanized pronunciation of the onomotopoeic words. (I've added the Romanizations myself in the following.) Unfortunately it does not return any search results by defaulting pronunciation, category, and meaning; I was hoping for the complete list of words in their database. However by doing a default search after selecting any specific sub-category it will come up with a huge list of Japanese onomotopoeic words.

http://www.nihongoresources.com/dicti...

Here are my results for "Zuru Zuru" and "Neba Neba":

ずるずる / ズルズル / "Zuru Zuru"
action - trailing, dragging
onomatopoeia - something heavy being dragged or pulled
motions - slide
resultant state - dragging on

ねばねば / ネバネバ / "Neba Neba"
physical state - damp, sticky

While the "translation" given to "Neba Neba" does not explicitly say slimy it's close enough, and I take that it's more the inherent lack of precise agreement with such words that's at play. BTW here are the results of a reverse search under the English meaning "slimy":

ぬめぬめ / ヌメヌメ / "Nume Nume"
sensation - smooth, slimy
physical state - smooth, glossy

ぬらぬら / ヌラヌラ / "Nura Nura"
sensation - slimy and greasy
physical state - slimy, oily

ぬるぬる / ヌルヌル / "Nuru Nuru"
onomatopoeia - greasing, soaping, making slippery
physical state - slimy, slippery

ねるねる / ネルネル / "Neru Neru"
sensation - slimy, slippery
performing an action - slide, slither

[bulavinaka]

Thanks for pulling this up - I'm going over to my mom's place and I'm going to rip her a new one! :) Honestly - no offense taken at all, but that's the word my mom has always used. Maybe it's a Hiroshima thing (Hiroshima folks are notorious for their colloquialisms), or my mom has always had it wrong (thus, so have I).

[cgfan]

Maa maa, iiyo iiyo... :-)

(Well well, it's alright, it's alright...)

[bulavinaka]

Or as my dad would say, "Ii jyanaiyo!"

[buttertart]

Interesting bcs slimy is obviously a valued texture in Japanese cuisine unlike any others at least that I'm aware of. Love the multiple gradations of sliminess so accurately described.

[cgfan]

Kare_raisu, was this in Escondido by chance? I was wondering the same thing some 2 years ago when I spotted some at one of the produce stands at the Escondido Farmer's Market (on the Swap Meet grounds). I was pretty much in disbelief as it looked identical to Yamaimo but never heard of its use in Mexican cooking. I tied to remove my doubts by asking them about it, but alas was not able to sufficiently break the language barrier.

I was trying to describe the varying textures to them to ascertain whether or not it might be the same tuber to no avail.

[kare_raisu]

Wayback when yes. Ive seen it in Mexico City and Guadalajara. Apparently there is some regional dishes in Michoacan using it.