I have recently discovered that I have been using imprecise
names, and probably confused some of you in other parts of the
world where different words are used. For example, I learnt from
reading this that in America, what are called ‘yams’ are really
varieties of sweet potato which have a moist texture. In
contrast, I have been referring to taro as ‘yam’, basically
equating anything we call in Chinese yu4tou3 芋頭 with ‘yam’.
While one could put it down to a combination of my poor plant-
recognition skills and half-baked linguistic ability, I’m not
the only person who equates yu4tou3 芋頭 and ‘yam’; so does this
bilingual food blog from Singapore. And after all, we call
steamed 芋頭糕 yu4tou2gao1 [Mandarin]/ wu tao gou [Cantonese], ‘Yam
Cake’ (and I made some Shredded Yam Cake 芋絲餅). Lily’s Wai Sek
Hong, a Malaysian writing from America helps to unravel the
puzzle with this explanation: In Malaysia, ‘Woo Tau’ in
Cantonese is called YAM but it is TARO here in the States and
yam is sweet potato. Trying to look for bili