check if you can grow them in your state since its considered to be invasive by some, and check your hardiness zone, it can only be grown in zones 9-11, see if anyone is offering any tubers or bulbils
The frozen ones are usually actually ube, especially if it’s product of the Philippines. Any fresh “ube” I know outside of the Philippines is just Okinawan sweet potato
You also see kumara confused with sweet potatoes here in Australia. They are neither a yam nor a sweet potato. Native to New Zealand,they are the tuber of a vine and taste really similar to roast chestnuts.
@@triarb5790 kūmara is sweet potato… the confusion is that sweet potatoes aren’t related to potatoes. kūmara also isn’t native to new zealand, it was introduced by polynesian settlers.
Sweet potato DOES NOT taste anything like ube. I'm saying this as a Filipino myself. They smell very different too. Also, you can't turn sweet potato into ice cream.
A Nigerian from Opobo town in Rivers State in da building and we also call it ube, thought ube is the igbo name for that thing, we use it to eat corn, whether boiled or roasted.
I think ita good if you also include links about Erwan Heusaff's video about UBE, and the importance of protecting its Philippine legacy, because it tends to get watered down when it is not from the Philippines
Really wish the philippines would have like a PDO with ube products like in the EU and Japan, especially since it's such a culturally significant product. Kinda disappointing our government doesnt put resources towards it, especially when NGOs and academic bodies do so much with researching and protecting different endemic ube strains
Even in the Philippines you can’t be sure if you’re buying Ube products. I recently went to Baguio and bought ‘ube chips’ but they’re actually just purple kamote so not the real deal. We do need to have some sort of Authenticity seal for Ube and Ube extract products I think especially since it’s also getting mainstream in the International food scene
@@kuyaleinad4195 diba 😭 i think its because real ube is a lot harder to cultivate compared to other root crops, but theyre much more marketable compared to say kamote etc....its such a shame!
@@aleckcain4142 its true, but at the same time if we just wait for the big problems to get solved first then the little problems would never get attention 😔 It's like saying our ube farmers don't deserve attention and help because other farmers in the philippines dont even have proper land and farming equipment. We could always try to prioritize both
@@aleckcain4142 well, I guess you wouldn't mind other countries to start growing them to make a profit. Other Asians stamp their mark on their products but Pinoys fail in that field.
thanks for letting me know. I thought ube was purple sweet potato. It sounds so similar to ubi in indonesia. ubi = sweet potato. 😥 So I had a reason to be wrong. 😄
Fellow indonesian here. I thought ube was the same as ubi too! Now we know that ube is purple yam and ubi is sweet potato in any color including purple. But that got me thinking.......... so what do we call yams in Bahasa Indonesia?
Aetas, an indigenous group in PH, would plant them and we would buy from folks who directly get it from them. Ube is a LOT heavier and bigger. Like 1kg of Ube would sometimes be just 1 piece of giant ube lol
It's so easy to mix them up unless you grew up knowing ube, or learned it from someone who did. Because even when I google up "ube" I get images of purple sweet potato. I needed to have a filipino colleague confidently tell me what was an ube
Yeah, I’ve noticed this too, as a Nigerian google does this with fufu all the time. From my knowledge, my mom says the airport doesn’t allow us to bring real fufu into America for whatever reason, so no one I’m America most likely for legal reasons have ever really eaten fufu, unless they went to Nigeria to get the real deal. For some reason however, everyone on TikTok will post videos of poundo (or pounded yam) and whatever soup and call it fufu. I can confirm this bc I know the look, texture, and taste of fufu, fufu is like a yellow metallic color and it is smooth and tastes sour, but the people who’ve tried “fufu” all describe it to be fluffy, cloudy white like mashed potatoes, and tastes similar to potatoes, so they’re obviously been eating pounded yam. Also when I search on Google, it would show me a picture of pounded yam and call it fufu and I’m like “nooo that’s wrong”, my friend googled fufu and tried to tell me that I was wrong about what fufu was and I was like slow your role there bud, I’m a Nigerian through and through, born and raised, and google doesn’t know EVERYTHING about us, our languages, our culture, or really about any other culture that isn’t taught explicitly in the history books of the larger nations as intensely as they want you to think, also just bc something isn’t on the internet, or wasn’t recorded down in history, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist or never happened.
@@cyberglutzz.3450 you’re right, I had a friend tell me the same thing about fufu being banned here. That means it must be good for your body if they banned it. They banned marijuana & made you think it was bad for you but it’s the total opposite being the first ALL IN ONE antibiotic, pain reliever and happy pill made “BY NATURE”
Have you seen a ginger grows? It's like a deformed species. Ube grows like that but the size is big that can reach up to five kg. or more in just one dig. The skin's rough and thin. When you pinch it and wounded like blood but in deep purple colour. It's flaky and dry texture when it's cooked. In my place got white color inside but sweeter than purple ube. Some people call yam when it's purple in colour. Got another yam they call it but the leaf is big and look like ornament. Unlike sweet potato and ube, both grow same as like vines. For me it's totally different and once you see it.
But ube looks VERY different from a sweet potatoes. Ube like all yams have blob shaped tubers unlike sweet potatoes whose tubers are pointed at two ends. Yams and sweet potaties are different genus of plants. Even the vines look very different.
a real ube grows really good in bohol island where i grew up .... that's why, i've been eating it since i was a kid ..... we make ube to a snack thing that we fry & put sugar on it when it's cooked ... we also boil it then put some caramel sugar on it ... we make ube candy & it taste really good ... we also make ube jam as a dessert serve during a party or during a town fiesta .... & 1 of the latest creation of ube in our island is "ube calamay" ,it taste pretty much the same as ube jam,but they kind of modernized it a bit (if i were the one say it) taro & ube are closer when it comes to taste, it's just ube is 100X better (for me) .... taro (which we called gabi in our island) grows really good there too .... & lastly,sweet potatoes, there's a different of kinds of sweet potatoes in our island, there's a white one,a yellow one,an orange one & the purple one, that a lot of knuckleheads here on youtube called ube ..... you should try "ube calamay" when you visit bohol island .... bcuz it's nice ..... 😂🤣😂🤣-🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪
Here in the US we use yam and sweet potatoes interchangeably honestly most people here don’t know the difference between the vegetables for a long time I thought yam was just an old term for sweet potato 😅
The funniest thing to me is that everyone in North America calls them "sweet potato fries" except when I was working in a kitchen, because "yam fries" is a much easier order to shout during a rush hahaha
@@awsomnessnoveiws you're not correct on either of those. Genetically and culturally there are differences between yams and sweets, AND between turnips and swedes. What a strange thing to choose another incorrect example to try and prove your point.
Not to be confused with "purple sweet potato" which also has purple flesh but a darker reddish brown skin vs. the lighter "Okinawa sweet potato" tan skin. **Both** of which are not to be confused with Ube, apparently. It's ... confusing. ;) Still haven't found anywhere that sells actual Ube, here locally. though I know of at least one place you can get both Okinawa & Purple sweet potatoes.
They're not getting it wrong. The problem is that you're looking for a specific species, Dioscorea alata, but the word "yam" is a catch-all word for various kinds of vegetables that fit the mold. Anything sweet potato like is a yam, including ube, sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas), taro (Colocasia esculenta), oca (Oxalis tuberosa), and konjacs (Amorphophallus konjac). These are plants that aren't necessarily closely related, but they can all be called yams. Any purple variants or breeds would therefore be called "purple yams". A yam is just a word for any vegetable that's got a tough potato-like exterior with a starchy potato-like inside but isn't an actual potato (well, I haven't seen blue potatoes called yams yet. I wonder if there are inner-red or orange variants that have?)
@@luvya143ful Similar, yet not the same. Ñame (Ube, purple yam) has a rough outside like cassava. I do get why it's said that it is the same but it is a bit different, there's a lot of different vegetable roots
You ought to use it to make sweet potato casserole. I think it will work. We use orange sweet potato 🍠. Boil or bake till fork tender. You just put butter and I think a little condensed milk could def go in . Mash mash mash. Then put in deepish baking dish Top with pecan brown sugar crumble. ( Butter brown sugar, pecans), nice and thick! Make sure pecans are pieces. Not whole. Bake 350 for 30-45 mins covered with foil, uncover for last 7-10 mins. Thanksgiving 🦃🍽️ is served. Sorta😂
Kūmara in New Zealand Māori 😊 Just a little random fact for you, Kūmara or sweet potato are originally from South America, it puzzles scientists who can see through our Polynesian genetics that we are descended from South East Asian, hence why our languages share similar traits to Tagalog and especially Malay. I have my own theory that our ancestors were searching for new lands and happened upon some South Americans who they traded with. This would've been during the peak of the Polynesian Maritime era, before Māori in New Zealand blocked ourselves off. (I suppose without the ability to go back in time, we'll probably never know how the Kūmara got to Polynesia) I don't know if other Polynesian people cultivated the Kūmara to the extent that Māori did. It was a staple food for the Māori while other pacific nations cultivated the taro as a staple. While the taro grew albeit a heck of a lot more slowly in our cold climate and was primarily reserved for Ariki or chiefs. Coconuts, Pineapple, Breadfruit and Maika were also unable to be cultivated due to the frosts of Winter and Spring cold. Cultivation techniques were developed to help preserve food over the cold winters we get here. They were stored in pits that were hollowed out in the shape of a hockey stick which would keep them aerated and dry throughout our wet winters. Some tribes were called Kaikiore or Rat eaters which was perfectly safe because the Polynesian rat (As well as the Polynesian dog) both had vegetarian diets. Did Hawaiians eat Kiore and Dog as well? I know Tongans and Cook Islanders did but I've always found it hard to find Hawaiian history in ebook form, do you know of any good books I could read? Preferably written by Kanaka Maoli but it's okay it's been written by Pākehā/Haole. Sometimes they were better equipped to record history, though I far prefer reading the works of Native writers, especially where Genealogy is concerned. Shit so sorry for going off on a tangent 😂 I've got a strong desire to preserve our culture and encourage all Polynesian people to participate in the preservation of our languages and the oral histories told by our old people who were in turn told by their old people and so on and so forth going all the way back to when those events transpired 😊 ❤
@@patrickbueno3279 Yup it doesn't snow in the North Island unless you live right up by the mountains (Which sadly I do 😂) but if you live in the southern part of the South Island there's usually always some snow in July/August and sometimes even as late as October. When I was living in Auckland, the winters were very mild while the summertime heat could become a little overwhelming. Despite how small our country is, there's about three different climates. The far north is semi sub tropical. Then you have the alpine climate in mountainous areas and the mild oceanic climate in the majority of other places
Those purple yams are delicious! I love the beige colored Japanese sweet potato as well. It’s like eating sweet potato pie but without all the sugar. Awesome healthy snacks
Yep, Many people are getting confused by ube and sweet potato but if you're a gal that lives in a province like me, you'll easily identify the difference between those two lol
So I keep getting confused because my dang asian grocery ALSO gets it confused. Thank you for explaining clearly bc now I know the real ube got the rougher darker outside and is super purple once cut
@@DJbassrevolution definitely not - YOU the one sounding dense family ::: potatoes (all kinds) have usually lighter but always smoother skin and yams (all kinds) have usually darker but always rough like tree bark skin .. It Is That Simple
I'm a farmer and I share your pain. I grow ube for the local market in the Philippines and actually the one who constantly comments on TH-cam videos that what they're eating is not ube but purple sweet potatoes instead.
@@theuniverseisme432 They do actually put Scientific names on things if you know where to look. A lot of herbalists and seed sellers use them. herbal teas also commonly include scientific names. I'll grant you that doing this for all products would be difficult and overkill. my point was more I hate getting the wrong thing because of common names overlapping which has happened to me a bunch of times (For instance there are two main types of Chamomile used for tea: Roman and German and they are not only different species but different genera.)
My guess would be to go in person to get such a specialized food because as you said even the store doesn’t know what it is. I know as an instacart shopper I’d be clueless but I’d also research it to get it for my customer.
Fun Fact: Ube, meaning tuber in Tagalog, is a purple yam originally from the Philippines. Different than the purple sweet potato, it has an even sweeter, more mellow taste than its orange relative. I Hope you can find one 🇵🇭
Most people don't know that sweet potato and yams aren't the same thing. You can't expect them to know the difference between ube and a purple sweet potato.
I definitely understand this, because as an African-American, we sometimes make yam pies, and sometimes we make white sweet potato pies.. they’re not the same lol… in addition, when I buy plantains through grocery delivery, I cannot tell you how many times they bring me a fucking unripened, Chiquita banana! And I am so pissed off because that is not what the hell I asked for😂
Most people working in the produce department of the store, and especially the people who pick the orders for pickup, have no clue the difference between a plantain and a banana or a yam and a sweet potato. If it's labeled as a plantain, that's what you're getting. It's more a problem of suppliers mislabelling products which I tend to believe often happens because a product is in demand and they don't have it, so they send some purple sweet potatoes labeled as ube knowing nobody will know the difference.
Dude like me workin at the store just saw they looked similar and did his job to his best degree 🤣 then goes home and wonders why some lady came up to him asking for purple yams 💀
People who said Ube is from the Philippines, it's between Yes and No. Ube can be found in other Southeast Asian countries but Filipinos created Ube HALAYA, the one people mostly used for desserts. Technically Filipinos created the Ube flavor, not the tuber itself but we must protect it before other countries claim the flavor as "theirs" now that Ube is becoming more popular. Our Government never cares a thing :/
@@yelanchiba8818 that root crop has been part of our culture for hundreds of years. Just because it's not important to you, it's not important for anyone else. The Aitas deserves recognition for the hardwork they put into these crops.
@@yelanchiba8818 this is such an unhelpful thing to add to a conversation. I could name any problem and you’d say “oh but there’s a bigger problem” So what???
Hello i'm from Indonesia idk where these tubers originality comes from but in Indonesia we have it too, for the first one with black skin in my Region it's called Hui pronounce (Hooe) and the second one is called Ubi or in the Philippines Ube, I'm from Sundanese one of the ethnic group in indonesia the word Hui is from Sundanese while in Indonesian we call it Ubi Ungu (Purple Ubi) while Ubi in Sundanese we call it Mantang we have so much Varieties of ubi theres yellow, white, and orange atleast that's what i know maybe much more. the difference is that Hui bear fruit on trees that vines above the trees while Ubi are underground and yeah in my Sundanese Region we have one popular Ubi "Ubi Cilembu" or they usually call it Honey Ubi it's ordinary Ubi with orange flesh like honey they bake it in the oven it's so sweet with the chewy texture Sorry for grammatical error English is not my first language my mother tongue is Sundanese
@@namjoonsshysmile5777 oooOh it's interesting there are other Ube in different colors as well ^°^ I know they're in other countries, I did said they're from other countries like Southeast Asia, we don't want credit for the tuber itself but the "flavor" of Ube. The Ube that was mostly familiar with ( either by desserts like ice cream, cake, cookies, bread etc. ) the taste, it's richness and ingredients came from the Ube Halaya jam.
Fun fact. People just use purple sweet potato or “gabi” to make ube halaya with flavoring. Ube is just very rare to find in the wet markets and groceries. So businesses use alternatives. It doesn’t even matter since the taste is identical. 😋😋
That's just what my mom teaches us. We're Dominican but a lot of our sweets have different ingredients. So my mom made Jalea de Batata last month. But unfortunately she had to dump the whole caldero/huge pot of it! Because they sold her the wrong Sweet Potato! She had cooked it and everything 😭😭😭❤️🔥 P.S. The way you opened that purple sweet potato reminded me of the way my mom has us break open Yucca to check if it's good 😂
@@katstephenson8493 No worries, actually it's the Yucca Root. "Yucca" is what we call it in Spanish but actually it's a type of Cassava Root (from the Cassava Plant or manioc)!
Ube purple yam is both purple, outside and purple inside. What she has is commonly known as 'okinawan' purple yam. Grown in Hawaii. Most importers get real ube but it's likely to dry to grow when you get it. Most importers use ube powder. However depending on the season you might get real ube.
But that is "Okinawan" sweet potato' not yams. Yams like ube are a different genus altogether. The roots of yams are big and shaped like blobs. Their leaves are pointier than sweet potatoes and are not edible unlike sweet potato leaves since they have more cyanide in them. Yams are also aerial vines that cling to trees. Sweet potatoes stay on the ground like true potatoes. Why america calls sweet potatoes "yams" is very weird. It's like calling an apple "orange".
@@3にゃーんHonestly I think its just a lack of knowledge. I'm American and I do hear people use them interchangeably. I have no clue why people do this other than they just don't know there's a difference between the two.
I've been wanting to try ube for awhile now. I think my options to get something from a place next to me would be an ube mochi, donut, or drink. On the listt.
Just the fact of the way you worded this, saying I'm sitting here on my butt, made me laugh. That sounds so much like something I would say, here in Jersey, and I would be proud to call you friend....🤣🤣🤣 you are awesome and it sounds like you grew up around here!😊 keep being you!
Working in produce and being a fan of taro, ube, and purple sweet potato for different dishes made me go deep diving for info so I can better inform people who come looking. 😅
It’s probably not them not knowing what it is but trying to bank on the popularity of ube when fresh ube is banned in the mainland United States due to it being crazy invasive
I think the reason for the grocery store mixup is that “yam” and “sweet potato” are often used interchangeably in the US. Even looking up the difference between a sweet potato and a yam, you’ll find opposing results from many US based sites. Bon Appétite had a good article about the differences though, if anyone reading this comment wants to learn the basic differences.
To be fair in the US, they don’t know the difference between yams and sweet potatoes in the store. Yams are always sweet potatoes when you buy them from the store.
I love it when my mom could get her hands on some. We used to work in the same building and she would steam em up for us to eat on the way to work or in the cafeteria. Perfect breakfast!
Ube is a type of purple yam a subspecies evolved to live in very hot dry climates so less juice and what is inside is very concentrated because it’s not watered down the colour the flavour everything but yes less sugar because sugar is made from photosynthesis the ube uses almost only photosynthesis to feed itself as there’s not a lot of water sweet potato stores the sugars. Some trees like maple store extra sugars into a syrup because they have to live in freezing temps and syrup doesn’t freeze so basically if you grew ube outside of its native lands or even in its native lands but without natural enviroments (with extra water) it becomes much more like a purple sweet potato. Imported versus locally grown is the basic difference
Same in Canada. One vlogger I watched before said they call Sweet Potatoes as Yams. :) he defended himself after the Filipinos went after him for claiming he has easy access to ube... Then shows off his canned yams! LOL!
Yes, those are known as Hawaiian sweet potatoes. The Asian grocery stores in my area name them accordingly. There are many variations of purple yams and purple sweet potatoes throughout Southeast Asia. The name Ube was given by the Philippines
AKA, "Okinawa Sweet Potatoes." Which are themselves different from "Purple Sweet Potatoes" which have a darker skin than "Okinawa Sweet Potatoes" but basically the same deep purple flesh when cooked. And both of which are different from Ube, apparently.
It's crazy to me how often this gets messed up. I work at a grocery store in the front end department but I've worked produce before so I always notice when they mix yams and sweet potatoes. At one point someone thought Serranos were Jalapeños, that was pushing it lol
Malaysian call ubi ( u- bee). purple yam - ubi keladi purple (ungu). Sweet potato - ubi keledek. A lot of ubi in ASEAN country. Ubi keledek - sweet potato Ubi kayu - tapioca Ubi keladi - yam Ubi badak (rhino) Ubi itik(duck) Ubi kentang (potato) Ubi keling (small, black skin) . . .
Yes I notice this in America for alot of vegetables and fruits and it's not where they use different names its known by as that's ok but where it's literally the wrong Vegetable literally ! So some people say I don't like this vegetable because of a reason then I realise it wasn't the vegetable at all .. they should be more careful with such because some use a thing for a porridge or a pone and the menu is all wrong because it wasn't the correct produce and not that they cooked it wrongly
Finally, someone speaks the truth 😍 I grow up eating these foods so I know the difference and taste. It irritates me when they mislabeled the names. Saying it's the same when it's too different in texture and colors.
Ube is way tastier than ANY sweet potato variety. It's very nutty and sweet in flavor and becomes chewy like sticky rice when ground up and cooked. And the aroma is very delicious smelling. Sweet potatoes are bland and tends to be grainy and dry when cooked. There's a reason ube is expensive in the Philippines and sweet potatoes are mostly fed to pigs as fodder. Everyone in the Philippines see sweet potatoes as the stereotype for cheapness or bad quality and Also prejorative terms "kamote" "kinamote" or "nakamote" And before you say that certain sweet potatoes are superior like the Japanese yellow or purple varieties, then you would be laughed at here in the Philippines since those varieties are also widely cultivated here. Those are not even the tastiest varieties since the Philippine orange sweet potatoes are sweeter. Those have the white skin and orange meat and they are sweet, but Never as sweet or aromatic as ube.
some comments here says they are interchangeable but why?! they don't taste the same, I cant imagine a purple sweet potato jam even though it's my favourite variation (orange sweet potato is the 2nd). Ube is just different, it will always be my favourite cake, shake or ice cream flavour
Agreed. How the hell is Ube the same as the average sweet potato. Ube also have a different texture. I like Ube more than sweet potatoes so I know how strikingly different it is.
You are lucky to get purple sweet potatoes. I can’t find it here in the Midwest. Never seen one in person. Still waiting to make a purple sweet potato pie. Goals.
The purple yams actually taste exactly like ube if u steam it right. The shade looks like light purple with white center before steaming. After steaming long, the entire inside will be DARK purple, thick, and rich in flavor.
I love Ube ice cream! I’m thinking of making ube cookies for my husband. We stumbled upon Ube out of one of our Boksu boxes and haven’t looked back since! 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Purple is my favourite colour and sweet potato is my favourite veggie so I always get purple sweet potato if I can get it. I roast them letting the natural sugars caramelize.
I beg to disagree, maybe if it's out of season, of course you can't see it, unless it's not really produced in your localities or not usually consumed by folks in that certain marketplace, which is common in Cities and urban areas far from it's source farms, like Metro Manila Cities whose usually consumed Ube Products that's already processed into powder, liquid extract or jam.
Maybe go to an asian market/supermarket, not only east asian but all inclusive asian because ube is a staple in a lot of southeast asian countries. Here in Indonesia, ube isn't only purple but people only know purple ube because it's the most interesting color. There are lots of ubes here and we just call them purple ube, orange ube, yellow ube, or just the original ube which is white ish 👍
the states always calls sweet potatoes yams. not sure why. thankfully in the Caribbean and Asia we learned about our food at a young age, so we know what we're eating.
Cool. I've heard that purple sweet potatoes may be partly responsible for some people in a blue zone that live longer then anyone else. 😂❤ They look yummy anyways
^-^ I work in a grocery store. The whole food distributor we work with actually lists it as Okinawan Purple Yam so that has always been what we listed it as. We have never referred to it as Ube and don't advertise it as Ube. When a customer comes and asks for Ube we will tell them we don't sell Ube.
This problem is not exclusive to places outside the Philippines. Some vendors either underestimate the consumers’ intelligence or they lack intelligence themselves.
It's easy to tell the difference though both are purple colour. One is super soft and breaks down easily and is at least 3 times cheaper. The real ones remain intact no matter how long you boil them and is a lot more pricy. The skin colour is not white but purplish and a lot sweeter.
So satisfying to see this. I hate how us based influencers make ube content with purple sweet potato. Watching them share Ube information tidbits while showing/holding purple sweet potato makes my blood boil tbh
like i’m all for the facts but i’d just sit there going “sweet potato sweet potato” 😭. like come on y’all clearly did research for tidbits you couldn’t search what they looked like?
This video was so confusing for me, because our family (Chinese) eats ube all the time, but we call it a purple yam just cause. I didn’t know there were actual purple sweet potatoes 😅
Never seen it, and yes, we have looked, too. My wife still likes the purple sweet potato for other things but even that is seasonal. For real ube we have to buy it frozen in Houston where our nearest Filipino market is.
Perception is more important than reality and sadly this is how most of the world works in all areas. I’m a pastry chef ( worked at restaurants and groceries)and I confronted and argued with management and corporate over false names and descriptions on a variety of products and they didn’t care . They basically said they are banking on the fact that people are stupid and don’t know things. This has been a similar view at both small independent places and large corporate businesses. The people that actually know and care are few.
Ube looks like cassava on the outside. As someone who loves cassava (yam) and doesn’t care for sweet potatoes I would have to agree with Jenelle, there’s a difference!
Yes, I didn’t even get any purple and paid the price for it. While this is Alaska and very much is catered towards an international population there are still limitations for some things.I’ve never seen either of what you just showed; the yam or sweet potato.
Most people don't even care, I'm glad that there are people who care to keep recipes as original as possible. The ube root (yam) is from Asia, while sweet potatoes are from South America I believe- it's pretty different.
Hawaii we call it ‘uhi …mountain yam is the local name in English. Has flavor like kalo(taro) when underground cooked. Different varieties out there in world, with one thing in common. Gods food
If you’re getting home delivery, you are depending upon the shopper to know what he or she is doing. If they’ve been doing it for a while, they probably are pretty good at it, but everyone makes mistakes. This is a case of if you want it done right, you’re going to have to do it yourself.
Oooh my God. I am so happy you explained it. As a child my mom made soup with , we call it Napi. And it is rough and ads it's own flavour to the soup. Now i know they sell me sweet potatoes. I told my husband many many times it is not the Napi fròm those days. Nèxt time i shop i will çheck for the frozen one. Thank you❤❤❤
In kerala we called Kaachil😍 I love this simply peel off skin and boiled with salt after drain the salt water just put some coconut oil and mix eat with kattan chaya (black tea) 🤤 its from our land its self and there is white, purple, purple white mix varieties are there😍
Closest thing I would've say is Ube=tapioca family, because that's what we ate throughout my childhood. In Malaysia we called it ubi kayu, and I think Indonesia called it singkong
I can get not ube but a similar yam at a local market in the northeast. Your best bet is it to live in LA, though. Also, instacart people tend to have trouble with specific and unusual requests.
As someone who has experienced planting and cultivating it, ube is very, very different from purple sweet potato. Aside from what Jeanelleats said, ube is hard to cut because of the dagta (sticky "sap"). It is darker in color, and it takes way longer to boil (it's way harder than swamp taro). I know someone who makes ube halaya occassionally for fiestas and she usually spends three hours boiling two kilos of ube and another three hours to mash them. This is why roasted sweet potato is a thing but not roasted ube.
Finally. Thanks Janelle for shedding light on this. It really annoys me out of my wits when professional chefs and tiktok chefs claim purple Sweet Potato as Purple Yam!
Reminds me of when I went to a grocery store in a small town near me looking for matzah. They had no idea what that was. That surprised me, as they have no issue with that in my neighborhood only about 20 minutes away.
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🍠 Does anyone know where I can get real ube root in the mainland US? I would like to plant some thank youuu
Search for ñame(niame) lila its the same thing i think.
Ube is considered invasive that why you can't get fresh uhe in the US. Fresh is banned.
check if you can grow them in your state since its considered to be invasive by some, and check your hardiness zone, it can only be grown in zones 9-11, see if anyone is offering any tubers or bulbils
They know what ube is, they are just scamming people
Tri Ocean Market in Denver has what I believe is real ube but is called Purple
Ñame. It looks just like real ube!
The frozen ones are usually actually ube, especially if it’s product of the Philippines. Any fresh “ube” I know outside of the Philippines is just Okinawan sweet potato
Okinawa is a real place???
@@Ali-fb5km you’re joking right…?
@@Omnipotent_Azathoth I have to be honest, no
@@Ali-fb5km oh!
@@Ali-fb5km to clarify, yes, Okinawa is a real place.
The US has been calling yams "sweet potatoes", and vice versa for decades.
Some people don’t know the difference as a black woman we know it’s mostly yt people who are confused
@She-She shares lol black people get them mixed up all the time too what are you talking about
You also see kumara confused with sweet potatoes here in Australia. They are neither a yam nor a sweet potato. Native to New Zealand,they are the tuber of a vine and taste really similar to roast chestnuts.
@@triarb5790 I'm 0 years old today learning what a kumara is. Never heard of it as I'm from SE Asia. Greetings
@@triarb5790 kūmara is sweet potato… the confusion is that sweet potatoes aren’t related to potatoes. kūmara also isn’t native to new zealand, it was introduced by polynesian settlers.
That's because in America yam and sweet potatoes are used interchangeably. A lot of people don't realize that they're 2 different things.
Yeah I searched it up and it said what she called a sweet potato is a yam so I’m confused now 😂
Sweet potato DOES NOT taste anything like ube. I'm saying this as a Filipino myself. They smell very different too.
Also, you can't turn sweet potato into ice cream.
Oh thats strange! I know yam is a type of sweet potato, but considering we dont even call them that here in NZ that sounds so confusing 😭
@@Nerodotnet Yam is not a type of sweet potato. they are two different plants.
I don't like yam because it's bit bland but i love sweet potato🥰but its first time seeing purple ones
I never knew purple things like this existed. It's so pretty. This world is so wonderful
And the purple veggies are packed with nutrients so thats another bonus. Purple carrots, potatoes, asparagus, cauliflower, rice, ect
Ok but the world also has just as many god awful things.
🧢
What about red cabbage? It's purple
@@malcador how there nothing op could of lied about
In Nigeria, there's a fruit we call Ube. It's usually purple in color too. Interesting!
My fellow Nigerian😍
What does it taste like?
@@royabrown8774a mix between an avocado and a pear. It can be roasted or boiled. Its buttery and savory in flavor.
A Nigerian from Opobo town in Rivers State in da building and we also call it ube, thought ube is the igbo name for that thing, we use it to eat corn, whether boiled or roasted.
Our own dear Ube. Eat ube with ọkà (maize). Yummy. Full of healthy oils. ❤️❤️❤️
I think ita good if you also include links about Erwan Heusaff's video about UBE, and the importance of protecting its Philippine legacy, because it tends to get watered down when it is not from the Philippines
i love that video! actually cited a lot of it for my term paper i just did for my botany elective.
@@kaitlinsaide6897 you cited a TH-cam video as reference?
@@gordonchristophertubo3164 you could actually do that. I also cited one for mine. Just make sure that your video is credible.
@@ansellouie9100 i mean, i could technically eat raw pork but i wouldn't do it though 😂
@@gordonchristophertubo3164 ? Makes no sense
Really wish the philippines would have like a PDO with ube products like in the EU and Japan, especially since it's such a culturally significant product. Kinda disappointing our government doesnt put resources towards it, especially when NGOs and academic bodies do so much with researching and protecting different endemic ube strains
Even in the Philippines you can’t be sure if you’re buying Ube products. I recently went to Baguio and bought ‘ube chips’ but they’re actually just purple kamote so not the real deal.
We do need to have some sort of Authenticity seal for Ube and Ube extract products I think especially since it’s also getting mainstream in the International food scene
@@kuyaleinad4195 diba 😭 i think its because real ube is a lot harder to cultivate compared to other root crops, but theyre much more marketable compared to say kamote etc....its such a shame!
The Philippines has a lot more to focus on than protecting a root vegetable's integrity
@@aleckcain4142 its true, but at the same time if we just wait for the big problems to get solved first then the little problems would never get attention 😔
It's like saying our ube farmers don't deserve attention and help because other farmers in the philippines dont even have proper land and farming equipment. We could always try to prioritize both
@@aleckcain4142 well, I guess you wouldn't mind other countries to start growing them to make a profit. Other Asians stamp their mark on their products but Pinoys fail in that field.
thanks for letting me know. I thought ube was purple sweet potato. It sounds so similar to ubi in indonesia. ubi = sweet potato. 😥 So I had a reason to be wrong. 😄
Philippines could be distant relatives with Indonesia and Malaysia. Some of our words are similar in meaning 😊
Fellow indonesian here. I thought ube was the same as ubi too! Now we know that ube is purple yam and ubi is sweet potato in any color including purple.
But that got me thinking.......... so what do we call yams in Bahasa Indonesia?
@@MelodyAlfyam= keladi/ talas
You’re right, for being wrong, lol ☺️.
sweet potatoes with different color including purple we called it "kamote"
Aetas, an indigenous group in PH, would plant them and we would buy from folks who directly get it from them. Ube is a LOT heavier and bigger. Like 1kg of Ube would sometimes be just 1 piece of giant ube lol
It's so easy to mix them up unless you grew up knowing ube, or learned it from someone who did. Because even when I google up "ube" I get images of purple sweet potato. I needed to have a filipino colleague confidently tell me what was an ube
Yeah, I’ve noticed this too, as a Nigerian google does this with fufu all the time. From my knowledge, my mom says the airport doesn’t allow us to bring real fufu into America for whatever reason, so no one I’m America most likely for legal reasons have ever really eaten fufu, unless they went to Nigeria to get the real deal. For some reason however, everyone on TikTok will post videos of poundo (or pounded yam) and whatever soup and call it fufu. I can confirm this bc I know the look, texture, and taste of fufu, fufu is like a yellow metallic color and it is smooth and tastes sour, but the people who’ve tried “fufu” all describe it to be fluffy, cloudy white like mashed potatoes, and tastes similar to potatoes, so they’re obviously been eating pounded yam. Also when I search on Google, it would show me a picture of pounded yam and call it fufu and I’m like “nooo that’s wrong”, my friend googled fufu and tried to tell me that I was wrong about what fufu was and I was like slow your role there bud, I’m a Nigerian through and through, born and raised, and google doesn’t know EVERYTHING about us, our languages, our culture, or really about any other culture that isn’t taught explicitly in the history books of the larger nations as intensely as they want you to think, also just bc something isn’t on the internet, or wasn’t recorded down in history, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist or never happened.
@@cyberglutzz.3450 you’re right, I had a friend tell me the same thing about fufu being banned here. That means it must be good for your body if they banned it. They banned marijuana & made you think it was bad for you but it’s the total opposite being the first ALL IN ONE antibiotic, pain reliever and happy pill made “BY NATURE”
Have you seen a ginger grows? It's like a deformed species. Ube grows like that but the size is big that can reach up to five kg. or more in just one dig. The skin's rough and thin. When you pinch it and wounded like blood but in deep purple colour. It's flaky and dry texture when it's cooked. In my place got white color inside but sweeter than purple ube. Some people call yam when it's purple in colour. Got another yam they call it but the leaf is big and look like ornament. Unlike sweet potato and ube, both grow same as like vines. For me it's totally different and once you see it.
But ube looks VERY different from a sweet potatoes.
Ube like all yams have blob shaped tubers unlike sweet potatoes whose tubers are pointed at two ends.
Yams and sweet potaties are different genus of plants.
Even the vines look very different.
a real ube grows really good in bohol island where i grew up .... that's why, i've been eating it since i was a kid ..... we make ube to a snack thing that we fry & put sugar on it when it's cooked ... we also boil it then put some caramel sugar on it ... we make ube candy & it taste really good ... we also make ube jam as a dessert serve during a party or during a town fiesta .... & 1 of the latest creation of ube in our island is "ube calamay" ,it taste pretty much the same as ube jam,but they kind of modernized it a bit (if i were the one say it) taro & ube are closer when it comes to taste, it's just ube is 100X better (for me) .... taro (which we called gabi in our island) grows really good there too .... & lastly,sweet potatoes, there's a different of kinds of sweet potatoes in our island, there's a white one,a yellow one,an orange one & the purple one, that a lot of knuckleheads here on youtube called ube ..... you should try "ube calamay" when you visit bohol island .... bcuz it's nice ..... 😂🤣😂🤣-🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪
Here in the US we use yam and sweet potatoes interchangeably honestly most people here don’t know the difference between the vegetables for a long time I thought yam was just an old term for sweet potato 😅
I thought this too until rn
Literally thought that until she brought it up.
“This isn’t a yam, it’s a purple sweet potato”
Ma’am…… you just said “it’s not that because it is”
Yam is just another term for sweet potatoes. You are correct there is literally no difference. Kind of like how turnips are also called rutabaga.
The funniest thing to me is that everyone in North America calls them "sweet potato fries" except when I was working in a kitchen, because "yam fries" is a much easier order to shout during a rush hahaha
@@awsomnessnoveiws you're not correct on either of those. Genetically and culturally there are differences between yams and sweets, AND between turnips and swedes. What a strange thing to choose another incorrect example to try and prove your point.
I don't think I could ever trust a stranger to select my produce.
That is an okinawa sweet purple sweet potato. A japanese variant sweet tater. They also get labeled as hawaiian as well
Not to be confused with "purple sweet potato" which also has purple flesh but a darker reddish brown skin vs. the lighter "Okinawa sweet potato" tan skin.
**Both** of which are not to be confused with Ube, apparently.
It's ... confusing. ;) Still haven't found anywhere that sells actual Ube, here locally. though I know of at least one place you can get both Okinawa & Purple sweet potatoes.
Okinawan sweet potato as a staple among Okinawans is thought to be a contributor to their longevity.
Ube has such a beautiful, deep and gorgeous purple!
They're not getting it wrong. The problem is that you're looking for a specific species, Dioscorea alata, but the word "yam" is a catch-all word for various kinds of vegetables that fit the mold. Anything sweet potato like is a yam, including ube, sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas), taro (Colocasia esculenta), oca (Oxalis tuberosa), and konjacs (Amorphophallus konjac). These are plants that aren't necessarily closely related, but they can all be called yams. Any purple variants or breeds would therefore be called "purple yams". A yam is just a word for any vegetable that's got a tough potato-like exterior with a starchy potato-like inside but isn't an actual potato (well, I haven't seen blue potatoes called yams yet. I wonder if there are inner-red or orange variants that have?)
Wow your so knowledgeable🤯🤓🧐
I was thinking the same, Yam is Sweet potatoes right?
Oh I always thought yams were just those little red things lol
Wow I need this for the next party I’m at when I’m feeling socially anxious
@@luvya143ful Similar, yet not the same. Ñame (Ube, purple yam) has a rough outside like cassava. I do get why it's said that it is the same but it is a bit different, there's a lot of different vegetable roots
The purple sweet potato is so delicious and sweet! I eat it with condensed milk. So delicious
I make biscuits with them, so good 🤤
How do you prepare it, that sounds amazing?
You ought to use it to make sweet potato casserole. I think it will work. We use orange sweet potato 🍠. Boil or bake till fork tender.
You just put butter and I think a little condensed milk could def go in . Mash mash mash. Then put in deepish baking dish
Top with pecan brown sugar crumble. ( Butter brown sugar, pecans), nice and thick! Make sure pecans are pieces. Not whole.
Bake 350 for 30-45 mins covered with foil, uncover for last 7-10 mins.
Thanksgiving 🦃🍽️ is served.
Sorta😂
In Hawaii the purple sweet potato is called ʻuala and it’s one of my favorites!
Kūmara in New Zealand Māori 😊 Just a little random fact for you, Kūmara or sweet potato are originally from South America, it puzzles scientists who can see through our Polynesian genetics that we are descended from South East Asian, hence why our languages share similar traits to Tagalog and especially Malay.
I have my own theory that our ancestors were searching for new lands and happened upon some South Americans who they traded with. This would've been during the peak of the Polynesian Maritime era, before Māori in New Zealand blocked ourselves off. (I suppose without the ability to go back in time, we'll probably never know how the Kūmara got to Polynesia) I don't know if other Polynesian people cultivated the Kūmara to the extent that Māori did. It was a staple food for the Māori while other pacific nations cultivated the taro as a staple. While the taro grew albeit a heck of a lot more slowly in our cold climate and was primarily reserved for Ariki or chiefs. Coconuts, Pineapple, Breadfruit and Maika were also unable to be cultivated due to the frosts of Winter and Spring cold.
Cultivation techniques were developed to help preserve food over the cold winters we get here. They were stored in pits that were hollowed out in the shape of a hockey stick which would keep them aerated and dry throughout our wet winters. Some tribes were called Kaikiore or Rat eaters which was perfectly safe because the Polynesian rat (As well as the Polynesian dog) both had vegetarian diets. Did Hawaiians eat Kiore and Dog as well? I know Tongans and Cook Islanders did but I've always found it hard to find Hawaiian history in ebook form, do you know of any good books I could read? Preferably written by Kanaka Maoli but it's okay it's been written by Pākehā/Haole. Sometimes they were better equipped to record history, though I far prefer reading the works of Native writers, especially where Genealogy is concerned.
Shit so sorry for going off on a tangent 😂 I've got a strong desire to preserve our culture and encourage all Polynesian people to participate in the preservation of our languages and the oral histories told by our old people who were in turn told by their old people and so on and so forth going all the way back to when those events transpired 😊 ❤
@@CallemJayNZ wait, new Zealand have winters? I thought it's tropical in there, due to them being always pictured as sunny
@@patrickbueno3279 Yup it doesn't snow in the North Island unless you live right up by the mountains (Which sadly I do 😂) but if you live in the southern part of the South Island there's usually always some snow in July/August and sometimes even as late as October. When I was living in Auckland, the winters were very mild while the summertime heat could become a little overwhelming. Despite how small our country is, there's about three different climates. The far north is semi sub tropical. Then you have the alpine climate in mountainous areas and the mild oceanic climate in the majority of other places
Those purple yams are delicious! I love the beige colored Japanese sweet potato as well. It’s like eating sweet potato pie but without all the sugar. Awesome healthy snacks
So you ordered the most specific and uncommon thing and are surprised they got it wrong
Yep, Many people are getting confused by ube and sweet potato but if you're a gal that lives in a province like me, you'll easily identify the difference between those two lol
Whats the difference
@@BakedBuddy She literally says it in the video
@@raerohan4241 you right
@@raerohan4241 Ube taste ALOT better
@@BakedBuddy Ube has a darker shade on the outside that it should looked like a lighter shade of the soil ;)
So I keep getting confused because my dang asian grocery ALSO gets it confused. Thank you for explaining clearly bc now I know the real ube got the rougher darker outside and is super purple once cut
ube root is also 100x bigger than all sweet potato varieties. Not hard to differentiate at all
I have been lied too all these years ate what I thought my asian grandmother called purple "sweet potato" but it was actually ube all this time lol
@@Deathdealer141 sweet potatos are yams this lady is just dense
@@DJbassrevolution definitely not - YOU the one sounding dense family ::: potatoes (all kinds) have usually lighter but always smoother skin and yams (all kinds) have usually darker but always rough like tree bark skin .. It Is That Simple
@@DJbassrevolution the irony in your statement... Holy shit ..
As a plant biologist, I feel your pain. This is why scientific names are important, as it cuts ut this kind of silliness
No ones putting scientific names on packages. I think you just wanted a chance to mention you’re a plant biologist. 😂😂
well I hope they simplify scientific names. Scientific names are hard to pronouce, hard to memorize, hard to spell.
it identifies as ube though. ube is a spectrum
I'm a farmer and I share your pain.
I grow ube for the local market in the Philippines and actually the one who constantly comments on TH-cam videos that what they're eating is not ube but purple sweet potatoes instead.
@@theuniverseisme432 They do actually put Scientific names on things if you know where to look. A lot of herbalists and seed sellers use them. herbal teas also commonly include scientific names. I'll grant you that doing this for all products would be difficult and overkill. my point was more I hate getting the wrong thing because of common names overlapping which has happened to me a bunch of times (For instance there are two main types of Chamomile used for tea: Roman and German and they are not only different species but different genera.)
Yeah, there’s a lot of false advertising/mislabeling of ube. It’s quite annoying
My guess would be to go in person to get such a specialized food because as you said even the store doesn’t know what it is. I know as an instacart shopper I’d be clueless but I’d also research it to get it for my customer.
Fun Fact: Ube, meaning tuber in Tagalog, is a purple yam originally from the Philippines. Different than the purple sweet potato, it has an even sweeter, more mellow taste than its orange relative.
I Hope you can find one 🇵🇭
Most people don't know that sweet potato and yams aren't the same thing. You can't expect them to know the difference between ube and a purple sweet potato.
Correction, all yams are sweet potatoes
Yes, yes they are, but at the same they’re not. All yams are sweet potatoes, but all yams aren’t sweet potatoes
@@crachhit6Yes, but not all Sweet Potatoes are Yams
@@thesharinganknight9859all yams are sweet potatoes but all sweet potatoes aren’t yams?
same with taro
I definitely understand this, because as an African-American, we sometimes make yam pies, and sometimes we make white sweet potato pies.. they’re not the same lol… in addition, when I buy plantains through grocery delivery, I cannot tell you how many times they bring me a fucking unripened, Chiquita banana! And I am so pissed off because that is not what the hell I asked for😂
Most people working in the produce department of the store, and especially the people who pick the orders for pickup, have no clue the difference between a plantain and a banana or a yam and a sweet potato. If it's labeled as a plantain, that's what you're getting. It's more a problem of suppliers mislabelling products which I tend to believe often happens because a product is in demand and they don't have it, so they send some purple sweet potatoes labeled as ube knowing nobody will know the difference.
I find there to be something beautiful and gentle about the princess you bring the vessels to, it's almost kind, and serene. It's beautiful in a way
Dude like me workin at the store just saw they looked similar and did his job to his best degree 🤣 then goes home and wonders why some lady came up to him asking for purple yams 💀
💀💀💀
It's called 'Ketela Ungu' in Indonesia. It has much beta carotene in it and very healthy.
People who said Ube is from the Philippines, it's between Yes and No. Ube can be found in other Southeast Asian countries but Filipinos created Ube HALAYA, the one people mostly used for desserts. Technically Filipinos created the Ube flavor, not the tuber itself but we must protect it before other countries claim the flavor as "theirs" now that Ube is becoming more popular. Our Government never cares a thing :/
There are more important things today that need more attention than a root crop.
@@yelanchiba8818 that root crop has been part of our culture for hundreds of years. Just because it's not important to you, it's not important for anyone else. The Aitas deserves recognition for the hardwork they put into these crops.
@@yelanchiba8818 this is such an unhelpful thing to add to a conversation. I could name any problem and you’d say “oh but there’s a bigger problem”
So what???
Hello i'm from Indonesia idk where these tubers originality comes from but in Indonesia we have it too, for the first one with black skin in my Region it's called Hui pronounce (Hooe) and the second one is called Ubi or in the Philippines Ube, I'm from Sundanese one of the ethnic group in indonesia the word Hui is from Sundanese while in Indonesian we call it Ubi Ungu (Purple Ubi) while Ubi in Sundanese we call it Mantang we have so much Varieties of ubi theres yellow, white, and orange atleast that's what i know maybe much more. the difference is that Hui bear fruit on trees that vines above the trees while Ubi are underground and yeah in my Sundanese Region we have one popular Ubi "Ubi Cilembu" or they usually call it Honey Ubi it's ordinary Ubi with orange flesh like honey they bake it in the oven it's so sweet with the chewy texture
Sorry for grammatical error English is not my first language my mother tongue is Sundanese
@@namjoonsshysmile5777 oooOh it's interesting there are other Ube in different colors as well ^°^
I know they're in other countries, I did said they're from other countries like Southeast Asia, we don't want credit for the tuber itself but the "flavor" of Ube. The Ube that was mostly familiar with ( either by desserts like ice cream, cake, cookies, bread etc. ) the taste, it's richness and ingredients came from the Ube Halaya jam.
Fun fact. People just use purple sweet potato or “gabi” to make ube halaya with flavoring.
Ube is just very rare to find in the wet markets and groceries. So businesses use alternatives.
It doesn’t even matter since the taste is identical. 😋😋
That wasn't gabi though, it was kamote, right, gabi or taro aren't that big.
hell nah it doesn't taste the same.
taro ay gabi, iba pa ang purple na kamote which this vid talking about sweet potatoes at ang ube ay ube they calling yam
bruh they don't taste the same.
That's just what my mom teaches us. We're Dominican but a lot of our sweets have different ingredients. So my mom made Jalea de Batata last month. But unfortunately she had to dump the whole caldero/huge pot of it! Because they sold her the wrong Sweet Potato! She had cooked it and everything 😭😭😭❤️🔥
P.S. The way you opened that purple sweet potato reminded me of the way my mom has us break open Yucca to check if it's good 😂
Excuse my ignorance but Yukka??? You can eat Yukka..like the tree I have in my garden??? 😳🤔🤔😲🇬🇧☮️
@@katstephenson8493 No worries, actually it's the Yucca Root. "Yucca" is what we call it in Spanish but actually it's a type of Cassava Root (from the Cassava Plant or manioc)!
Most Americans have never seen really yams. We are incorrectly taught red sweet potatoes are yams,
I love that nature provides such colourful foods
“Ma’am im just a shopping cart clerk”
lmaoooooooooo
😂😂😂
Ube purple yam is both purple, outside and purple inside. What she has is commonly known as 'okinawan' purple yam. Grown in Hawaii. Most importers get real ube but it's likely to dry to grow when you get it. Most importers use ube powder. However depending on the season you might get real ube.
But that is "Okinawan" sweet potato' not yams.
Yams like ube are a different genus altogether. The roots of yams are big and shaped like blobs. Their leaves are pointier than sweet potatoes and are not edible unlike sweet potato leaves since they have more cyanide in them. Yams are also aerial vines that cling to trees. Sweet potatoes stay on the ground like true potatoes.
Why america calls sweet potatoes "yams" is very weird. It's like calling an apple "orange".
@@3にゃーんHonestly I think its just a lack of knowledge. I'm American and I do hear people use them interchangeably. I have no clue why people do this other than they just don't know there's a difference between the two.
I've been wanting to try ube for awhile now. I think my options to get something from a place next to me would be an ube mochi, donut, or drink. On the listt.
In Virginia, I'm over here sitting on my butt wondering how sweet potatoes can be purple inside. Have I been lied to half of my life? 😭
No, you just happen to be across the planet from Asia
@@asmrwithtinyhands That makes so much sense 💀
Hello fellow Virginian!
Sweet potato has at least 3 colors. White, yellow and purple
Just the fact of the way you worded this, saying I'm sitting here on my butt, made me laugh. That sounds so much like something I would say, here in Jersey, and I would be proud to call you friend....🤣🤣🤣 you are awesome and it sounds like you grew up around here!😊 keep being you!
Working in produce and being a fan of taro, ube, and purple sweet potato for different dishes made me go deep diving for info so I can better inform people who come looking. 😅
Its amazing how ill informed some produce merchants can be 😅😂
It’s probably not them not knowing what it is but trying to bank on the popularity of ube when fresh ube is banned in the mainland United States due to it being crazy invasive
I think the reason for the grocery store mixup is that “yam” and “sweet potato” are often used interchangeably in the US. Even looking up the difference between a sweet potato and a yam, you’ll find opposing results from many US based sites. Bon Appétite had a good article about the differences though, if anyone reading this comment wants to learn the basic differences.
It is called Okinawa Sweet Potato. Very delicious and healthy. Makes a good mash potato as well.
It's the same thing in Ube in the Philippines
To be fair in the US, they don’t know the difference between yams and sweet potatoes in the store. Yams are always sweet potatoes when you buy them from the store.
That's a 100% false statement. 😂😂😂
@@mrmacho41speak for yourself
I love it when my mom could get her hands on some. We used to work in the same building and she would steam em up for us to eat on the way to work or in the cafeteria. Perfect breakfast!
Ube is a type of purple yam a subspecies evolved to live in very hot dry climates so less juice and what is inside is very concentrated because it’s not watered down the colour the flavour everything but yes less sugar because sugar is made from photosynthesis the ube uses almost only photosynthesis to feed itself as there’s not a lot of water sweet potato stores the sugars. Some trees like maple store extra sugars into a syrup because they have to live in freezing temps and syrup doesn’t freeze so basically if you grew ube outside of its native lands or even in its native lands but without natural enviroments (with extra water) it becomes much more like a purple sweet potato. Imported versus locally grown is the basic difference
one of my favorite sweets as a child was ube daifuku, so this was very interesting to watch !! thank you 💕
In America, yams are sweet potatoes. And ube is just purple yams, ie, purple sweet potato 😂
In America yams are not very sweet. Sweet potatoes are very sweet. Yams are another thing entirely.
Same in Canada. One vlogger I watched before said they call Sweet Potatoes as Yams. :) he defended himself after the Filipinos went after him for claiming he has easy access to ube... Then shows off his canned yams! LOL!
Yes, those are known as Hawaiian sweet potatoes. The Asian grocery stores in my area name them accordingly. There are many variations of purple yams and purple sweet potatoes throughout Southeast Asia. The name Ube was given by the Philippines
AKA, "Okinawa Sweet Potatoes." Which are themselves different from "Purple Sweet Potatoes" which have a darker skin than "Okinawa Sweet Potatoes" but basically the same deep purple flesh when cooked. And both of which are different from Ube, apparently.
Many workers don't know the differences between yams and sweet potatoes. They haven't ever tried them.
It's crazy to me how often this gets messed up. I work at a grocery store in the front end department but I've worked produce before so I always notice when they mix yams and sweet potatoes. At one point someone thought Serranos were Jalapeños, that was pushing it lol
@@LacyLynLabret that's because most grocery stores don't carry both ya dingbats lmao
Also because they don't grow it. They order it from Farmers or suppliers who say this is UBE sell it as such and so they do.
Malaysian call ubi ( u- bee). purple yam - ubi keladi purple (ungu). Sweet potato - ubi keledek.
A lot of ubi in ASEAN country.
Ubi keledek - sweet potato
Ubi kayu - tapioca
Ubi keladi - yam
Ubi badak (rhino)
Ubi itik(duck)
Ubi kentang (potato)
Ubi keling (small, black skin)
.
.
.
Yes I notice this in America for alot of vegetables and fruits and it's not where they use different names its known by as that's ok but where it's literally the wrong Vegetable literally ! So some people say I don't like this vegetable because of a reason then I realise it wasn't the vegetable at all .. they should be more careful with such because some use a thing for a porridge or a pone and the menu is all wrong because it wasn't the correct produce and not that they cooked it wrongly
Finally, someone speaks the truth 😍 I grow up eating these foods so I know the difference and taste. It irritates me when they mislabeled the names. Saying it's the same when it's too different in texture and colors.
What about the taste? Are they the same?
Ube is way tastier than ANY sweet potato variety.
It's very nutty and sweet in flavor and becomes chewy like sticky rice when ground up and cooked. And the aroma is very delicious smelling.
Sweet potatoes are bland and tends to be grainy and dry when cooked.
There's a reason ube is expensive in the Philippines and sweet potatoes are mostly fed to pigs as fodder. Everyone in the Philippines see sweet potatoes as the stereotype for cheapness or bad quality and Also prejorative terms "kamote" "kinamote" or "nakamote"
And before you say that certain sweet potatoes are superior like the Japanese yellow or purple varieties, then you would be laughed at here in the Philippines since those varieties are also widely cultivated here. Those are not even the tastiest varieties since the Philippine orange sweet potatoes are sweeter. Those have the white skin and orange meat and they are sweet, but Never as sweet or aromatic as ube.
some comments here says they are interchangeable but why?! they don't taste the same, I cant imagine a purple sweet potato jam even though it's my favourite variation (orange sweet potato is the 2nd). Ube is just different, it will always be my favourite cake, shake or ice cream flavour
Agreed. How the hell is Ube the same as the average sweet potato. Ube also have a different texture. I like Ube more than sweet potatoes so I know how strikingly different it is.
they aren't even closely related, ube and yams in general are more closely related to a grass than a freaking sweet potato 😂
@@ragiingtomato14 i had to search for different kind of yams because i didn't know they exist, I only know purple yam which is also called ube lol
You are lucky to get purple sweet potatoes. I can’t find it here in the Midwest. Never seen one in person. Still waiting to make a purple sweet potato pie. Goals.
They’re so delicious! They taste buttery and sweet, almost like a pastry (imo). They stopped stocking them after March2020 😔 I miss them.
Literally purple sweet potato is better than any other root vegetables fk the ube sht
literally never heard of ube and never seens purple sweet potatoes but i'm glad i learnt something
The purple yams actually taste exactly like ube if u steam it right. The shade looks like light purple with white center before steaming. After steaming long, the entire inside will be DARK purple, thick, and rich in flavor.
I love Ube ice cream! I’m thinking of making ube cookies for my husband. We stumbled upon Ube out of one of our Boksu boxes and haven’t looked back since! 🎉🎉🎉🎉
I wanna try that ice cream!
Try Ube cake too. It's the best. I didn't use icing on the cake. I used Ube jam. 😋
Purple is my favourite colour and sweet potato is my favourite veggie so I always get purple sweet potato if I can get it. I roast them letting the natural sugars caramelize.
Never even heard of Ube here in the UK. I'd love to try some purple yam or purple sweet potatoe 😊
My grandfather planted some purple yam. It rooted many large tubers that we sometimes just use it as pig feed.
if it makes you feel any better, most markets /grocery stores in the Philippines don't actually have ube too. most are also purple sweet potato.
Purple yam (ube) are commonly seen and can be purchase in local market which freshly coming direct from the grower in the phillipines.
I beg to disagree, maybe if it's out of season, of course you can't see it, unless it's not really produced in your localities or not usually consumed by folks in that certain marketplace, which is common in Cities and urban areas far from it's source farms, like Metro Manila Cities whose usually consumed Ube Products that's already processed into powder, liquid extract or jam.
❤❤❤ looks like an amethyst crystal! 🔮 I wanna try 😍
They are honestly so pretty fresh. Careful not to get stained though! 😄
the nice thing about going to the grocery store yourself is you only get the wrong thing when *you* get the wrong thing.
That's why I don't do pickup. I don't want the produce someone else picks. I want to pick it out myself. Amongst other issues I have with it lol 😊
tbf she says it was raining and she was too lazy to go herself. Idk why people criticize when someone decides to pay for a service and gets screwed.
Maybe go to an asian market/supermarket, not only east asian but all inclusive asian because ube is a staple in a lot of southeast asian countries. Here in Indonesia, ube isn't only purple but people only know purple ube because it's the most interesting color. There are lots of ubes here and we just call them purple ube, orange ube, yellow ube, or just the original ube which is white ish 👍
Maybe those are other types of yams, but ube only ranges from dark to light purple, and taste different/unique from other yams.
And fact is ube is only found in the philippines
that's not Ube.. we called it "Kamote" with different color here in the PH.
@@ColoniaMurder20oo kamote yung ibat ibang colors sweet potatoes in english. Ang ube ay ube lang
the states always calls sweet potatoes yams. not sure why. thankfully in the Caribbean and Asia we learned about our food at a young age, so we know what we're eating.
ooo look at that colour it looks outstanding
Cool. I've heard that purple sweet potatoes may be partly responsible for some people in a blue zone that live longer then anyone else. 😂❤ They look yummy anyways
The cost is different so the store is scamming it’s patrons,
^-^ I work in a grocery store. The whole food distributor we work with actually lists it as Okinawan Purple Yam so that has always been what we listed it as. We have never referred to it as Ube and don't advertise it as Ube. When a customer comes and asks for Ube we will tell them we don't sell Ube.
@@troll1321 technically those are ube.
@Spellcaster I don't even know anymore to be honest. Different suppliers list it as different things. Google is helpful sometimes but not always.
Hi, I’m from the Philippines, we called that kamote; it’s called ube yam.
Boil the purple potato then smashed it then you’ll have your ube yam.
No. I live in the Phil and we never call ube as kamote. Ube is ube. We may have purple kamotes but never called ube as kamote.
Who calls kamote, 'ube yam'? 😂
@@ragingtomato04Yeah right😅, I think the right English term for Kamote is Sweet Potato.
This problem is not exclusive to places outside the Philippines. Some vendors either underestimate the consumers’ intelligence or they lack intelligence themselves.
It's easy to tell the difference though both are purple colour. One is super soft and breaks down easily and is at least 3 times cheaper. The real ones remain intact no matter how long you boil them and is a lot more pricy. The skin colour is not white but purplish and a lot sweeter.
So satisfying to see this. I hate how us based influencers make ube content with purple sweet potato. Watching them share Ube information tidbits while showing/holding purple sweet potato makes my blood boil tbh
like i’m all for the facts but i’d just sit there going “sweet potato sweet potato” 😭. like come on y’all clearly did research for tidbits you couldn’t search what they looked like?
This video was so confusing for me, because our family (Chinese) eats ube all the time, but we call it a purple yam just cause. I didn’t know there were actual purple sweet potatoes 😅
Never seen it, and yes, we have looked, too. My wife still likes the purple sweet potato for other things but even that is seasonal. For real ube we have to buy it frozen in Houston where our nearest Filipino market is.
Perception is more important than reality and sadly this is how most of the world works in all areas. I’m a pastry chef ( worked at restaurants and groceries)and I confronted and argued with management and corporate over false names and descriptions on a variety of products and they didn’t care . They basically said they are banking on the fact that people are stupid and don’t know things. This has been a similar view at both small independent places and large corporate businesses. The people that actually know and care are few.
Ube looks like cassava on the outside. As someone who loves cassava (yam) and doesn’t care for sweet potatoes I would have to agree with Jenelle, there’s a difference!
Yes, I didn’t even get any purple and paid the price for it. While this is Alaska and very much is catered towards an international population there are still limitations for some things.I’ve never seen either of what you just showed; the yam or sweet potato.
It also can be Postioness! Most stores WORLD WIDE don't know about this!
In Indonesia we call sweet potato or cassava or tubers and every fruit under the soil with "Ubi".. which is really close with "ubi".
It took a couple times to understand. But now I get it! Don't be fooled by a Sweet Potato! 😂
Yams are not sweet potatoes (and vice versa), however they fill in for each quite nicely.
Thanks for teaching.
Most people don't even care, I'm glad that there are people who care to keep recipes as original as possible. The ube root (yam) is from Asia, while sweet potatoes are from South America I believe- it's pretty different.
As a brazillian, yam is more for salty recipes like yam fries. Try the cassava fries with yam fries
Your voice when trying to break the sweet potato is supper cute.
Hawaii we call it ‘uhi …mountain yam is the local name in English. Has flavor like kalo(taro) when underground cooked. Different varieties out there in world, with one thing in common. Gods food
Especially in the US, there's a big conflation between yams and sweet potatoes.
If you’re getting home delivery, you are depending upon the shopper to know what he or she is doing. If they’ve been doing it for a while, they probably are pretty good at it, but everyone makes mistakes. This is a case of if you want it done right, you’re going to have to do it yourself.
Love the purple color💕
Oooh my God. I am so happy you explained it. As a child my mom made soup with , we call it Napi. And it is rough and ads it's own flavour to the soup. Now i know they sell me sweet potatoes. I told my husband many many times it is not the Napi fròm those days. Nèxt time i shop i will çheck for the frozen one. Thank you❤❤❤
In kerala we called Kaachil😍 I love this simply peel off skin and boiled with salt after drain the salt water just put some coconut oil and mix eat with kattan chaya (black tea) 🤤 its from our land its self and there is white, purple, purple white mix varieties are there😍
I LOVE PURPLE SWEET POTATOES. they're the coolest version of sweet potato.
Closest thing I would've say is Ube=tapioca family, because that's what we ate throughout my childhood. In Malaysia we called it ubi kayu, and I think Indonesia called it singkong
We have garden of purple yams in the Philippines. I love to cook good recipe with purple yam. Yummy! Liked!❤
I can get not ube but a similar yam at a local market in the northeast. Your best bet is it to live in LA, though. Also, instacart people tend to have trouble with specific and unusual requests.
As someone who has experienced planting and cultivating it, ube is very, very different from purple sweet potato. Aside from what Jeanelleats said, ube is hard to cut because of the dagta (sticky "sap"). It is darker in color, and it takes way longer to boil (it's way harder than swamp taro). I know someone who makes ube halaya occassionally for fiestas and she usually spends three hours boiling two kilos of ube and another three hours to mash them. This is why roasted sweet potato is a thing but not roasted ube.
Finally. Thanks Janelle for shedding light on this. It really annoys me out of my wits when professional chefs and tiktok chefs claim purple Sweet Potato as Purple Yam!
Reminds me of when I went to a grocery store in a small town near me looking for matzah. They had no idea what that was. That surprised me, as they have no issue with that in my neighborhood only about 20 minutes away.