hoshi imo

While watching another episode of "Matsuko no Shiranai Sekai", they talked about sweet potato in particular, hoshi imo.

Hoshi imo is sweet potato that is steamed, sliced and then dried.

This episode reminded me that we visited a shop in Ibaraki that sold dried sweet potato called Daimaruya.

After watching this episode, we went to the supermarket and Satoshi found these hoshi imo.

The one on the left is a whole sweet potato, they use smaller sweet potato and since it takes longer to dry, most companies/farmers don't make a lot.

The variety for this version is called Beniharuka.

The sweet potato on the right has the skins left on.

The variety is called Silk Sweet.

According to the show, hoshi imo uses a variety called Tamayutaka and was dried to a point where when you took a bite, there was a pull to it, almost like beef jerky.

Nowadays with more tender varieties of sweet potato, the hoshi imo turns out more half-dried and still very sweet.

I've never bought hoshi imo in the past because the versions I've seen were really brown and not too appetizing.

I'm glad we tried these and will keep my eye out for more in the future.