French Fry Diary 631: Sweet Potatoes Vs. Yams

Last week I posted some really cool pics from my friend Robin Renee of her Homemade Vegan Sweet Potato Pies. A conversation via text later indicated that Robin didn't think they were technically sweet potatoes, but yams instead. This got me thinking about what the real difference between sweet potatoes and yams actually was… and therein I discovered quite the conspiracy.

It would seem that what we think of in America as yams are really just sweet potatoes, just another variety of them. We've been calling them the wrong name for years. It's just like those French taking credit for fries from the Belgians, we've been giving yummy sweet potatoes the name yams when they are not yams at all. You can read about what's really what in the world of yams and sweet potatoes here.

And while we're sort of on the subject of Robin Renee and the holidays, you might want to check out these two YouTube videos, "Hare Krishna Christmas" and "The Yule Song." Enjoy!

Random Tater Pic of the Day #142

From the Red Robin website, home of the bottomless steak fry.

French Fries Day 2013

July 13th is French Fries Day, be it National French Fries Day or Happy French Fries Day, I suppose that's really up to you.

There are many celebrations going on in the tater world today, believe it or not. News services are alive with suggestions as to where the best fries are. Various towns in Idaho are hosting picnics and parades. And of course many restaurants have fry-oriented offers and promotions today.

The French and Belgians are fighting (as always) about who invented the favorite fried food. We all know it was Belgium, but in this one case, somehow the French won't surrender.

The question is - how will you be celebrating today? Will you be cooking your own fries? Will you be going out to dinner, and getting fried spud as a side? or will you purposely seek out your favorite potato and celebrate specifically. Whatever you do, enjoy.

For me, I celebrated for dinner last night, by making Paula Deen's recipe for the favorite fried food.  There's an image to the left of the finished product.  Mmmm... fries...

Shameful woman, but I gotta say, she knows how to make a damn good French fry.

Happy French Fries Day, folks.

But Doesn't Everyone Know They're Belgian?

Thanks to Marni for sending this one to me. Props, girl.