Camote time!

"Camote cues" are one of those food memories that, to me, make up an indelible part of my upbringing. One of the earliest street foods I remember when I was growing up, along with that rugby-scented bubble gum (I'm sure it wasn't really that solvent, but still..!), sliced green mangoes fished out from a container of water, the immortal fishballs and squidballs, taho, cotton candy and - later on, when I was a student in UP Diliman - quikiam. Even as an adult one of the mid-afternoon snacks I hunted down in the Jolli-jeeps dotted around Salcedo Village was camote cues. I love the caramelised goodness of the camote chunks, how it would be slightly resistant to the bite at first and then your teeth sink into that richly starchy, hot, sweet flesh. Many have compared chestnuts to our native sweet potato, and I can see why. But the camote remains king of the starchy tubers, at least to this Bulakena.

You would think, nowadays when a lot of people avoid carbs like the plague, that the camote cue would be a vanishing tradition on the streets of Manila but I still see them around and I hope they never disappear! I'm only sorry most vendors offer them only at midafternoon. I wouldn't mind having them as a dinnertime dessert. Then again, Philippine climate being what it is, there is a reason many of us prefer cold desserts and ice creams after meals.

Anyway, all this came up because H and I have in the kitchen cupboards a few humongous sweet potatoes and one equally impressive yam. They'd been sitting around for weeks and worried that they might go bad and start sporting the ulalo that I used to dread in the Philippine variety of camote, I hunted down a suitable recipe and found one on Epicurious that looked scrumptious. It's a recipe most commonly trotted out around Thanksgiving, but hey - a good recipe is a good recipe anytime! At least for this transplanted Pinay.

To make it short, you cut up the sweet potato and yam into quarter-inch slices, flour them, and pour over a libation of brown sugar, butter, minced ginger and lemon zest. Arrange in layers on your baking dish. Bake. Eat.

I was happy with the result, which was quite a bit less sweet than I like my camote desserts to be. But I'll take my camote cue any way I can. One day I may even try to do it the Pinoy way - on sticks, deep fried in oil, encrusted with lots of caramel!