If you like American sweet potatoes, you’ll love Japanese ones, too. High in starch and much fluffier than their sometimes chewy American cousins, Japanese sweet potatoes are dense and creamy (with or without butter), whether they’re bright purple Okinawa or smaller, yellow Satsuma varieties.
There are shops all over Japan that specialize in the tuber, selling them roasted, whole, caramelized or blended into ice cream, but that style of snacking has been virtually impossible to find in the U.S.… until now.
Last October, Hello, Yam! opened in New York’s East Village with a small menu that pays homage to the Japanese sweet potato. With the exception of the drinks—black sesame lattes, hojicha lattes, matcha lattes and Fuji apple juice—everything is made with imported Japanese sweet potatoes.
Beni Haruka is the world’s sweetest potato variety, with 40 percent sugar in raw form and 50-60 percent in roast form, according to Japan’s WAMI. Still, its flavors (including the peel) are remarkably balanced, and its rich nutty flavor makes for a deliciously complex dessert.
Hello, Yam!’s sweet potatoes are served two ways. The first is “Satsumaimo” (baked potato)—baked whole until the inside is soft enough to scoop with a spoon, and the skin caramelized from its own sweet juices. Once the potatoes are cut, they’re topped with butter and honey, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or a toasted crème brûlée.
The second is the shop’s own creation, “Smooth Filling Parfait.” This layered, sundae-like dessert starts with a base of crispy corn flake cereal, then tops with roasted sweet potato cubes, vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream. It’s topped with the smooth filling—a mixture of sweet potatoes (dyed purple or left in their natural yellow), sugar, and cream, squeezed through a machine similar to a pasta press. The result: a mountain of thin, layered sweet potato shreds.
This Mont Blanc-style topping is common in Japan, often made with hazelnut cream or matcha instead of sweet potatoes, adding a playful texture to ice cream and cakes, and Hello Yam!’s parfaits do just that.
Hello Yam! is the first sweet potato dessert shop in New York City, and it’s so exciting that we can’t help but ask, why aren’t we adding roasted sweet potatoes to every dessert?
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