Have you ever heard the song, “Ishi yaki-imo, yaki-imo!”?
This is the song that the food truck of roasted sweet potatoes played.
In the olden days there was not the truck, but the hand hauled cart. The sweet potatoes were really roasted by “Ishi”, the stones, which was heated in the oven on the cart. The guy who is hauling it cried “Yaaaaki-imoooo!” to appeal to the customer on the street, which was one of the winter attractions in Japan. When we heard it, we used to rush into the street to buy it. The guy wrapped it with newspaper and gave me, then I crammed hot yaki-imo into my mouth.
By the transition of the time, the style of selling has changed, I feel a little sad that even the number of the yaki-imo trucks is reducing now. But delicious and sweet taste of yaki-imo has never changed and forever. Nowadays we can get it easily in the convenience store and supermarket, such as “Lawson store 100“, “Family Mart” and “Don Qui Jote“, etc. We can say that it is also a survival food for vegetarians and vegans!
Yaki-imo is not only delicious, but also very nutritious. It is happy for vegetarians & vegans that the roasted sweet potato contains vitamin B6, which works for immune system and skins, and is apt to be insufficient, and pantothenic acid which increases good cholesterol.
But if you eat one whole sweet potato, it becomes around 300-500 k cal! It contains rich fiber… But! Almost of all components of Yaki-imo is carbohydrate. Be careful not to eat too much!
