Talk:The Good Lars/@comment-43595638-20191015142350

Steven : "Wow. What's... uby?"

Ube? What's ube? U DONT KNOW WAT UBE IS!?

ALLOW US FILIPINOS TO INTRODUCE UBE :

Dioscorea alata, known as purple yam, ube, or greater yam, among many other names, is a species of yam, a tuber. The tubers are usually vivid violet - purple to bright lavender in colour, hence the common name, but they may sometimes be plain white. It is sometimes confused with taro and the Okinawa sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas cv. Ayamurasaki), although D. alata is also grown in Okinawa where it is known as beniimo (紅芋). With its origins in the Asian tropics, D. alata has been known to humans since ancient times.

Because it has become naturalized throughout tropical South America, Africa, Australia, the southeastern U.S., D. alata has many different common names from these regions. In English alone, aside from purple yam, other common names include Guyana arrowroot, ten-months yam, water yam, white yam, winged yam, violet yam, or simply yam.

Dioscorea alata is one of the most important staple crops in Austronesian cultures. It is one of various species of yams that were domesticated and cultivated independently within Island Southeast Asia and New Guinea for their starchy tubers, including the round yam (Dioscorea bulbifera), ubi gadong (Dioscorea hispida), lesser yam (Dioscorea esculenta), Pacific yam (Dioscorea nummularia), fiveleaf yam (Dioscorea pentaphylla), and pencil yam (Dioscorea transversa). Among these, D. alata and D. esculenta were the only ones regularly cultivated and eaten, while the rest were usually considered as famine food due to their higher levels of the toxin dioscorine which requires that they be prepared correctly before consumption. D. alata is also cultivated more than D. esculenta, largely because of its much larger tubers.

D. alata and D. esculenta were the most suitable for long transport in Austronesian ships and were carried through all or most of the range of the Austronesian expansion. D. alata in particular, were introduced into the Pacific Islands and New Zealand. They were also carried by Austronesian voyagers into Madagascar and the Comoros.

Purple yam remains an important crop in Southeast Asia, particularly in the Philippines where the vividly purple variety is widely used in various traditional and modern desserts. It also remains important in Melanesia, where it is also grown for ceremonial purposes tied to the size of the tubers at harvest time. Its importance in eastern Polynesia and New Zealand, however, has waned after the introduction of other crops, most notably the sweet potato.

FIlipinos : disappointed faces