After SWMBO complained to me that I always bought the same old vegetables (cauliflour, broccoli, carrots, asparagus, etc.) I went to the local market* and returned with, among other things, the attached mystery vegetable.

Can anybody tell me what this is, and how to prepare it? It is about five inches across.

tanstaafl.

*The local market is amazing. Every Wednesday they close down three blocks of a local street, and the market sets up with stalls, tents, wandering musicians (who play for tips), beggars, selling everything from watch batteries to original oil paintings, and of course food of every description. By 9am it is open for business, by 3pm it is gone without a trace, and for six hours it is so crowded you have to squeeze sideways through tiny gaps to traverse it.

db

I don't know what it is (I'd guess a turnip of radish), but I'm very impressed by its mystical floating abilities!

Looks like some variety of turnip to me.

So what does it taste like ?

Peter

My guess is it's a variant of the South American Helium Turnip.
(No relation to Dirigible Plums)

+1 for Peter's answer. I like them raw -- peel, slice, eat. Also good shredded, on salad.

I think Peter's right. They sell them here too. try coco (also known as taro) or cassava if you're interested in other roots. Locally they boil them up and eat them with crab in soup. Also try cho cho (also called chayote or güisquil) for something new.

Hopefully I've got the right names...I mostly know these things by what they call them in Belize.

So, was it nice?

Peter

A few years ago, there was a span of about a year around here (Raleigh? North Carolina? The Eastern US? Don't know.) where it seemed that every dish at every restaurant had jicama in it. This is no longer the case.

I can only imagine that it's because it tastes like crisp dishwater.