Not for me…

I’ve been going online to check out the things I should eat and those that I should not and I thought I read somewhere that sweet potatoes are good for me. That was why when I was at the neighbourhood fruit and sundry shop in the next lane, I asked for some of the tuber to take home and cook…

…to eat.

I loved the ones from the Philippines – they were very sweet and were popular here at one time but I do not get to see them anymore nowadays. We have the Japanese purple ones but I am not a fan of those – I’d much sooner stick to our cheaper and nicer orange ones.

That day, the boss told me to take these…

The first thing that crossed my mind was how they looked so pale. I had never seen any like those before but I just went ahead and bought a few to try.

I took two to steam and I was surprised to find that they were yellow inside. They were extra mushy and sticky, not too sweet and were very nice. My girl said that they did get to eat yellow sweet potatoes when they went over to Korea but this was the first time for me and yes, I liked it!

The next day, I took the rest, peeled them and cut them into chunks…

…to cook some Chinese sweet potato dessert/soup. Gosh!!! It was as hard as a rock, so difficult to cut but after much struggle, I did manage in the end.

I boiled them in water with a lot of pandan (screwpine) leaves added for the fragrance and I added a bit of aloe vera jelly as well.

Aloe vera can benefit the kidney in many ways such as protecting it from tissue damage caused by free radicals due to its antioxidant property. It prevents kidney stone formation and reduces the content of harmful substances in the serum such as urea and creatinine. It also has an antimicrobial property which aids in combating renal infections.

To sweeten the soup, I used a bit of gula Melaka (palm sugar). According to this website, “palm sugar is known to have a lower glycemic index (GI) of 35, just over a third of the glycemic index of cane sugar (93)” but “there is no refined natural gula melaka available. If possible, avoid sugar. If not, use natural palm sugar in moderation.” The old folks will usually use rock sugar but I was not using that and anyway, there was none in the house.

Another thing that people like to add is a chunk of ginger. The Chinese believe that sweet potatoes are “cold” so to counter-balance that they would add ginger. I did not do that, of course, as I am not into the taste.

Once the sweet potatoes were cooked, I scooped out a bowl…

…and served.

Yes, it was very nice but I went and googled only to find that I should not be eating things high in potassium like bananas and sweet potatoes as well.

This website says that as sweet potatoes contain high levels of both potassium and phosphorus, avoid eating them BUT sweet potatoes are very nutritious, so don’t remove them from your diet unless your doctor tells you to. The potassium they contain may help lower your blood pressure, and the phosphorus helps your body store energy and repair damaged tissues. Even people with kidney problems need these nutrients, but simply need to limit their consumption to what is necessary for good health.

Oh dear!!! I was thinking of going back to the shop to buy some more but having read that, I changed my mind right away, thank you very much!

SWEE HUNG (2.316161, 111.840441) is located along Jalan Ruby, in the block of shops on the right – next to a hair salon at the extreme end and on the other end, to the left is the Kim Won Chinese Medical Store and Mini-supermarket