I didn’t even know what they were called in Mandarin. Turns out they’re “European windbreakers.”
防風 seems to denote some form of Chinese medicine. Interesting…
What’s the best way to cook them? I imagine roasting them probably tastes best. Caramelization and all that.
Maybe sorghum? You are saying they were too poor for yams (and sweet potato) so cooked something like rice?
Grains that come to mind that are plentiful here cheap and not yummy if not preppared well
Quinoa (special processing other very bitter)
Sorghum
Various beans
Other grasses like millet but they taste just fine actually.
Cassava has a bitter taste and was big in the poor days/areas. Taiwanese often dont know how to prepare it well. It can be made into a rice like item. But i assume if they know how to make that, they know how to process it properly.
Parsnips 歐防風
One problem in chinese culture is they have many names sometimes.
The plant might be called A
The food from it called B
If that food is sold as medicine, C
Etc
So a species name is often not called the same thing in the market. Then different areas sometimes have different names for the same food. Cilantro is a common one but with different names.
Right, so when your wife is 9 months pregnant with a litter of 9, you can tell her she’s just as pregnant as when she’d been carrying a litter of 1 for 1 month – no more, no less. 
Since my visit to Aotearoa, I’ve been calling it kumara. The name itself is proof for pre-Columbus contact.
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Cassava bitter?!!??!!??? 
Aboriginals know good cassava in stews. We gotta introduce fried cassava strips, fried fritters, fried empanadas to this side of the mountains.
And someday, even plátano may be found here…
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In the Philippines they use cassava to make a sweet, gooey cake-like item. It’s rather nice. No trace of bitterness! In fact you can feel your blood sugar rocketing out of control around the third bite …
There are many different varieties of cassava. They all look pretty much the same, but I guess those that are closer to “wild” varieties might be bitter (and/or have higher levels of cyanide compounds that have to be carefully washed/cooked out…)
I think she means 番薯籤, which I suppose is like … sliced yam (not fries since nobody could afford oil either), and ppl used to eat it like we eat rice now because everyone was poor as shit and only rich ppl could afford rice. I’ve been told the same story by my mother and grandparents.
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So you just come out from the jungle. You want to try these strange new delicacies like fresh prawns and a high end. So you go to a $99 all you can eat hotpot and try their shrimp balls. Then you go to mcdonalds and try their beef.
That is what you just did with sweet potatos. Mr. Donuts??? Wierdo…
What is this thing about brown sugar? Brown sugar and tapioca balls, brown sugar and everything and anything. Sugar is sugar, it’s carbs. Calories. in Combination whit oil, sweet potato and flour it’s uh, not that healthy.
Yes, bitter. Not just bitter. Cooked to wrong consistency and when i talk to them they dont even know about not harvesting once the plant flowers.
Aboriginals here are probably the most capable racial/cultural group on the island and cook quite well. But i am talking about you averag joe. Or average Li. Min nan ren. Fricken terrible nearly everytime i have had it. Hakka folk are pretty good at it too though.
Id say my favorite cassava has to be west African though. That stuff is just simply beyond rice!
Platano is plantain? Like the stuff the carribean and africans rant over here?the green guys. It is grown here (i used to growit) but no one (taiwanese) will grow it commercially due to economics. Sorry 
Finley. Ya. Taiwan gave up on this one ages ago. Not enough commercial potential in their eyes. And it is viewed (incorrectlyl as poor country food. Many of the types here are shit.
Gain. Yup. Just like the leaves. Was pig food until some dude did a lab test and fou d them nutritious, now every local eatery serves them.
Gotta give taiwan cresit. They can change FAST, just need that face save and something that spunds half intelligent and they are on board. Even for pig food or rotten tofu.
I’d like to know more about this - is it a common perception here that brown sugar (or black sugar) is somehow healthier? And if so, why? Anyone know?
I’ve never heard anyone say it’s healthier, they just use it for the flavour.
A lot of people claim it i healthier. Especially in the west. I had this talk with my diabetic mom just this week. I am sending her some brown (black) sugar ginger tea. Her conversation is always the same. Black sugar is healthier so you know: insert typical canadian justification here.
Normally it goes like this.
Black sugar: unrefined/raw
Brown sugar: is refined white sugar with molasses and may have black sugar added.
Companies always tend to lie on labels so it is hard to tell. But sugar with molases is obvious (quite good honestly).
In taiwan both types are almost always labelled black sugar in chinese. Some exceptions. Check ingredients list. But that is often not accurate either 
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Plantain cannot be grown here, period. It is forbidden to be grown here, due to zigatoca fungus. It is not the green we long for, it is the full nature, near black we crave.
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Everything black/briwn is better. And by that we mean not blanched with whatever chemical strips their color and nutrients away.
White rice, white bread, white sugar, all bad. Brown rice/wild still retains some nutritious value, and has lower GI.
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