Vegetable Trysts: An Unlikely Couple in the Vegetable Basket

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An unlikely vegetable couple — the rugged yam and the elegant lauki — and their sweet offspring.

There is a view in many quarters that the potato and onion make a fantastic couple, and often we find that one cannot do without the other. In a way they are inseparable.

I am assuming the husband is the potato and the wife the onion. I know onions have the tendency to make others shed tears, but it would be unfair to qualify her as the wife for this reason alone. Like many husbands, the potato is dull, bland and boring, and it requires the onion to spice things up a bit. It is her extra zing that keeps their relationship going merrily along.

And their children? They must of course be the baby potatoes and the spring onions!

If you ask me, the most unlikely couple must be the lauki (bottle gourd) and the suran or jimikand (yam), if not for anything else but for their totally incompatible looks and demeanour.

The bottle gourd is fair, with a firm and fine complexion, and quite shapely as well. The yam, in contrast, is rough and coarse, with a hard, stony exterior. Again, the bottle gourd is soft and tender inside, whereas the yam is hard and takes time to soften. For this reason one can hardly imagine them being together. If they were, it would seem nothing less than disastrous!

But not to undermine the yam—allow it to soften, let it simmer slowly in a pan, and once you have tasted it, the texture and burst of flavours will compel you to say, “Now, here is a man!”

Having linked the lauki and yam as such an unlikely couple, I began wondering who their offspring would be.

Even though we have labelled them unlikely, we know that opposites attract. It is a no-brainer that the yam would find the lauki voluptuous and luscious, but what about the lauki?

Well, we also know that some women find brawny, rugged, rough men their beau idéal. So does the protagonist in our story—the femme fatale, lauki.

One can imagine that once the two become besotted with one another, and with one thing leading to another, the inevitable happens. It therefore comes as no surprise when one day we find that they now have an offspring!

Coming back to the original question—who would it be?

I cannot imagine anyone else other than the sweet potato (shakarkand/ratale). It has the shapely contours of the mother as well as the smooth complexion. From the yam it has inherited the thick, hard rind, its darker skin tone, and the whitish-copper colour of its core.

I would not hazard to guess its gender, but whatever it may be, it is a most adorable child—spreading sweetness and joy!

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