Lake Patzcuaro sits in the middle of Michoacan, in the Mexican state of Morelia. It’s an indigenous village known for its elaborate Day of the Dead festival. Throughout the village, you will see indigenous women selling their wares: clothing, trinkets, etc. But what sets Patzcuaro apart from the rest of indigenous Mexico, and the rest of Latin America, is a dish they prepare…
Yams with honey.
They simply take a cooked red yam and slather it with honey. That’s it. Simple, yet wonderful.
It’s the perfect combination. Many Americans will put butter atop a yam, which adds a fatty quality to the edible tuber. But when you add honey, it embellishes the sweeter elements of the plant. It takes the yam into the direction it wants to go. The yam wants to be a dessert, to run free with it’s sugary friends.
It’s important to differentiate this dish from American “candied yams,” which are loaded with sugar. The Patzcuaro version does not add corn syrup, brown sugar, etc. It’s just a yam with honey atop of it – nothing more.
Note: I looked online for a photo of the dish, but I could not find one. I have traveled to over 75 countries, and I’ve never seen anybody prepare a yam this way. It’s so uncommon that google images does not have stock photos of it.
But no worries…it’s very simple. Next time you cook a yam, just drench it with honey. That’s all you need to do.
Bon apetit!
Major Styles 