Roasted sweet potato

In China, yellow-fleshed sweet potatoes are roasted in a large iron drum and sold as street food during winter.[1] They are called kǎo-báishǔ (烤白薯; "roasted sweet potato") in northern China, haau faan syu (烤番薯) in Cantonese speaking regions, and kǎo-dìguā (烤地瓜; "roasted sweet potato") in Taiwan, as the name of sweet potatoes themselves vary across the sinophone states and regions.

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  roasted sweet potato from China
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  roasted sweet potatoes hawker in Hong Kong

Sweet potatoes roasted in drum cans, called gun-goguma (군고구마; "roasted sweet potato"), are also popular in both North and South Korea.[2][3] The food is sold from late autumn to winter by the vendors wearing ushanka, which is sometimes referred to as "roasted sweet potato vendor hat" or "roasted chestnut vendor hat". Although any type of goguma (sweet potato) can be roasted, softer, moist varieties such as hobak-goguma (pumpkin sweet potato) are preferred over firmer, floury varieties such as bam-goguma ("chestnut sweet potato") for roasting.[4]

In South Korea, roasted sweet potatoes are dried to make gun-goguma-mallaengi (군고구마 말랭이), and frozen to make ice-gun-goguma (아이스 군고구마).[5] Although gun-goguma has traditionally been a winter food, gun-goguma ice cream and gun-goguma smoothie are nowadays enjoyed in summer.[6]

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  Gun-goguma
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  Typical gun-goguma drum can in Korea
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  Roasting goguma in the drum can
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  Gun-goguma-mallaengi (half-dried roasted sweet potatoes) as a snack
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  Ice-gun-goguma eaten as summer food
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  Gun-goguma ice cream (with package)
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  Gun-goguma ice cream (inside)

In Japan, similar street food is called ishi yaki-imo (石焼き芋; "roasted sweet potato in heat stones") and sold from trucks during the winter.[7]

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  yaki-imo vendor in Nara, Japan

• Roasted chestnut