My Candle Vegetable

It is not often that you find a vegetable that you can be passionate about. However, as I was expounding upon the virtues of the “sayur lilin” (translated candle vegetable), I realized that I had discovered my vegetable. And seriously, this veggie is awesome! I would eat as much of it as you could cook for me!

I first tried it when I still lived overseas on the island of New Guinea. I was doing some service work in a remote village with my high school and the people hosted a “baker batu” or pig feast for us. The sayur lilin was part of the feast and I had never seen anything like it. The vegetable was long and covered by a husk-like outside. The vegetable inside had a fantastic texture and resembled a long, thick piece of wheat. The taste was not strong, but delicious anyway.  

One of my greatest regrets about leaving West Papua, Indonesia is the loss of sayur lilin. As I was telling Andre this morning, someday I will have to go back and revisit the vegetable passion of my youth!

So… I was wondering if anyone else had discovered a vegetable they can get excited about?