Don Day: You bet your sweet patootie they’re good

Published November 4, 2022

I’d eaten sweet potatoes for a lot of years. Mostly smothered in butter and sprinkled with salt as the side to a roast of pork. Then I came to San Miguel de Allende and my tongue got all twisted around.

In Mexico, the locals eat sweet potatoes as dessert. I thought sweet potatoes were sweet but not that sweet. Mexicans, though, have a solution. They soak their sweet potatoes in syrup. Not for me I thought. And it took me years to ever dare to try one that way.

The clincher came on a burro trek with Denver Reyes, chef/owner of Los Olivos in Colonia San Antonio. We were up in the hills, a few clicks south of San Miguel, gazing over acres of blue sage and looking for just one single peyote plant when Denver started kicking at the stones around a pretty flower with fancy foliage that I thought was morning glory.

He crouched down on his knees and started to claw at the ground. A few scrapes and a couple of tugs later and Denver held up a string of burgundy colored roots.

“Camote”, the chef declared, “what you call sweet potato”.

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