Tondabayashi Ebi-imo

A taro shaped like a shrimp

Ebi means shrimp. Ebi-imo is a kind of taro that grows curved, with stripes like a shrimp's shell. Tondabayashi ebi-imo has more dry matter than taro from elsewhere, which gives it a fluffy yet smooth texture. Ryotei in Kyoto and Tokyo prize it, and it sells for more than ordinary taro.

Gravel, water and skill

It was selected from a native strain grown around Nishi-Itamochi in Tondabayashi city, Osaka. Ebi-imo needs a lot of water but rots in soggy soil. Here, old rice-paddy canals supply water, and the soil is paddy earth over gravel left by floods of the Ishikawa River, so it drains well. Farmers pass down a special way of building the ridges that makes the taro curve.