HaitiLibre Quiz

Vegetables 3.1 HAITI

Difficulty Level: N3 Hard
Welcome to this 3rd and final quiz of this serious vegetables. This challenging level quiz is for enthusiasts, amateur botanists and curious minds with a strong general knowledge. Challenge the limits of your knowledge by exploring the specificities, histories and rare appellations of our Haitian vegetable and food species. Will you live up to this last challenge?
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Which traditional root vegetable of the Araceae family, also called "tayaux" or "taro", has giant leaves called "elephant ears" and requires rigorous cooking to remove its irritating calcium oxalate crystals?

75% of players answered correctly.

THE CORRECT ANSWER: Taro / Mazumbette

Taro (Colocasia esculenta), known locally as tayos, mazoumbèl or caribbean cabbage, is a perennial monocotyledon of the Araceae family that is very present in Haitian Creole gardens. Its farinaceous tubers contain microscopic needle-shaped calcium oxalate microcrystals, called raphides, which cause severe irritation of the oral mucosa if eaten raw or undercooked. Prolonged cooking in boiling water is therefore essential to denature these acre compounds and make the flesh perfectly tender and digestible. Highly appreciated boiled for breakfast or integrated into thick soups, taro flourishes in humid microclimates and irrigated soils in rural areas. Nutritionally, it provides high energy density in the form of resistant starch, while providing potassium, magnesium and fiber. Its perennial culture is a strategic food reservoir against food insecurity in Haiti.