I tasted a variety of sweet potatoes at 7/11 South Korea, they were very sweet almost caramel like.
Brought home two variety thinking they would be this one.
Just tasted these two and they aren’t as sweet.
Anyone know which variety is sold at 7/11 ?
by Total-Breadfruit9001
7 Comments
The one on the top is “hobak goguma” (pumpkin sweet potato) and the bottom is “bam goguma” (chestnut sweet potato). So the first tastes a bit like pumpkin and the second tastes a bit like chestnut. I don’t know the type they sell at the 7/11, but if I had to guess they probably baked them until the sugar started to seep out and turn golden. Maybe they even added a sugar glaze?
How do you bake them? They do taste very differently depending on the temperature and cooking style (fried, steam, roasted, microwave etc). Usually I bake them around 160°C for 40+ minutes and they have these caramelized crust and fluffy inside. I think store-bought stuff are baked at around 190-200°C.
Check out TikTok videos. Looks like some people steam them first then put them in the oven to finish
[bake at a low heat for a very long time](https://smittenkitchen.com/2018/02/slow-roasted-sweet-potatoes/) use a neutral oil not olive oil
In US, the sweetest sweet potatoes are called Garnet Sweet Potatoes.
If you have access to a fire pit wrap it in foil and throw them in. That’s the best way. Sweet flavor comes out more. If you have kimchi it tastes great with them
If the one at 7/11 was golden and bit juicy inside, it must be 호박고구마 (usually it is 호박고구마). 밤고구마 tends to be lighter in color and has less moisture, thus, the name chestnut. It does depend on how you bake it. If you take longer time to bake with lower heat, it would get sweeter. But the thing is, regardless of the type of SP you get and how well you bake it, some can still be less sweet than the ones you’ve tasted. Rather than from Emart, I would buy SP from a farm-owned naver store. That increases the chance of buying better quality SW from my experience.