“Yaki-imo” potatoes are not artificially sweetened with sugar, but they are very sweet by themselves, just like other sugary sweets.  They are also very soft, moist and gooey!

How can they become so sweet without any sugar?

Well, look at the interesting-figured machine in the photo below.

This is what changed ordinary sweet potatoes into an incredibly sweet yaki-imo potatoes!

This was invented only for the purpose of making yaki-imo potatoes.

All you have to do is just set the temperature level and the length of time for roasting, and put ordinary sweet potatoes inside.

The machine will heat the potatoes extremely slowly with far-infrared rays, which increases the amount of malt sugar contained in the potatoes.  Thus, the roasted potatoes become very, very sweet without being artificially sweetened.  This cannot be done easily at home!

You can see this miracle invention near the entrance of almost every grocery store in Japan, especially at the beginning of winter.

When I see one at this time of the year, I feel like the season is changing from autumn to winter.

Speaking of “yaki-imo” potatoes, I have pleasant memories of my childhood; I gathered fallen leaves in the schoolyard with my teacher and friends, set a fire on them, and put some sweet potatoes in there to make “yaki-imo” potatoes. They were absolutely delicious!

Also, you may be able to see a small car selling “yaki-imo” potatoes around town during the winter.  The driver’s voice from the yaki-imo car calling “Yaki-imo! Yaki-imo!” is definitely one of the seasonal traditions in Japan.

I haven’t seen one of the yaki-imo cars this year yet, but I hope to get one soon!