This is a quote i have to share:

[highlyeccentric]

Although pumpkin is readily available in many countries, Australia is the only one to consider it seriously as a vegetable.

- The Women's Weekly Cookbook, 1970-something.

We not only consider our pumpkins, we consider them *seriously*. Not like the Americans, who clearly take their pumpkins lightly, appropriating them as a source of festivity and jokes.

And just in case you thought we might consider pumpkins as meat, starch, dessert, or even furniture, let us make it clear: we consider pumpkin seriously as a vegetable. Pumpkins in this country are secure and widely affirmed in their identity as vegetables!

Pumpkin: SRS BIZNIS FOODSTUFFS

Comments

[waywren]

Yeah, it's AWFUL. They basically candy it, and then they cover it with TINY MARSHMALLOWS.

That poor sweet tater.

[adelheid]

Technically accurate, but one eats the candied sweet potato as part of the main course. It is NOT a dessert. :-)

Also, as much as I love pumpkin soup and pumpkin curry, and on rare occasions, roast pumpkin, pumpkin pie is the bestest thing in the whole WORLD. (And sweet potatotes cooked with lots of butter and brown sugar are not that far behind.)

But wait, there's more!

[cursor_mundi]

Heeeey, we also turn it into fries/chips, eat it just like a baked potato, that sort of thing. The sweetness is a regional difference--much more common in the south, particularly sweet potato pie which has tons of butter as well. In the mid-Atlantic region, anyway, the candied and marshmallow-festooned version only appears as a side dish during Thanksgiving.

Re: But wait, there's more!

[waywren]

Well, yes, but in the south the aforementioned Pie is so rabidly presented that I honestly thought I hated sweet potatoes until mom did one as a baked potato and shoved a piece into my mouth. A very sad thing.

Re: But wait, there's more!

[cursor_mundi]

I hear you. The pie...does not have much in common with the potato; more in common with butter. Sweet potato fries are much tastier! (And saltier. Mmm. Salt.)