Patience partially pays; Bob answers Luigi’s year-old “what the heck is it?”
The word is Zulu, but also is also anglicized as Madumbe as in Zulu the “A” is almost silent. The plant is a Taro species grown in Natal and Eastern Cape in South Africa and looks more like the common Arum than the tropical Taro, the corm looks like the Arum corm. Just boiled it is delicious, unlike the Taro which is rather bland.
What we really want (obviously) is a binomial. Anyone?
Hi. I’m Chinese . We also consume amaDumbe , known as Wu Do in Chinese ( Mandarin ) . We have more than one variety of this taro .
I reside in Cape Town and actually grow these in my vegetable garden. Texture is somewhat dryer then those bought in the veg shops who get their stock from KZN. We eat them in various forms. Boiled, stewed and even grated, mixed with minced pork and deep fried or also a meatless variant of this fried fritter.
Various types can be bought from the veg vendors in Cyrildene in Johannesburg.