Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Go Look at Mona Lisa Potato

When I wrote about The Year of the Potato a few days ago, I didn't dream that it could be the year of the Mona Lisa Potato. But a website creator in France has honored this UN commemorative with great imagination by creating a fabulous painting: Mona Lisa Potatoes. This website (cited by blogger El Papou) also refers to a potato variety called Mona Lisa.

I asked myself, is this potato variety authentic? Well, google refers to an article about how this variety resists viruses. So there you are. Moreover, here's a quote from an article by Medwin Williams of the National Vegetable Society called "Seed Catalogues - Potato Lists" --

"Though not new by any means, they have re introduced an old favourite of mine called Mona Lisa which also used to be a firm favourite with the late Brython Stenner. Mona Lisa is a Dutch variety and what I liked about it at the time was the weight and consistency of the yield. The colour is creamy white and the shape is oval but more often has a tendency towards a pear sort of shape where the sprouting end, or the rose end, is much wider than the other end. The shape didn't prove to be a problem at all as it"s very consistent from haulm to haulm giving you plenty of potatoes to have a good selection from."

2 comments:

Martin said...

I cooked with mona lisas in Spain recently - fried in olive oil, they made some of the best chips (F.fries) I've ever made.

mpearsonmadrid said...

A lovely potato. Just made some creamy mash with some organic ones. Firm and full flavoured.