What is Taro?

We make Tiny Tacos with only taro, avocado oil, and sea salt.

We’re obsessed with taro and collected these 10 taro fun facts for you.

Turns out taro isn’t just the perfect vessel for your favorite taco fillings.

It also serves as a worldwide food staple and was one of the globe’s earliest cultivated plants.

• Although Taro is mostly known in the US thanks to Boba tea, it’s a primary food staple among the Oceanic, South Asian, and African people. Because it’s so easy to digest, taro constitutes baby food for many cultures.1   

•  Known as Kalo in Hawaiian, taro represents more than just a cuisine in Hawaii. That’s because native Hawaiians believe a taro plant grew from the stillborn baby of gods Hoʻohokukalani and Wākea. Thus, Taro’s often used in sacred Hawaiian ceremonies due to this powerful resonant connection with humans.2

• Fiji and Hawaii are both major international exporters of taro and maintain strict laws banning the use of pesticides. At Tiny Taco BK we pass along that all natural  and non GMO Taro to you.3 

• Often confused with roots or bulbs, taro are actually corms. A corm works as a plant’s storage organ and looks like a swollen underground plant stem. Because it’s underground, taro fits the definition of a root vegetable. But corm is a much more accurate and specific characterization.4

• There are more than 50 different names for taro across the world including satoimo in Japanese, jimbi in Swahili, and malanga in Spanish.5

• In Cyprus they’ve cooked with taro since the Roman Empire (27 BC) serving it fried or in tomato sauce and meat casseroles.

• Taro is a tropical, perennial, flowering plant. Often called elephant ears, taro flowers resemble colorful, flat calla lilies.7 

• A popular staple of Polynesian cuisine, Poi, is made with only taro (or other root vegetable) and water. Puréed and served in bowls, poi is measured by the number of fingers it takes to eat by hand.8

• If you get the chance to visit Haiti, we recommend trying the street cart favorite, Acra. Made from grated taro formed into tasty fritters that sell like literal hotcakes to hungry Haitians and tourists.

• Tiny Taco BK explored every type of root vegetable before discovering the thin and crispy wonder of taro for our tiny tacos. Taro graces our tacos with alabaster character and distinctive purple dashes. It’s also delightfully crunchy - enhancing without intruding on filling flavors.