The elephant foot yam (Amorphophallus paeonifolius) is the huge, rounded, flattened underground corm of a tropical aroid grown across South and Southeast Asia as a staple and cash vegetable — known as suran, ol or jimikand in India and by many local names elsewhere. Beneath a rough, knobbly dark-brown skin lies dense, starchy, pinkish-cream to white flesh that cooks soft and earthy-nutty; raw or under-cooked it is acrid and throat-prickling and so is always eaten cooked.