Laura Avery chats with Greg Nauta, who explains the difference between yams and sweet potatoes. He says there's no difference, and technically, they are all sweet potatoes. We just call one variety a yam. A true yam grows in the tropics but doesn't grow here.
Vicki Fan, of Beacon restaurant and The Point in Culver City, is making a persimmon salad for Thanksgiving. She is using the hard Fuyu variety of persimmon in a salad. She slices up the persimmon, adds a blue cheese, candied pecans, lettuce blend and duck confit. She does a simple dressing of rice wine vinegar, soy sauce and olive oil. If you don't have duck confit, you can add bacon, pancetta or speck instead or you can leave it out.