Vegetable of the year: The purple shall govern

Instagram is in a purple food panic. Hipsters everywhere are photographing the ube, a strange purple Filipino yam.

Pronounced "oo-bea", this tuber is top of the list for VOTY 2017 (that's trend forecaster language for Vegetable Of The Year, and it's in capitals because it's a thing).

Apparently, ube tastes something like white chocolate with earthy notes, pistachio and traditional sweet potato. Its subtle flavour is hard to explain, but since Filipino chef Björn DelaCruz baked the first gold-covered ube doughnuts at the Manila Social Club, his Brooklyn restaurant, the cultural zeitgeist has been going bananas.

Past recipients of the Vegetable Of The Year tell us not only about how we ate but what kind of life we might have wanted to live.

To begin with, there certainly wasn't a VOTY in 1983. That's because veggies were so far down on the coolness scale that ranking them was unimaginable. That we pay so much attention to them now is a good sign.

What about VOTY 2006, when heritage tomatoes came in odd shapes and colours? The category of heirloom vegetables, including antique carrots (VOTY 2012), expresses a romantic longing for an imagined organic pastoral lifestyle that never really existed.

Similarly, Brussels sprouts (VOTY 2010) and cauliflower (VOTY 2014) tap into nostalgia for a domestic life that seemed safe and familiar. With the world turning upside down, comfort food like cauliflower reminds us of the (sometimes equally mythical) good old days.

Cauliflower also happens to be a possible substitute for "bad" brown food such as pizza dough, and makes a pretty good steak if cut thick and grilled.

To become a trendy veggie, a plant has to be able to be available outside the Amazon, let's say, (so not açaí); should be affordable (not quinoa); and one should ideally be able to spell and pronounce the name (neither açaí nor quinoa qualify).

Of course, the ube breaks all the above rules, which is why I'm sure it'll never catch on in South Africa. We're more likely to see seaweed rising up the fashion scale. Seaweed is important in many traditional cultural cuisine, widely available, forage-able, strangely familiar, can be dried or fresh, is healthy, and reminds one of the beach.

Also, I'd put my money on weeds - dandelions are delicious, free and with the world turning upside down we may not be able to get punnets of luxury heirloom carrots or imported Filipino yams.