It appears the spadix of taro, Colocasia esculenta, is rarely eaten. But the book Cornucopia II by Facciola (1998) says the spadix (phallic looking bit in middle of the flower) was roasted with pork or fish in Japan as a delicacy. I could only find one online paper reporting its use as food, in Dali, China, it is deep fried then stewed or stir fried with pork and chili peppers (The Diversity of Edible Flowers and its Biocultural Role in Local Food Systems in Dali, South West China. Zhang et al 2025).
I decided to try the spadix of the variety Black Magic that had produced flowers in an outdoor water tub in Wellington, New Zealand.
I chewed and spat out a bit raw, as expected it produce the sensation of burning needles in the mouth due to toxic calcium oxalate crystals common in aroids. So I boiled it for an hour with two changes of water, I then found it bland in flavor but with an interesting creamy texture. There was still a very slight numbing and tingling, perhaps that is what they like about it in Dali and Japan, like the numbing and tingling enjoyed when eating the puffer fish in Japan, due to traces of toxin almost entirely eliminated through cooking. Combined with the heat of chili peppers, as in Dali, the cooked spadix would be rather intense and unique.
Apparently lengthy cooking does not completely remove toxic calcium oxalate crystals in taro, corms included. The idea is to reduce it to a basically harmless dose. But people with kidney problems and rheumatoid arthritis are best to avoid taro and other aroids unless they are fermented, which is the only way to completely eliminate the crystals (Discovering Vegetables and Herbs and Spices. Susanna Lyle. 2009.)
