Potato, Usage/Application : Cooking, Baking, Frying, Boiling

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family (also known as the nightshades). The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber.

It remains an essential crop in Europe (especially eastern and central Europe), where per capita production is still the highest in the world, but the most rapid expansion over the past few decades has occurred in southern and eastern Asia. China is now the world's largest potato-producing country, and nearly a third of the world's potatoes are harvested in China and India.

Apart from its well known cullinary uses (from fries to pies and curries), potato is alos used to brew alcoholic beverages such as , potcheen, or akvavit. Potato starch is used in the food industry and or the manufacturing of papers and boards.