Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe SHANGHAI, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Chinese restaurants and food sellers say they anticipate purple sweet potatoes that mutated during a space mission to be popular Valentines Day items. Haikou Purple Orchid Co. Ltd., which grows the potatoes from seeds altered during an October 2005 voyage on the Shenzhou VI manned spacecraft, said the space spuds have a deeper purple color and a more glutinous taste than previous generations of the potato, Xinhua, China's official government-run news agency, reported Tuesday. Advertisement Purple is seen as the color of nobility and romance in China, and many Shanghai restaurants have stocked up on the purple potatoes offering special dishes as part of Valentines Day promotions. Hua Guoqiang, general manager of Shanghai's Carnation Restaurant, said the eatery has gone through hundreds of pounds of the potatoes since the start of the promotion.
