[Sca-cooks] Tapioca

[Susan Fox-Davis]

I have to agree with Ms. Huette here.  "Fish Eyes 'n' Glue" as Master
Atar used to call it.  I suppose you love it or you hate it, no middle
ground.

As for whether it's period, well, it depends what you count.  The manioc
tuber or cassava root is native to Brazil, and Portuguese settlers were
certainly using it before 1600.  However, I don't think the kind of
pudding we're talking about here was used before the 1800's.
<http://www.chebe.com/ManiocHistory.htm>
<http://www.kraftfoods.com/minutetap/mt_history.html>

Parts of the cassava plant are used in folk medicine.  The root is
poisonous and needs to be treated with boiling and such before it is
non-poisonous to humans.  One line of research theorizes that one of the
compounds in cassava may help fight cancer... although this is NOT to
say that eating tapioca pudding is a cancer cure.  Nice thought though.
<http://www.cancer.org/eprise/main/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_5_3X_Cassava?sitearea=ETO>

Have you tried "boba tea" or coffee?  It's been a fad in Asia for a
couple of years now.  Tapioca pearls in sweet milky iced tea or coffee,
sucked up through a specially large straw.  A little weird but good!

Selene, Caid, back at the weird research again

-=-=-=-=-

Huette von Ahrens wrote:

> --- Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com> wrote:
>
> > Is it possible
> > there's anything on the planet worse than tapioca?
> > Especially the
> > frog-egg kind?
> >
> > Adamantius
>
> What???!!!???
>
> Tapioca is wonderful!!!  I love tapioca!!!  Especially
> the frog-egg kind !!!  It is one of my comfort foods.