Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Que sago, sago, whatever will be will be...

Well, according to Wikipedia, sago and tapioca are two completely different things.

"Sago is a starch extracted from the pith of sago palm stems. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of Papua New Guinea and the Moluccas. It is traditionally cooked and eaten in the form of a pancake and served with fish.
Sago looks like many other starches, and both sago and tapioca are produced commercially in the form of "pearls". Sago pearls are similar in appearance to tapioca pearls, and the two may be used interchangeably in some dishes. This similarity causes some confusion in the names of dishes made with the pearls."

And yet I bought "Seed Tapioca (Sago)", so clearly McKenzie's thinks they are the same thing... go figure.

Either way it all sounds fairly exotic for for something my brain thinks of as boarding school food...

I haven't made anything with my tapioca yet, as every time I read the packet the first instructions is to 'soak the Tapioca for 24 before use', which really doesn't lend itself to a spur of the moment thing.

However, Mrs Beeton doesn't have that as an instruction so I may just give it a burl...
Stand by for some tapioca pudding real soon.

3 comments:

Shay said...

The spousal unit makes quite decent tapioca pudding in the microwave. Not gluey at all (although there still is that fish-eye look about it that is so unappetizing).

weenie_elise said...

ah, the spousal unit tells me he doesn't like tapioca... so may have to wait until he goes out...

50sgal said...

ooh I adore tapioca! I have to start hunting for a recipe a la' 1955. I will let you know the results and I can't wait to see yours. Good luck, (more for you if hubby doesn't like, right?)