At my school dining hall in 1970s Scotland, tapioca was sometimes served as pudding. It has since fallen out of favor as a culinary treat, and I can’t say I’m surprised.
This, along with a recent (and vastly more enjoyable) brush with bubble tea in New York City, are my sole encounters with cassava: tapioca and the bubbles in bubble tea are made from cassava root flour. But for the hundreds of millions of people in tropical and subtropical Africa, it is the staple food. For many good reasons. Cassava grows well on a variety of soils, requiring little fertilization or water. The harvest window is wide and the yield is steady over many years. Only sugarcane provides more food energy per hectare. And, despite my less-than-gourmet experiences, it is a versatile foodstuff.
Cassava can be consumed by the growers ...
