My Tapioca Creation...share similar stories please

@cianoy (513)
Philippines
February 4, 2010 11:55pm CST
This is my story... Sago Fix In the past weeks, I found myself craving for mango sago (tapioca), like the one we used to have in the Tower 1 Cafeteria. In fact, I even created a discussion especially for it. With my penchant for experimentation without due research, I bought raw sago (the really small ones) from Cherry Supermarket. However, since they didn't have ripe mangoes handy, I figured I would try it out with my lakatan bananas at home first. As it turns out, when you boil it, the concoction sorta looks like gawgaw (paste). Hmmm...odd. I turned off the flame and left it to cool down. In the early afternoon, I added more water and boiled it for a few minutes again as instructed. Now it looked like slightly brown gawgaw. Hmmm...will this go into my lengthening list of failed experiments? I was not to be denied. After it cooled a bit, I strained the contents of the pot and stirred. True enough it looked like sago. Yey! Then I thought of Taro Ice. Ok, my drink has to be tea based. I got my banana, some slim milk, tea and some sugar. I blended those with ice and put sago in the glass. Not bad. But that was the condensed version. What I didn't say off hand was that I tried 3-4 times with varying amounts. Needless to say, after my attempts, I was so full of bananas, milk, tea and of course sago. It was still bland, but I will not be denied. I will try again. After all, I've only consumed a very small part of the raw sago pack I bought. Instead of my non-fat milk, I will try all purpose cream or condensed milk. In lieu of the cinnamon black tea I tried, I will try my rice tasting green tea. Yum yum! Wait for it...
1 response
• Philippines
5 Feb 10
so how was it? how did it taste like? i didn't know banana and tea could go well together. hehe ... for the less adventurous me... i'd say sans the tea, it's a fine dessert on its own. tapioca pearls especially the small ones consume a lot of sugar if you wanna have it sweet. but i think too much sugar will depict the purpose of your tea. i think to bring out the sweetness in sugar in a beverage, without using too much sugar itself... try doing sugar syrup by dissolving brown sugar in a little water, bring it to a simmer and add a few drops of vanilla. let it cool a bit before you add it as a sweetener in your beverages. it's a great sweetener for beverages with small tapioca pearls. i have no tea-based concoctions with tapioca. but for desserts, try buco-pandan with gelatin and tapioca. or iced banana con tapioca (locally known as banana con yelo). or macapuno dessert with kaong and tapioca pearls.
@cianoy (513)
• Philippines
5 Feb 10
Yes, I will try again tonight. Apart from sugar, I think I'll try boiling it with milk as well just to see. I didn't know you had culinary talents as well. Care to share?
• Philippines
5 Feb 10
ha-ha... i can cope reasonably well in the kitchen, because we have to... coming from a large family and all. children in the family are quite demanding in terms of food. hehe... but no talents or culinary expertise to speak of. just so-so.
@cianoy (513)
• Philippines
6 Feb 10
I come from a big family too and I observed that it's not a guarantee that each one will have "exposure" in the kitchen. Not at all. Some are more predisposed, like me, which unfortunately is not an indicator of talent.