THURSDAY THE LONG WAY: TAPIOCA

Thursday highlights food from out of the way places, food memories that have formed the way I view food, both cooking and eating it. They may be inspired by recent meals, the food-media, or anything at all.

All this playing around with tapioca reminds me of my childhood. When I was a kid I loved tapioca. I loved chocolate and rice pudding with whipped cream, diner style (still do, can't lie). But above and beyond, tapioca pudding was my favorite. The vanilla flavoring, the smooth custard, warm off the stove before it could set or cool the next morning, those gooey-firm tiny, gum-bubbles were just something I couldn't get enough of. I could eat it like I'd like to eat sushi now, everyday.

I vividly remember one night after dinner when I was about 9 or 10 years old and we were living in Hong Kong when I wanted to make tapioca pudding and my folks said it was too late and we could make some popcorn instead while we watched a movie. This suggestion didn't appeal to me at all, popcorn being wonderful with lots of salt and butter but not being any kind of subsititution to my 10-year-old sensibilities for tapioca.

I told them I couldn't wait to grow up so that I could make a HUGE bowl of tapioca and drive cross-country straight from New York to California. I don't remember if it was meant to be a mission-statement or if I thought that would show them or what but I do remember them finding it pretty funny.

Well I did the cross-country drive two years ago, flying to L.A. and driving back to New York and while I ate some great food and it was a lot of fun I didn't have any pudding along the way. That's too bad cause I bet driving across Texas would have been much better with tapioca.