Talk:Tapioca

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Why would you take out the sentence

These come in both large-pearl and small-pearl forms.

So what if many things come in both large and small forms? Many things don't. Large-pearl tapioca handles very differently from small-pearl.

jaknouse 19:15 29 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Contents 1 How are spheres made? 2 Images 3 Red/Green branches? 4 The "fact" about Canada is erroneous 5 Is tapioca a processed food? 6 New Zealand 7 Merge proposal 8 Chowwary is Malayalam for Tapioca? 9 US-Centric Language?

[edit] How are spheres made?

The external link describing the production process is interesting, but does not explain (to me, at least) how drying turns the wet goo into (aparently) perfectly spherical pearls. So tell us please, why are pearls so spherical, instead of irregular chunks?

I am just guessing, but I think a rotary kiln would do it. A rotary kiln is a large barrel, laid on its side, almost horizontal, rotated, while fire is shot into the slightly raised end.

no sir you are wrong, the cassava plant is sectioned and they just run it through a binder that shakes loose the sections and if continued it will segment it into small enough pieces —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.243.157.15 (talk • contribs)

[edit] Images

Can you put in some images of both the pearls and the original plant? It would be very helpful. Iopq 23:38, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

Yes, a picture would be nice--Aegisxgundam 03:29, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Red/Green branches?

What is the support for the red/green branches assertion? The usual dichotomy is between bitter and sweet varieties, with the latter sometimes (erroneously) considered not to require removal of cyanide-generating components before consumption (although this is disputed). I'm inclined to remove the red/green phrase from this article. Myron 10:28, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] The "fact" about Canada is erroneous

I was born in Canada 66 years ago. I have lived here for 66 years. I have NEVER heard the suggestion that tapioca is fed to poor children. What nonsense!!

[edit] Is tapioca a processed food?

The opening line

Tapioca is an essentially flavourless starchy ingredient, or fecula, produced from treated and dried cassava (manioc) root and used in cooking. It is similar to sago.

suggests that it is a processed product from the cassava root. Later paragraphs seems contradict that. "In the South Indian State of Kerala Tapioca is a staple food. Boiled Tapioca is normally eaten with fish curry or beef, and is a traditional favorite of Keralites.", "During World War II's Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia, many refugees survived on tapioca." This article[1] mentioned the various names cassava goes by in different countries. Most notably, that cassava is known as tapioca in india. I can't find any other mention, but where I live, tapioca is used to refer to the cassava root as well. --Dodo bird 14:43, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New Zealand

Here, at least — I don't know about other countries — tapioca pearls are labelled as "sago", presumably because of their shape, but even though it is a different plant entirely! porges 06:06, 1 April 2006 (UTC) That's odd - because in Australia, Sago is often labelled "Seed Tapioca" - exactly the reverse!

[edit] Merge proposal

I think this is the same as Tapiaco. If I'm mistaken, please remove these tags. If it's the same, but the alternate spelling is used, there may be a better way to say that in the Tapioca article than leave a separate Tapiaco one.

[edit] Chowwary is Malayalam for Tapioca?

"Tapioka is called Chowwary in Malayalam." Being a native Malayalam speaker, I have never heard that Chowwary is the same as Tapioca. As far as I know, Chowwary is a form of Barley. I could be mistaken on this one. Therefore, not editing the article directly

[edit] US-Centric Language?

The article says "It is processed into either fine dried flakes or, more commonly, small hard white spheres or "pearls" that are soaked before use." Most commonly where? According to some random person's experience? Let's get a world-wide perspective or some specifics about what this "more commonly" means.

In Brazil, at least in Fortaleza on the northeast coast, flakes and spheres are uncommon. They primarily use the flour (polvilho doce) to make cheese bread (pao de queijo) and what they call tapioca (see below). Take a look at a Brazilian food importer's product page for manioc starch and other products from Brazil. Farinha de Mandioca is much coarser (which I believe contains some of the fiber of the root, and may have some starch, but I don't know) and is eaten plain in many meals. Technically, that may be considered tapioca as well.

In Brazil, the word tapioca itself means the tortilla-like fried product (though it is never browned, the tapioca is made in a very hot pan and almost melts together instead of cooking the way you'd think by the word frying), and is never a pudding. Calling it a tortilla is in fact a little bit misleading as even the thinnest tapioca is at least three times as thick as a regular tortilla, and some tapioca is formed to be as much as an inch thick and only about 4 inches in diameter. Here's some tapioca, though if you want a guaranteed copyright-free image (or any others to do with this topic) I can arrange to get a fresh one straight out of Brazil. See the Wiki page on Tapioca for more information, as well. Erik Eckhardt (talk) 07:14, 5 January 2008 (UTC)