Essay 1: Tapioca

A new series of essays written and read by the very popular Fiona Stafford, Professor of Literature at Somerville College, Oxford, following her much praised series of essays The Meaning of Trees and Composers and their Dogs. Here Fiona explores some of the world’s favourite puddings, all of which have surprising stories and have become symbols far beyond the pudding bowl.

Tapioca is equally loved and loathed; this hot and cold 'frogspawn' pudding’s story is reverse imperialism; an east Asian dessert with many guises, seen as old-fashioned in Britain, now hyper-trendy, conquering new global markets as 'pearls' in bubble tea. Key ingredient: starch from cassava. It is native to South America, taken to Asia and Africa by Portuguese merchants, it is also made into alcoholic drinks. Tapioca, a global staple food, bringing British school dinners many comic tales of revulsion. symbolises one of many puddings that came to Europe from 'the colonies' and was embraced and customised in the UK. Haters will easily believe it is used as a biodegradable plastic substitute (a renewable, reusable, recyclable eco-product) to make bags, gloves and aprons and as the starch used for starching shirts before ironing. Seeing tapioca is a primeval experience; it is viewing the elements that combine to form new life, the ova, the massive spawn of fish or frogs, the quantity ensuring some survive; speaking to us all with wonder or disgust.

Producer – Turan Ali A Bona Broadcasting production for BBC Radio 3

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