Generations of British children grew up on the school-dinner concoction Frog's Spawn, a milky dessert, all damp and squidgy. It was their revolted name for Tapioca. One of those foods you either love or hate, those children almost without exception hated it. It hasn't been served in schools for decades. Such a shame.

In South East Asia, tapioca is the bubble quotient in Bubble Tea. These pearls are made from the cassava (manioc) root, dried, processed and reconstituted into beads the size of expensive pearls. They have absolutely no flavor so getting their texture right is crucial. The beads are boiled for around 25 minutes then quickly cooled. Good Bubble Tea makers won't keep unused beads overnight because they say they lose their proper consistency. (Check this list for some local sources.) What they bring to the tea is a good chewy tasteless addition to a drink that is otherwise quite sweet.

As a pudding, made much like rice pudding with milk, sugar and vanilla, tapioca is a useful food for the sickroom as it's very easy to digest. But it can star on the dining room table too, with a final addition of whipped cream folded in if the pudding has cooled. Make it with tapioca beads or tapioca flakes in the same way as you would a rice pudding.

To 3 cups of whole milk, add 1/2 cup of tapioca pearls, 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Combine them all in a heavy bottomed pan on the stove and cook over medium heat, stirring all the while, until it comes to a boil. Lower the heat to its lowest setting and simmer 8 minutes, stirring all the time. You can add 2 beaten eggs to enrich this after 5 minutes of the simmer. Then, without stopping the stirring, simmer over the lowest possible heat for 3 minutes or more till thickened.

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