Twice a Week

I suppose we had a milk pudding at least twice a week throughout my childhood, whether at home or school. Whilst rice pudding has come back into favour, other milk puddings remain forgotten. Those who remember them may not regret their demise. The arrival of tapioca (footballs), sago (frogspawn) and semolina (a sort of grainy porridge) at the school dining table was always a divisive moment: greedy little chaps like myself would lick their lips; others would recoil with horror.

These odd starches are indeed a little obscure. While semolina is only wheat, sago is extracted from tropical palms, and tapioca is derived from manioc or cassava. The texture of these starches is a little slippery. That is why odd people like me like them, but most people don’t.