Boba

For those of you who aren't from Southern California or an Asian country, boba may be a new word. When I first came to SoCal, my roommate took me out for some "real" Chinese food (she was from Taiwan) and boba. I welcomed the new experience. We ate at a restaurant that serves traditional Chinese food (not American-Chinese food), and the meal was delicious. Then we stopped and got boba at a little shop. Boba is also called "bubble tea" and the "bubbles" are made from little pearls of manioc (a root that grows in tropical areas, serves as a staple food, and is the same thing that they make tapioca pudding from). The little boba balls are about a centimeter in diameter and can be sucked out of the drink with an oversized straw. They really don't taste like anything, but they are kind of fun, and they can be added to any cold beverage (I think they are best with a mango slush). They also make really good projectiles:)
It's strange for me to see manioc take such an urban form. I was first introduced to manioc in Papua New Guinea, where it is eaten as a staple food and called tapioc. As you can imagine, it is very starchy and fills the tummy. Though it had very little taste, the texture and appearance were very unique. It was served as a small loaf or lump and was white and almost translucent. The texture was very similar to rubber, but with a little effort it could be chewed and swallowed. The thing I remember most about it however, was the fact that it sat like a rock in my stomach.
The next time I saw manioc was in Cameroon. It seems that every tribe in Cameroon has a different way of preparing and eating manioc. Two of the most notable are baton du manioc and water fufu. Baton du manioc can be found in open air markets. It has an unmistakable odor that, oddly enough, resembles the smell of cows. It's wrapped up in banana leaves and looks like a stick. When the leaves are removed, the starchy translucent manioc is revealed on the inside. Though it was prepared differently, Baton du manioc tasted just like tapioc. The other form, water fufu, was slightly less appetizing to me. I won't torture you with the details, but the processing of this form of manioc involves fermenting it. Because I was aware of the process used to prepare it, I don't think I ever actually tasted water fufu.
Isn't it strange that something so simple would take on so many different forms? ...tapioca pudding, boba, tapioc, manioc loaves, baton du manioc, and water fufu. I guess it is much like rice, the other staple food of the world; everyone finds their own way of preparing it.