Cassava
Cassava
Yesterday, I went to a Cuban restaurant in Roppongi, Tokyo. My friend Takahashi-san knew a good Latin band, and we really enjoyed the live music. The photo shows a cassava dish. Cassava is a really important food in many developing countries, but I had never tried it before. The cassava dish we had was boiled cassava from Thailand with lots of garlic and butter. It was delishious.
Cassava rice (landang) is a popular food in the Philippines. Landang retains much of the protein of the cassava root. It is used in the Philippines as a substitute for rice or maize. Originally, cassava comes from Latin America, but it is also very often eaten in Asia and Africa. Thailand is the biggest exporter of cassava, and also produces tapioca.
Recently, I saw a funny news story from Thailand about cassava: Wild elephants stumbled upon a feast when they found a tapioca delivery truck with a flat tire!
The driver, Somkuan Sirisat, said he had gone for help to repair the tire Sunday night, and when he returned, he found five or six elephants surrounding his truck and devouring its contents.
"I was too afraid to go toward the truck," Somkuan told television station ITV.
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