Sago and Tapioca

[Kanga Japan]

Could someone please kindly confirm whether the following is correct or not:

Sago

สาคู (saakuu) extracted from various tropical palm stems, especially Metraxylon sagu (sago palm)

Tapioca

มันสำปะหลัง (man sam palang) extracted from the root of the cassava plant.

Thank you for your help.

[Mole]

Tapioca is แป้งมันสำปะหลัง which is the flour made from the cassava root. มันสำปะหลัง is the cassava root.

As for the flour made from sago, it's แป้งสาคู.

Only สาคู would normally be understood as a type of dish or dessert made from sago pellets.

https://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%B9_%28%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%29

[Kanga Japan]

Dear Mole,

Thank you for the information on Sago and Tapioca. We have now established the following;

มันสำปะหลัง (man sam palang)

Means the cassava plant. Tapioca is extracted from the root of this plant.

แป้งมันสำปะหลัง (bpaaeng man sam palang)

Means tapioca flour or tapioca starch.

แป้งสาคู (bpaaeng saakuu)

Means sago flour or sago starch.

The words 'man sam palang' and 'saakuu' seem to be used often to refer to the pellets/balls/pearls themselves. Also, most cooking books and even Kasma Loha-unchit and David Thompson (a fellow Aussie), two of the most widely respected experts on Thai cuisine list saakuu as tapioca. The dish Saku Sai Moo สาคูไส้หมู is often referred to (incorrectly) as Tapioca Dumplings.

Therefore:

1. Sago pellets/balls/pearls

I assume that it would be OK to list just Saakuu as this. Perhaps I could show สาคูเม็ดเล็ก (saakuu med lek) with this description.

2. Tapioca pellets/balls/pearls

Do you think it would be OK to list just Man Sam Palang as this, or better to show it as มันสำปะหลังเม็ดเล็ก (msn dsm palang med lek)?

Thanks for the site link you sent, but as it was all in Thai, I was not able to read it, although I did copy it to Google Translate, to get a sense of the content.

Thanks again for your help. I hope that the above sorts things out.

[Mole]

มันสำปะหลัง (man sam palang) doesn't mean the plant, but the root tubers. The word มัน, means tubers, and is used for potatoes, yams etc..

1. Just sako is fine for the pellets and this is what they're also usually called and readily understood.

2. According to this link

http://www.foodtravel.tv/recingradientShow_Detail.aspx?viewId=111

It appears that เม็ดสาคู (med saku) is used for pellets made from both saku and tapioca.

So, you can call both for เม็ดสาคู, but then specify if they're made from saku or tapioca.

[kriswillems]

On most websites I find เม็ดสาดู or สาดู are tapioca pellets, in fact I can't any example where real สาคู is used (but still they call it สาดู).

From Thai wikipedia:

มื่อเริ่มมีพ่อค้าจากจีนและตะวันตกเข้ามาค้าขายในบริเวณหมู่เกาะโมลุกกะ เมื่อได้ชิมอาหารที่ปรุงจากสาคูและมีความชื่นชอบ ทำให้แป้งสาคูกลายเป็นสินค้า ก่อนจะถูกแทนที่ด้วยเม็ดสาคูที่ทำจากแป้งมันสำปะหลัง

It says that saku was first sold on an Indonesian Island by Chinese salesmen but that it's now replaced by tapioca.

To me it looks like real สาคู is not used in the Thai kitchen. But I might be wrong.

But the name สาคู is still used for tapioca pearls.

The only thing related to สาคู that some Thai people eat are ด้วงสาคู a kind of insect that lives in the สาคู tree.

Edited April 27, 2014 by kriswillems

[Kanga Japan]

Dear Mole,

Thank you for the information. I was not aware that MAN meant root tuber.

You said that SAAKUU is fine to use for the sago pellets and that MED SAAKUU is used for both tapioca pellets and sago pellets. Therefor I will list the pellets as:

1. SAAKUU - sago pellets.

2. MED SAAKUU - tapioca pellets (made from cassava root)

3. MED SAAKUU - sago pellets (made from sagu palm)

Or just combine 2 and 3 as tapioca (cassava tuber root) or sago pellets (from sagu palm).

I would like to distinguish between the two of them though. Would it be strange to also call the tapioca pellets MED SAM PALANG?

Thanks for your help.

[kriswillems]

สาคูลาน

สาคูวิลาด

The 2 above are real สาคู pearls (fron สาคู tree)

The one on top are locally produced big pearls

The one below are smaller imported pearls

When just talking about สาคู it usually means tapioca pearls

[Mole]

Looks like kriswillems found it.

สาคูลาน saku lan

สาคูวิลาด saku wilan

And no, you can't say "med sampalang".

[Kanga Japan]

Dear Kriswillems,

Thank you for the information. Actually, I just replied to Mole a little while ago and hopefully we have things organized.

Your information reinforces the fact that there are no real distinguishing descriptions between the tapioca pellets and sago pellets. Also, it appears that sago itself is not really used in the Thai kitchen much. Both are basically the same texture and taste (none really), cooking times slightly different and one used to be larger than the other.

Thanks for the story on the Chinese salesmen. I appreciate you translating it for me. Also, interesting about the tapioca insects.

Thanks again.

[Kanga Japan]

Dear Kriswillems,

Thank you so much! You must have taken quite a bit of time looking for that information.

It's a good feeling, knowing we have got it all sort out. Feels like gradually completing a jigsaw puzzle.

Best regards,

[Kanga Japan]

Dear Mole,

Thanks for your latest reply. Yes, it does look like Kriswillems found us some new information. I appreciate your romanized spelling of those two words. The dictionaries I have to use were no help at all.

I didn't think I could use "med sampalang", but thought I would just give it a try.

Again, thanks for all your help.

[Kanga Japan]

So sorry, just one more question on this topic.

When I was putting the information in, I noticed that I had previously entered the following 'flour/starch' words:

bpaaeng man (แป้งมัน) - tapioca flour/starch

bpaaeng man (แป้งมัน) - potato flour/starch

bpaaeng man farang (แป้งมันฝรั่ง) - potato flour/starch

Are these correct? I know that potato is 'man farang'.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Mole]

แป้งมัน is a generic term meaning starch/flour and it'll be understood to be either tapioca or potato starch/flour by context. To be more concise, use:

แป้งมันสำปะหลัง for tapioca flour

แป้งมันฝรั่ง for potato flour

[Kanga Japan]

Thanks so much Mole.

That clears things up. You have been a great help.

Best regards.

[AyG]

แป้งมัน is a generic term meaning starch/flour and it'll be understood to be either tapioca or potato starch/flour by context.

Just to be pedantic, แป้ง is the generic term for flour. แป้งมัน is specifically flour from a root tuber.

[Kanga Japan]

Dear AyG,

Thanks for the additional information. I appreciate it.

In my opinion, one cannot be too 'pedantic' on a subject like this. The more information I have the better, so that the subtle differences will be understood.