This plant originated in Brazil and was introduced to China in the 1820s. Today, it has been processed into many delicious dishes such as tapioca pearls in milk tea that everyone loves to drink, which is cassava.
Cassava sounds similar to sweet potatoes and potatoes, but in fact it is the complete opposite. It contains a very toxic substance, if not handled properly it will cause poisoning if eaten.
There are two types of cassava: sweet and bitter, but both are poisonous. However, sweet cassava is less poisonous, but it cannot be eaten directly. It must be peeled, washed, and cooked before eating. On the contrary, bitter cassava is highly toxic, containing a type of linamarin, which, after being eaten, reacts with gastric acid to produce hydrocyanic acid, a neurotoxin.
Therefore, before eating bitter cassava, you need to treat this poison by cooking it before eating. In the countryside, the elderly often say "eating a lot of cassava will make you drunk", which is a sign of mild poisoning.
Because cassava is poisonous, you need to remember not to eat it raw or undercooked, otherwise you will be poisoned.
Cassava is nicknamed "king of starch". Although it is toxic, it has become the food of nearly 600 million people worldwide and is widely grown in more than 100 countries and territories around the world.
If processed properly, completely removing toxins, cassava has many health benefits such as cooling the liver, anti-oxidation, detoxification, cancer prevention, because it contains some special substances such as quercetin, kaempferol, rutin, beta-carotene, ... beneficial for the body.
Fresh cassava has a short shelf life and should only be eaten within 2 days of harvest. If you want to preserve it for a long time, you should freeze it after peeling it, or soak it in water.
Before the 1950s, Chinese people grew cassava as their main food crop. By the 1980s, the problem of food and clothing for the people had been solved, so the Chinese no longer used cassava as a food crop but mainly as an ingredient for processing food and alcohol.
In China, cassava is mainly distributed in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guangdong Province, Hainan Province and other places. The largest growing areas are in Guangdong and Guangxi.
Currently, cassava products are widely sold in starch form, easily processed into many dishes such as cakes, tapioca flour, vermicelli, noodles, milk tea ingredients...
The texture of cooked tapioca flour is clear, chewy, and beautiful, so Chinese people like to add it to make dumpling skins and colorful tapioca pearls, which look very attractive.
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