We’ve been on a bubble tea kick at home, inspired by Peaceful Cuisine’s video.

Well, W- and J- have been having bubble tea. I’ve been enjoying my allotment of tapioca pearls in ginataan along with some bilo bilo (glutinous rice flour dumplings). Yum.

The only supermarket that carries tapioca pearls near us is a short drive or a 40-minute walk away. While browsing through the bulk food store that’s closer to us, W- discovered that they carry tapioca starch. It turns out that all you need to do is add 1/3 cup of boiling water to 1 cup of tapioca starch, knead it until it’s a smooth dough, and make whatever shapes you like. Here’s the video I picked up the instructions from:

A package of tapioca pearls is $2.39 for 250g, or $9.56/kg. The store-bought pearls contain food colouring and other additives. Tapioca starch was on sale today at $2.78/kg, and the regular price is $3.27/kg. Kneading the tapioca dough and rolling it into small spheres was fun and relaxing, so even the labour is worth it. Besides, it’s nice to know that even if I’m not near an Asian supermarket, I can make these little treats.

The bulk food store also carries soy milk powder, so we were joking about stocking up. That way, in an emergency situation, we can still have bubble tea. Bwahaha!

Hmm. Now I’m tempted to experiment with making soy milk from soybeans – these instructions look pretty straightforward…