h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My memory is telling me that I saw, within the last month, a recipe for tapioca pudding made with beer, but can I find it? Can I heck as like. I've searched my browser history, I've searched the web, I've searched my emails in case it was a link in a food newsletter.

Not a sausage (well, sausages weren't actually in the recipe, but, you know).

I've got a bag of tapioca pearls that I've been wanting to do something more adventurous than just milk pudding with, and the picture looked so delicious Ooh, that's an idea - I haven't done an image search yet. That's often a better way of finding what you're looking for than a websearch. Half a mo...

Nope It looks like I must have imagined the whole thing. And yet it seemed so very real

Speaking of tapioca, have you ever had bubble tea?

I've tried it twice and never will again. When those large tapioca pearls shoot up the straw and hit my soft palate, I find it quite unpleasant. Plus, their texture is off-putting as well.

Anyway, now when I come across the word 'tapioca' I think of gagging rather than sweet pudding.

That's a pity. But it does give you the opportunity to invent it. It would complement Pastey's hop ice cream.

I don't think I've ever actually been in a place that sells bubble tea but I remember when it was all the rage a few years ago, and I recall thinking that it would be something I'd find very easy to decline.

Hop ice cream... I've used hops in a stuffing for chicken, and put them under the skin as a flavouring. Spent hops, that is - hops that were used to dry hop a beer, so they hadn't been boiled and still had a good deal of flavour and bitterness. I must try and get hold of some more of those and make ice cream with them

I can't remember if this recipe used just beer or if it was beer and milk, or what kind of beer it was, but comes to mind, of course

I've never had bubble tea either, but that description of "tapioca pearls hitting the soft palate" is enough to put me right off.

Thinking of beer milkshake type things, I'm thinking Horlicks made with cold milk, and with hops added, might make a nice cool drink. One to investigate next Summer!

I might look into growing some hops, but I'm not sure if they are the sort of plant where you need acres and acres of them to get a harvest worth talking about.

RE: Growing hops

The commercial hop farms I have seen have huge poles (like wooden telephone poles) connected by wires 20 or 40 feet in the air (maybe 5 to 10 metres?) You could probably raise them at home on a trellis. (just off the top of my head) I know they grow them here in the Pacific north west, which is almost the same climate as the UK



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Not necessarily acres - there's a pub I go to in Austin that grows them in big metal tubs. You won't be able to grow them indoors though unless your ceilings are about 20' high.

Stairwell maybe?

The stairwell at work would be just the place! No, it sounds like they are a bit too specialised a crop for me to grow in the back yard. I believe it cuts the hands off you if you have to harvest them, too.

Ah, the Pacific north west. Biggest hop-growing region of the US One day I'll take a trip to the Yakima Valley

Be sure to visit the reservation just south of Union Gap (Yakima Valley), that's where I saw them

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Hops growing https://maps.google.com/maps?q=union+gap+yakima,+wa&hl=en&ll=46.375375,-120.615902&spn=0.000474,0.219383&geocode=+&hnear=Union+Gap,+Yakima+County,+Washington&t=m&z=12&layer=c&cbll=46.375375,-120.615902&panoid=OSQ7C4Af01i4pem5WDMz8w&cbp=12,0,,0,0

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Just look at all that IPA