The Vintage Pudding You Don't See On Diner Menus Anymore

Today's diner menus are known for featuring universal favorites, like freshly made pancakes, creamy milkshakes, and meaty cheeseburgers. However, once upon a time, they used to include unusual meals that were more of an acquired taste, like sardine sandwiches or canned peaches served on a bed of cottage cheese and lettuce. These vintage diner foods have disappeared from menus over the years due to changing food trends. An old-school dessert that has similarly lost its popularity with the passage of time is tapioca pudding.

Tapioca is a starch that comes from cassava root. Available in the form of flour, flakes, and pearls (small, white opaque balls that become translucent upon cooking), it's a versatile ingredient in both sweet and savory dishes that require a thickening agent. Tapioca pudding is a cold, set dessert that's made with milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and tapioca pearls. The pearls are simmered in milk and sugar until tender, and then a small amount of this mixture is whisked into some beaten eggs. The eggs are returned to the pan and stirred continuously with the rest of the milk and tapioca until the final texture becomes thick and custardy. So, why did this creamy pudding fall out of favor? The truth is that the odd texture and appearance of this dessert has long been a polarizing issue. The pearls had a chewy consistency and an almost bouncy exterior that earned them the nickname frogspawn.

As tapioca pudding was made with staple ingredients, such as milk and sugar, it was cheap to prepare, likely making it a dish that diner owners could whip up easily and quickly. Plus, there were heaps of bandwidth to experiment with the flavor, from sprinkling in warming spices like cinnamon to serving it with a dollop of raspberry jam or a scattering of dried fruit. Moreover, as it could be served cold, it was probably a useful make-ahead dish that could sit happily in the fridge until an order came in (indeed, as the pudding cooled it became even thicker, lending the final dish a rich consistency). Nevertheless, this vintage pudding lost out to other more popular desserts, like apple pie, peach cobbler, and cheesecake.

Tapioca pearls have returned to the spotlight recently due to the rising popularity of boba (or bubble) tea. These Taiwanese drinks are made by blending tea with milk or fruit. The "bubbles" that sit at the bottom are actually tapioca pearls, which lend these beverages their distinctive texture and slurpable personality. You can make your own boba at home by boiling tapioca pearls in water until soft and steeping them in a sugar syrup before adding them to your blended drink.