Sago pancake. Sago is often produced commercially in the form of "pearls" (small rounded starch aggregates, partly gelatinized by heating). Sago pearls can be boiled with water or milk and sugar to make a sweet sago pudding. Sago pearls are similar in appearance to the pearled starches of other origin, e.g. cassava starch (tapioca) and potato starch, and they may be used interchangeably in some dishes. The name "sago" is also sometimes used for starch extracted from other sources, especially the sago cycad, "Cycas revoluta". The sago cycad is also commonly known (confusingly) as the sago palm, although this is a
Sago pink, yellow, green, etc. When soaked and cooked, both become much larger, translucent, soft and spongy. Both are widely used in Indian, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan cuisine in a variety of dishes and around the world, usually in puddings. In India, it is used in a variety of dishes such as desserts boiled with sweetened milk on occasion of religious fasts. In India, "Tapioca Sago" is considered an acceptable form of nutrition during periods of fasts for religious purposes or for infants or ill persons. In the UK, both sago and tapioca have long been used in sweet milk puddings.