Tapioca chips are a
snack food made from thin wafers of deep fried
cassava
''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated ...
root. It is commonly found in
South India
South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territ ...
and
Sri Lanka, as well as in
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
where it is known as ''
kripik
''Kripik'' or ''keripik'' are Indonesian chips or crisps, bite-size snack crackers that can be savoury or sweet. They are made from various dried fruits, tubers, vegetables, and fish that have undergone a deep frying process in hot vegetable o ...
singkong'' (cassava chips).
It is also a bulk commodity product that is produced and traded, and in this form is used to create products such as alcohol, animal feed, biofuel and starch.
Overview
The dish is prepared using raw cassava tubers, whereby the inner rind and outer skin are removed.
The chips are then fried or deep fried in
coconut oil, salted and often spiced with red chili powder.
Tapioca chips have a longer shelf life compared to raw cassava tubers.
The snack is sometimes purveyed and consumed as a
street food
Street food is ready-to-eat food or drinks sold by a hawker, or vendor, in a street or at other public places, such as markets or fairs. It is often sold from a portable food booth, food cart, or food truck and is meant for immediate consumpt ...
.
Some companies
mass-produce
Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batch ...
and purvey prepared tapioca chips that are packaged in bags.
Variations
India and Sri Lanka
The snack is widely available in
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...
,
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
,
Karnataka
Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...
, and
Sri Lanka. High in carbohydrates, it is a crunchy and flavorful snack food, and the chips are crunchier compared to banana chips and potato chips. Common variants include the non-spicy and spicy (red chili pepper powder and other spices added).
Indonesia
Thinly sliced cassava is deep fried to be made as ''
kripik
''Kripik'' or ''keripik'' are Indonesian chips or crisps, bite-size snack crackers that can be savoury or sweet. They are made from various dried fruits, tubers, vegetables, and fish that have undergone a deep frying process in hot vegetable o ...
singkong'' crackers (cassava chips or tapioca chips). Next to potato chips, cassava chips is a popular snack in Indonesia, and are often spiced with various flavors. Some are mass-produced and purveyed under various brand names in stores and supermarkets.
A variant of hot and spicy ''kripik singkong'' coated with sugar and chili pepper is known as ''kripik
balado'' or ''
keripik sanjay
Keripik sanjai or keripik sanjay ( Jawi: كاروڤواق سنجاي; Minangkabau: ''karupuak sanjai'') is a Minangkabau cassava kripik or chips from Bukittinggi city in West Sumatra, Indonesia. It made from thinly sliced cassava deep fried in am ...
'', a specialty of
Bukittinggi
Bukittinggi ( min, Bukiktinggi, Jawi: , formerly nl, Fort de Kock) is the third largest city in West Sumatra, Indonesia, with a population of 111,312 in 2010 and 121,028 in 2020, and an area of 25.24 km2. It is in the Minangkabau Highla ...
city in West Sumatra.
Commercial tapioca chips
Tapioca chips and pellets are also produced, sold and traded in bulk as a commodity, and are used to make starch, alcohol and
biofuel. The product is also used as animal feed in Kerala and Madras, India, and for this purpose, processing typically involves only the removal of the outer skin of the tubers.
Commercial varieties typically consist of the sliced and dried cassava tuber, and are not fried in oil.
See also
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Banana chips
Banana chips (sometimes called banana crisps) are deep-fried or dried, generally crispy slices of bananas. They are usually made from firmer, starchier banana varieties (" cooking bananas" or plantains) like the Saba and Nendran cultivars. T ...
*
Cassava-based dishes
A great variety of cassava-based dishes are consumed in the regions where cassava (''Manihot esculenta'', also called 'manioc' or 'yuca') is cultivated, and the ingredient is included many national or ethnic specialities.
As a food ingredient, ca ...
*
List of deep fried foods
This is a list of deep fried foods and dishes. Deep frying is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot fat, such as cooking oil. This is normally performed with a deep fryer or chip pan, and industrially, a pressure fryer or vacuum ...
*
List of street foods
This is a list of street foods. Street food is ready-to-eat food or drink typically sold by a vendor on a street and in other public places, such as at a market or fair. It is often sold from a portable food booth, food cart, or food truck and ...
*
Tapioca
Tapioca (; ) is a starch extracted from the storage roots of the cassava plant (''Manihot esculenta,'' also known as manioc), a species native to the North and Northeast regions of Brazil, but whose use is now spread throughout South America ...
*
Vegetable chips
Vegetable chips (also referred to as veggie chips) are chips (crisps) that are prepared using vegetables other than potatoes. Vegetable chips may be fried, deep-fried, dehydrated, dried or baked. Many different root vegetables or leaf vegetab ...
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{Deep fried foods
Deep fried foods
Indian snack foods
Indonesian snack foods
Kerala cuisine
Sri Lankan snack food
Cassava dishes