i found a small packet of white rabbit candies the other day, not just the plain ones, but special edition red bean white rabbits. these i had bought while i was in singapore back in february. yes, i really am getting better at not hoarding food — by which i mean, actually eating what i buy rather than not buying excessive amounts of (usually) junk food in stellar packaging — but sometimes i do chance upon a box of treats in a most unexpected location in my house. at the very bottom of my bookshelf, for example, or the highest, most out-of-reach kitchen cupboard.

so. i’d acquired these months and months ago, way before the chinese melamine-in-milk scandal, and the melamine-in-white rabbit scandal specifically, and i spent quite a bit of time thinking about whether or not i should eat them. even if they did contain melamine, how much toxicity could there be in a handful of candies? the verdict is still out as of this moment (your counsel would be appreciated, dear reader), but here is something i did decide to eat a couple of weeks ago as i lay dying on the red couch: pearl sago.

i think, at the time, my argument was, well, it couldn’t possibly do any more harm. i was already zombie, and besides, how reassuring is a packet emblazoned with… well, i think it says, “lupenion luality”, which in a parallel universe untainted by melamine in milk, might possibly pass for “superior quality”. maybe.

but i’d received a tip from a reliable source championing the restorative powers of a bowl of freshly cooked sago. so i retrieved the packet from the back of the pantry, and boiled (and boiled and boiled) a cup of these colourful little spheres, and after straining them from their supernaturally gooey residue, i stirred in a couple spoons of coconut milk and a swirl of kithul treacle. twas pretty good, and not in the last bit poisonous. i lived to tell the tale after all.

now, about those white rabbits…