(Note: This is a something of a warm-up blog entry. I’m just pitching simulated games here in the bullpen while on the DL. The TFIM team doctors say I’m not quite 100%. I tell them I never was.)
Tapioca
The quintessential hospital food is tapioca pudding. I don’t believe I have ever encountered tapioca pudding outside a hospital.* In the latest instance (which I hope will be the last for a very long time) it was hidden beneath a generous heap of whipped cream, so I’d taken a couple of bites before I realized it was the dreaded tapioca.
I have always hated tapioca pudding. It looks like it's staring back at you. Or like it's not quite done yet -- an unbaked cake. I understand why hospital kitchens favor it because it fits into any of a number of enticingly-named special diets: the bland diet, the soft diet, etc. But, please!
* Except perhaps in a prison.