Sago is tiny hard white grains of starch, washed out of the inside of certain palm trees. Cooks boil them in milk until they go soft and a little see-through, then sweeten the dish — the old British pudding is sago pudding. In East and Southeast Asia the same little pearls go into sweet soups. Though actually, what many shops sell as sago is tapioca, which comes from cassava, a different plant. They look and cook almost the same, so home cooks often treat them as one thing. The English word came from Malay sagu, through Portuguese or Dutch. An ordinary food word, not a fancy one.

西米（真正西米來自棕櫚澱粉；台灣「西米露」裡的粒常常其實是木薯粉圓）