RICE – CIRCLING THE WORLD
ONE GRAIN AT A TIME
By Stacey Kumagai
Did you know that if there was one universal grain that could unite the entire world, it would be rice? This is true. Rice is grown on every single continent. And rice is the staple item of every culture in one form or another. While most people only know the difference between white, brown, wild, short, medium and long grain rices, there are actually over 100,000 different kinds of rice! Mainstream grocery stores are now carrying Basmati, Arborio (risotto), Jasmine and Golden varieties and consumers can now find red Himalayan rice, sweet black rice, sweet purple rice, sushi rice and bahia rice.
Aside from the different kinds of rice that exist : African, Spanish, Bhutanese, Australian, Dominican, Iranian, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Valencian, Nepalese, Italian, Bangladeshi, Laotian, Thai, Phillippine and Sri Lankan, yes there are even more!!! Here in the United States you will find that 85 percent of the rice that is grown here is also consumed here. Many varieties are grown in Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri. And there are unique varieties like Pecan rice and Popcorn rice from Louisiana and new varieties from California like Calmochi, Calrose, Wehani and Akitakomachi. A lot of rice growers in the United States are growing their rice organically and are taking responsibility to conserve water while supporting the rural economy.
With just as many different kinds of rice, there are also hundreds of thousands of uses for rice besides just consuming it as a staple in the diet, side dish, shunned carb, or welcomed trendy ‘rice cake’ or childhood puffed rice cereal that talks. Rice has also become part of the interior decorator’s world to secure flowers in a vase, creative bottle sculptures in lieu of sand and also an aromatherapy pillow filled with grains and essential oils. It is also a popular paper to make Shoji screens to divide rooms, lampshades and decorative artwork for fine paintings.
Rice flour has also been a long-time favorite cosmetic and body powder, facial exfoliant and culinary flour substitute for people with wheat allergies. Rice flour is also used to make rice noodles (the glass-looking noodles found in Thai cuisine), crackers, chips, baby foods and pet foods. Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East enjoy rice pudding just as much as North America and Nordic countries, but rice is more than just pudding when it comes to desserts. Rice desserts have also become popular as an ice cream and a milk shake using both the ice cream and rice milk products that are now in the mainstream marketplace. In the Japanese culture, rice has been made into a sticky dough-like substance for a dessert called manju. It is usually very sweet rice, filled with red beans or flavored with citrus and a variety of pretty colors. It is the same consistency of the mocha balls found in mochi ice cream, but is a confectionary dessert. Whereas mocha (pounded sticky rice) – can be both sweet (like mochi ice cream) and fried (usually a teriyaki/sugar topping) or savory like in mocha soup, which is very popular as a good luck offering for New Year’s.
Botan Rice Candy is a chewy confection wrapped in cellophane type paper you can actually eat! This edible rice paper is transparent and is popular with children and adults alike for the simple idea of ‘eating paper.’’ This paper magically dissolves in one’s mouth, very similar to today’s dissolving cold, flu and cough syrup strips sold in medicine aisles. But there is a thicker version of this rice paper which has become very popular as a ‘wrap’ paper for Vietnamese spring rolls and a myriad of other culinary creations.
The Philippines has a ‘rice coffee’ which is brewed from actual rice and is a caffeine-free alternative. Filipinos also make a variety of desserts like cakes, puddings and even chocolate bars from pounded and dried rice called pinipig. In India, rice is also used medicinally as rice water. It can be made into both an anti-inflammatory concoction, a poultice or an enema. Rice straw is now being utilized in construction. Home building has taken on a new twist with fiberboard paneling (for sound walls, highways and security barriers along freeways) and rice straw bale home insulation. Rice straw is also used for the building of cabinetry in kitchens and bathrooms and simple furniture now available in a variety of furnishing stores which require home assembly. Rice hull is often used as animal feed and organic fertilizer/farming soil.
So this is rice full-circle. There are 100,000 varieties of rice and there are probably just as many uses for rice itself. It has been a long-standing tradition to throw rice at weddings to signify fertility. Perhaps rice thrown around the world has prompted the fertility of rice itself and it keeps on growing.
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