Jason & April Ruggles

Food Friday: Rice

Posted on 07. Aug, 2009 by April in food, Thailand

What comes to mind when you think of rice?
I’m sure you eat it.  But my guess is that it doesn’t show up on your dinner table every night.

In Thailand, rice will easily show up on your table for dinner every night.  And for lunch every day.  And even for breakfast.  In fact, if you haven’t eaten rice or noodles, you haven’t really had a meal.  A common greeting in Thai is, “Gin kaao ruu yang?” which means, “Have you eaten a meal?”  But the word used for meal, “kaao”, literally means rice.  Have you eaten rice?

If I asked you how many types of rice there are, maybe you could name half a dozen… (long grain, medium grain, short grain, brown, wild…) or maybe up to a dozen if you’re more of a chef… (basmati, jasmine…)  But really, these are just categories.  There are thousands upon thousands of actual varieties of rice.  Thailand is famous for its jasmine rice- a high quality, long grain rice.  And it IS tasty.  We also frequently eat “sticky rice” which is some other variety (although I’m not sure what).  Another one we’ve tried is a red rice that was more hearty like wild rice.

Some fun facts about rice:

• Thailand is the largest exporter of rice, followed by Vietnam and the US.
• China, India and Indonesia produce the most rice, but they also eat the most.
• The average Asian consumes 80 kg (176 lbs) of rice a year while the average American consumes less than 10 kg (22 lbs) per year.
• White rice keeps longer than brown rice, but also has fewer nutrients

So, whether it’s steamed, fried with veggies, rolled into sushi, or boiled into a soup, rice is the way to go for most of the world- including Thailand.

What’s your favorite way to eat rice?

Tags: food, friday