Family & Life Magazine Issue 13 | Page 29

Rice, Rice, Baby! Most of us enjoy it on a daily basis and it goes well with almost everything, from meat to seafood to vegetables. We take a look at Asia’s humble cereal grain – rice – with YES Supermarket. We eat a lot of rice in Singapore. Our small island, on average, imports more than 300,000 tonnes of this carbohydrate yearly. To put that number into perspective, that’s more than three million plates of rice consumed daily all over the country! And yet, for a crop so widely seen on dining tables everywhere, we know very little about this puny yet powerful cereal grain. A BRIEF HISTORY OF RICE One of the reasons why the consumption of rice skyrocketed in popularity in Asia, compared to Western countries where wheat tends to be more popular, is due to its origins – a group of researchers in 2012 studied in detail the genome sequence of the ubiquitous Asian rice and concluded that it was most likely domesticated and cultivated about 8,200 and 13,500 years ago in China’s Yangtze Valley and the area surrounding the Pearl River. Furthermore, the crop can be grown practically anywhere, whether on steep mountainsides or hill terraces, as long as there is a water irrigation system up and running. Couple this with its easy-to-prepare nature meant that rice was a go-to crop for civilisations going through an expansionary period. Even now, the developing region of Africa relies heavily on rice, accounting for the sharpest rise in rice consumption in the world during the last few decades. Thanks to the industrial revolution, the coarse and silica-rich rice hull is also being used as a component of construction materials as well as to polish camera lenses and expensive jewellery. long grain rice traditionally grown in the northern regions of the country. Basmati tends to be aged and doesn’t stick to each other when it’s cooked. That’s why the rice in your biryani dishes is unusually drier and separated into individual grains rather than clumped together. Basmati also boasts a low glycaemic index – 59 – which means that your blood sugar levels won’t spike after a meal with this rice varietal. • THAILAND It’s the rice that many Singaporeans will know – the Thai jasmine rice, White rice has been garnering a bad sometimes referred to as Thai fragrant reputation, pinpointed as one of the rice. The Thai jasmine rice is available main causes of weight gain due to its in two types, white and brown. Brown high amount of carbohydrates. The jasmine rice retains the bran, which truth, however, is more complex. gives the grains that distinctive light Weight loss and gain is more tan outer layer. Bran provides many dependent on caloric intake i.e. if benefits, including vitamins, betayou consume more calories than you carotene and antioxidants. When expend, you’ll gain weight, no matter what your diet is. The key is moderation cooked, Thai jasmine rice emits a subtle jasmine smell and has a slightly and regular exercise. sticky texture. Unfortunately, unlike As the world became the healthier basmati, the Thai jasmine more connected, THE DIFFERENT rice has an incredibly high glycaemic Chinese traders would VARIETALS OF RICE index of 109, which is more than pure bring the hardy crop Over 90 percent of the world’s rice is glucose. on their travels, which produced in the Asia Pacific region. In was how rice and its fact, the only country outside of Asia in • VIETNAM methods of cultivation the top 10 rice producers of the world Rice has an almost reverent status spread throughout the is Brazil. Here is the full list: in the country, with some calling it neighbouring countries of 1 China “white gold”. It is said that if rice is not Sri Lanka and China. 2 India part of a meal, then what you’ve eaten 3 Indonesia is merely a snack. Vietnam grows a Most historians believe 4 Bangladesh massive number of rice varietals – you that rice was brought to 5 Vietnam can find more than 1,600 types just in West Asia and Greece by 6 Thailand the Mekong Delta alone. Generally, rice the armies of Alexander 7 Philippines from Vietnam is similar to Thai jasmine the Great around 300 8 Myanmar ri