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