4 | Pure Simplicity - Issue 3 - March 2013
Rice is nice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa (Asian rice) or Oryza glaberrima (African rice). As a cereal
grain, it is the most widely consumed staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in Asia
and the West Indies. It is the grain with the second-highest worldwide production, after maize (corn), according to
data for 2010.
Onigiri are Japanese rice balls. They’re fun to make and are a staple of Japanese lunchboxes (bento). You can put
almost anything in an onigiri; try substituting grilled salmon, pickled plums, beef, pork, turkey, or tuna with
mayonnaise.”
Rice is the seed of the monocot
plants Oryza sativa (Asian rice) or
Oryza glaberrima (African rice). As
a cereal grain, it is the most widely
consumed staple food for a large part
of the world's human population,
especially in Asia and the West Indies. It is the grain with the secondhighest worldwide production, after
maize (corn), according to data for
2010.
Since a large portion of maize crops
are grown for purposes other than
human consumption, rice is the most
important grain with regard to human nutrition and caloric intake,
providing more than one fifth of the
calories consumed worldwide by the
human species.
There are many varieties of rice and
culinary preferences tend to vary regionally. In the Far East, there is a
preference for softer and stickier varieties. Because of its importance as
a staple food, rice has considerable
cultural importance. Rice is often
directly associated with prosperity
and fertility. Therefore, there is the
custom of throwing rice at weddings.
The traditional method for cultivating rice is flooding the fields while,
or after, setting the young seedlings.
This simple method requires sound
planning and servicing of the water damming and channeling, but
reduces the growth of less robust
weed and pest plants that have no
submerged growth state, and deters
vermin. While flooding is not mandatory for the cultivation of rice, all
other methods of irrigation require
higher effort