Indians love rice. They would eat it at least once a day, if not more. It is almost like an addition: only after a few rice-free meals Indians get restless and crave for rice. When it comes to rice, it is not a just dish for Indians, it is the king of the meal. A mound of rice sits in the middle of the plate surrounded by little side dishes. The side dishes are there to help Indians eat the rice, just to facilitate the process. Indian do not eat with rice, they eat rice with other things.
Indians love all incarnations of rice: steam rice is just one of the many that crowd Indian plate. Besides that Indian devour rice in its original form as biryani, pulao, and rice pudding, not to mention the myriad of south Indian rice dishes from bisi bele bath to curd rice. But Indians do not stop there: they consume puffed rice, popped rice, and flat rice. They make cracked rice, cream of rice, powered rice, and rice paste. Indians even have rice milk. And all this is just to make sure Indian gets to eat rice every chance they can: breakfast, mid morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, evening snack, and late night dinner, and anything to munch on in between.
Rice is loved by all ages. Kids love the sweet snacks; teens love the savory mix; adults love their main rice dishes; old people love their flat rice. Indians would invite others to eat rice: “Please come to our house sometime and have rice with us.” Does not matter what was the menu, Indians would ask “Did you have rice yet?” Rice is meal for Indians.
And rice is not just for eating: it is for decoration, it is for rituals, it is for medication. No religious or social event would be complete without rice, either. The baby enters the formal world with a name and eating rice pudding. When Indians get married, rice is the center of the ceremony. When they die, trail of rice follows the dead body. Indians’ love for rice extends beyond reach of earthly life and to the other realm: hungry souls of the departed Indians feast on nothing other than the offerings of rice balls.
Sphere: Related Content
Loading ...
