Brown Rice

I had brown rice for the first time in over a year tonight. It was amazing. Everything about it tasted so good.

Ever since I began focusing my research on rice (over 2 years ago), I've tasted a lot of different rice. Sometimes I prefer good, fragrant white rice. Other times I prefer good, nutty-flavored, healthy brown rice that I ate before starting this research. In China, white rice is the only option.

Except when you go on a quick trip in the rice displays in a Shanghai supermarket. And before your eyes rests a bag of organic brown rice. And all of a sudden nothing in the world sounds better. So you buy a small bag and bring it back to Harbin with you. And cook it in your rice maker. And eat it after you spend a long Monday writing and swimming.

I know people in Harbin who spend 4 months of the year in Hainan island in southern China who make sure to pack a big 50 pound bag of northeast rice with them for the winter so they don't have to eat that 'bad southern rice.' I have access and connections to the 'best' rice grown in China. But all of that rice is white. And my own cultural background has taught me that white rice is bad, brown rice is good. I've looked past that white/brown dichotomy to do this research and to understand what makes rice 'good' to Chinese people who dismissed brown rice long ago. Brown rice never comes up. I almost forgot it existed until I saw it there in Shanghai, labeled in English, probably for all the Shanghai ex-pats.