As an Asian, I grew up eating rice. It’s our daily bread. The rice plays the role of a potato in American diet.

Rice is more beneficial as compared to bread and pasta. It is not man-made and does not go through numerous processing. Whether you buy it organic or not, you have the advantage of eating an all- natural food with no trans fat. With rice, you have choices of white, brown, or wild. You can also cook it plain or seasoned. That depends on your ethnicity and preference.

I’ve always liked my rice white and plain. Rice doesn’t have to be fancy for me as I take pleasure in its naked goodness. Nevertheless, I’ve learned tricks there and then of how to make rice even more splendid.

·         Add milk to rice and enjoy it like cereal.

·         After cooking, put a stick of butter to the pot of rice and let it melt before serving.

·         When stir frying vegetable, add rice to make a complete meal.

·         Steam vegetables with rice. The vegetable will ooze out into the rice and would flavor it.

·         Dry cooked rice out in the sun (like sun-dried raisins) for several days then cook it in hot oil. Add sugar and you have a kettle cooked rice crispies.

Here are superstitions about rice that I grew up with that you may have never heard of:

·         Well wishers in wedding celebrations welcome the newly-weds by showering them with raw rice grains (instead of bubbles or rose petals). The rice symbolizes good luck and prosperity.

·         You have to eat every single grain of rice in your plate. If not, you will have to pick them up one by one after you die in order for your soul to go to heaven.