Refuge of a Maladjusted Moose

• The word for rice is "Gohan", of which the "go" part is an honorific.


• The literal translation for breakfast, lunch and tea are morning rice, afternoon rice, and evening rice.


• Rice is often used in the kind of expressions that bread is used in UK culture. "Daily Bread" etc.
• Its also bad etiquette to leave a single grain of rice in your bowl.
  
• Whenever there is a problem with bad rice, it gets a news story. Its that big a deal.
  
• Everyone owns a rice cooker, and the majority of people eat rice about 3 times a day. Morning, Noon and Night.
  
• A Japanese family of five (one we know) goes through about 10kg of rice a week.
  

To put it bluntly Japan=rice. To make it worse the Tango area we are in is one of the top areas for rice growing and rice quality. We just can't avoid the stuff.

Whilst living here we have upped our rice intake considerably, and we now find ourselves eating rice about twice a day. When we came we bought 10kg's of the cheapest rice we could find, its rice right? A few weeks ago while dining out however we got the chance to sample some top quality local rice (that happened to be produced by our hosts uncle). We were very impressed. Its hard to explain how the rice was better than the one we bought for ourselves but it was, undoubtedly, in every way better. Tastier, silkier, softer, harder, it sounds a bit double negative but it really was good rice. In a single meal we were converts and aimed to get this better rice next time we ran out.

About a week ago our rice supply ran low and so we asked for some advice on where to get this good rice. One thing led to another and in a few days the same friend had polished some of his uncles rice and sold us a 10kg bag for a very reasonable price (about what we paid for the cheap stuff, knowing the right people has its advantages). Now we can look forward to happily tucking into 10kg of the finest Japanese rice for the next 6 odd weeks. We have already realised it makes for a good fried rice, next week maybe I`ll get a chance to use it in a risotto.