Rice. Rice. Rice. Rice. Rice. Rice

Rice.

I wanted to talk to you about rice.

What is rice? How often do you eat it? What do you eat with it? Do you have a preferred method of cooking rice? Slow cooker, or a quick boil? Do you have a preferred type of rice? Brown? White?

When I used to live in England I used to eat rice maybe once a week, sometimes only once a month. When I was a boy my favortite meal was fish fingers x10, lots of white rice and a can of baked beans.

I used to eat rice with a Thai curry or some other kind of curry. I would only ever eat it with some kind of curry. When getting a take-away from the Chinese, Thai or Indian we would always order one rice each, and every time there would be a plethora of rice left over. Rice was a bit of a hassle to cook. Timings were always out, sometimes being undercooked and therefore a bit chewy. Other times over cooked and a bit too stodgy. Everyone’s preference was different to that of others, unfortunately at the same meal, resulting in someone either not eating their rice, or leaving a substantial portion to one side. Ask yourself, how many times have you said or heard? “I can’t eat all that rice” or “it’s ok, you don’t have to eat all that rice”. How many times have you seen people polish off a big meal, but leaving a small corner of rice, on the plate?

Rice in Korea is more a religion than anything else. So much so that when a Korean asks another Korean “Have you eaten today?” it actually translates into “Have you eaten rice today?”

I have been here for around 170 days and I reckon that I have eaten rice about 150 of those days. And for about 100 of them, probably twice a day. Am I sick of eating rice? Do I crave a good roasted potato? Or a portion of chips? Or do I wish I could wrap my fork and spoon around a delicious portion of spaghetti? Do I desire some mashed potato next to my BBQ’d chicken? No, is the simple answer. I have taken rice to another level. An Asian level if you like.

The Korean teachers at school actually get a little stressed when lunch is served and rice isn’t served. Occasionally we have some kind of western style lunch. Perhaps spaghetti bolognaise or some kind of fried chicken. These are the days that rice doesn’t feature. I find myself a little lost without rice as well.

In the last few months I have discovered the perfect meal. It’s cheap, tasty and is second to none, at enhancing my chop-stick skills. Quick note, I have used chopsticks around 160 of those 170 days. So the meal is umm, rice, a small can of tuna and some ‘Gim’. ‘Gim’, pronounced ‘Kim’, is dried seaweed. It comes in small rectangular sheets that are about the size of the palm of your hand. I pick up a sheet with my chopsticks, place it on my plate. Then I pick up a bullet of rice and place it onto the Gim. I then widen my chopsticks to go around the Gim and then in one deadly movement the chopsticks surround the Gim, around the rice, forming a perfect blanket. In it goes. Salty and extremely nourish. You must try.

I leave you with a picture of some rice.