I don’t think I can survive without rice. I can eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.
Rice goes with anything and I’m always learning new ways to enjoy this personal food staple. My cousin and hubby gave us “Seductions of Rice” for Christmas. It’s a big cookbook with beautiful pictures on how rice is used around the world. I love trying out the book’s tasty recipes for rice and other dishes. A few weeks ago, I whipped up this Low-Country Pulao with Chicken and Bacon.
I loved the smell of bacon frying in our kitchen. The bay leaf, parsley, onion and bacon fat added rich, smoky flavors to this rice dish. Next time, I’d like to try this recipe with Canadian bacon.
Rice is part of my earliest food memories. Before kindergarten, I remember listening to the rice cooker bubbling in my cousin’s house in Rowland Heights. I remember the smells of my lola’s chicken adobo mixing with the steamy rice. Sometimes she tried making us eat more exotic Filipino dishes (at least to our American toddler palates) and I remember the only thing I could finish on my plate was the steamed white rice. In our Diamond Bar house, I remember my dad frying up rice, soy sauce, eggs, meat and veggies for a quick, hearty breakfast. At Cal, I followed a college friend’s example and rolled up a handful of rice inside dried seaweed leaves for a tasty snack. In the Philippines, my Tita Chita served up my favorite breakfast meal on our vacation: longanisa, pan de sal, fried eggs, rice and coffee. In our London flat, my bears cooked up Spanish-flavored rice.
Bottom line: I like rice. I can’t live without rice and I don’t want to.