Rice

Rice is the seed of the grass species Oryza sativa (Asian rice) or Oryza glaberrima (African rice). As a cereal grain, it is the most widely consumed staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in Asia. It is the agricultural commodity with the third-highest worldwide production, after sugarcane and maize, according to 2012 FAOSTAT data.

Since a large portion of maize crops are grown for purposes other than human consumption, rice is the most important grain with regard to human nutrition and caloric intake, providing more than one-fifth of the calories consumed worldwide by humans.

Wild rice, from which the crop was developed, may have its native range in Australia. Chinese legends attribute the domestication of rice to Shennong, the legendary emperor of China and inventor of Chinese agriculture. Genetic evidence has shown that rice originates from a single domestication 8,200–13,500 years ago in the Pearl River valley region of China. Previously, archaeological evidence had suggested that rice was domesticated in the Yangtze River valley region in China.

Rice wine

Rice wine, also known as mijiu, is an eastern alcoholic beverage made from rice, originally from China. Unlike European wine, which is made by fermentation of naturally occurring sugars in sweet grapes and other fruit, rice wine is made from the fermentation of rice starch that has been converted to sugars. The process is somewhat similar to the mashing process used in beer and whiskey production but differs in the source of the enzymes that convert starch to sugars. In rice and other cereal wines, microbes are the source of the enzymes whereas beer, ale and whiskey production utilizes the enzymes naturally occurring in sprouted barley.

Rice (novel)

Rice is a novel by Chinese author Su Tong.

Plot

The story is based during the flood days in 1930s in China, when people immigrated from the countryside to the urban areas in search of work. This is also a story about Five Dragons, a poor but haughty country boy, chancing his fortune in the city and the humiliation he faces as soon as he reaches the city.

He is a typical man hungry for wealth but with an insatiable thirst for pleasure, especially sex. His master has two daughters, "Cloud Weave" and "Cloud Silk". Cloud Weave is very much like Five Dragons, and shares his sexual appetite. She is a mistress to a local mafia.

Five Dragons marries her and inherits the property of his master: his rice emporium and his whole business. But men tire easily of their playthings, particularly in this wayward family. Fidelity is an unrecognised term for them.

This story also shows how infidelity passes from one generation to another in this family.