One of the oldest grains in the world, and a staple food of more than half the world's population, rice figures largely in religious ceremonies and is a symbol of prosperity and fertility.

There are thousands of varieties. Agricultural scientists involved in producing new and higher yielding strains of rice will pick differences that are not apparent to even the most enthusiastic rice eater. But, from the Asian consumer's viewpoint, the rice has qualities that a Westerner would not even notice: color, fragrance, flavor, texture.

The average Asian can tell blindfold, merely by smelling a dish of cooked rice, what kind of rice it is. Rice buyers are so trained to recognize different types of rice that they can hold a few grains, in the palm to warm it, sniff it through the hole made by thumb and forefinger, and know its age, its variety, even perhaps where it was grown. Old rice is sought after and prized more than new rice because it tends to cook fluffy and separate, even if the cook absent-mindedly adds too much water. Generally speaking the white polished grains whether long and fine or small and pearly (much smaller than what we know as short grain rice) are considered best.

The desirable features of rice are not the same in every Asian country. In India and Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Burma, fluffy, dry rice is preferred. Long, thin grains are considered best and rice is cooked with salt. The most dreadful thing a cook could do is forget to salt the rice.

In Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam rice is preferred dry and separate, but it is cooked without salt. Further East, medium or short grain varieties come into their own. In Laos, Cambodia, China, Korea and Japan the requirement is rice that is perfectly cooked but not dry and fluffy. Glossy, pearly grains are desired, each one well defined and separate, but with a tendency to cling together so that it can easily be picked up with chopsticks. Again, no salt is used. Laotians are different from all other rice eaters in that they prefer sticky or glutinous rice to other varieties, whereas in most countries it is used only for sweets or leaf-wrapped snacks.

Every kind of rice is treated with respect that is almost reverence, for the rice crop is literally a matter of life and death in the crowded lands of Asia. Rice figures largely in religious ceremonies, is a symbol of prosperity and fertility, and a number of superstitions have grown up around it.

Even the Western world has adopted some of the symbolism of rice, for example the throwing of rice at weddings. But where the Western rice eater is concerned, the choice that has to be made is comparatively simple. Rice is sold either packaged or in bulk and there is polished white rice long, medium or short grain; unpolished or natural rice medium or long grain; and in many countries it is possible to buy an aromatic table rice grown in Bangladesh, called Basmati rice. In some parts of India this is known as Debra Dun rice. Patna rice, which is more commonly known, is also a table rice with long fine grains, but does not have the aroma that distinguishes the true Basmati. However, Basmati is expensive. In dishes where spices and flavorings are added and cooked with the rice, any type of long grain rice may be used.

As a general rule remember that medium or short grain rice gives a clinging result and long grain rice, properly cooked, is fluffy and separate.