Four of my very most formative years were spent in the dusky backstreets and glittering diplomatic courts of one of the world’s most mysterious cities: Tokyo. They were those slippery years between child and collegian, a time for youth to probe the boundaries of their worlds and learn to make their way. For a young American, raised in the surreal calm of suburbia, Japan was almost cliché “inscrutable.” Every vista was a perfect postcard of green terraces with conically-hooded farmers and timeless oxen in yokes. Every backstreet seemed a classic woodblock print, often with bewigged and be-gowned geishas teetering on high, wooden clogs or perhaps, stooped and tired laborers rushing home, baskets heavy on their backs. Nothing disclosed, nothing sought in return. A very private place.
But one thing I learned right away yielded a glimmer-everyone lived on rice. Rice walls divided us; rice shoes held us upright. When we removed our shoes, it was to pad barefoot on the silky, woven straw of more rice. Our hats and umbrellas and the paper under our pens, the powder that makes the geisha white and the rough hulls that scrub the laborer clean – all rice. In Japan, rice is the single, unalterable ingredient included in every meal and, as befits a staple so essential to life, the rice is ungilded by sauce or flavoring.
It is so important to the culture that its harvest brings an annual holiday, even though few Japanese till the soil-and this celebration of the grain is widespread through Asia. Rice feeds half of humanity with its source in southern China, the epicenter of religions formed around this miraculous grain. Although only 50 percent of the sheaf is edible, the other 50 percent is an oily, strong straw, which is an infinitely useful fiber. I saw just how many uses at a new exhibit, which opened last week at UCLA. Would you have thought of snowshoes for a cow?
The Art of Rice is a short journey into the sacred life of rice in the Orient. With more than 200 objects and some fascinating stories to read on your stroll through the show, it is a trip worth taking, especially if you participate in one of the many special events associated with the production at UCLA’s Fowler Museum through April 25.
Special Events: Oct. 19 is the free Rice Fest with plenty of arts and crafts for children, rice candy sculptures, Indian dance and a Korean band-oh, and lots of rice to taste. Tasting tours around town begin Nov. 23 with a visit to Little India and continue next year into Chinatown, Korea town and Little Tokyo-a foodie’s delight. More information and tour reservations can
be obtained by calling 310.825.8655.
CLASSIC RICE PUDDING
Chinese legend has it that rice pudding was Confucius’ favorite meal, but he insisted that it must be baked with eight heavenly fruits as befits a sacred dish. The fruits are up to you although many people add raisins, plums and other dried fruits. This recipe is a French classic, virtually unchanged from the days of Charlemagne when it was a delicacy of the court. The trick is in finesse – everything gets assembled when each component is still hot. Wonderful comfort food for these cool, grey days.
Bon appetite!
Serves 6 – 8
3 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract*
1/2 cup long-grain rice
1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1 1/3 cup sugar
5 Tablespoons water
4 large eggs, beaten
* Pure vanilla extract is okay for this, but to give the pudding a little Gallic oomph, try vanilla bean paste available at any gourmet shop and, occasionally, at Ralphs. It’s loaded with those microscopic flecks of bean and has less alcohol to burn off in baking.
1. Preheat oven to hot, 450-degrees.
2. Bring the milk and cream to a boil in a heavy saucepan. Add the vanilla and rice and cook very slowly for 30 – 40 minutes until the rice is almost soft. Stir often – do not allow the rice to clump or stick.
3. Meanwhile, make a caramel. Combine 1 cup of sugar with the water in a heavy skillet and cook over high heat, scraping down the beads from the sides of the pan. When the syrup is a pleasingly golden caramel, remove it from the heat.
4. Beat the eggs and remaining sugar until pale and pour into the rice mixture. Season with nutmeg and a pinch of salt (optional). Mix well.
5. Pour the rice on top of the caramel and place on the bottom shelf of the oven. Bake until it just turns golden – 5 to 10 minutes. Cool before serving.