Perfect Rice

03Jul09

(posted by stuartgrant)

Last night I (Stu) was sorting the rocks out from the rice – this is a routine we’re learning here, where a packet of rice comes complete with rice-sized, rice-coloured rocks. It certainly gives one time to think.

Part of me thought: “How primitive! I’m glad our* rice isn’t like this!”. The other part of me was kind of enjoying the dodginess of it – but also reflecting on the different things our cultures emphasise. Perhaps unwisely, I’m going to try to explain that!

See, I bought coriander seed too, and it also came complete with rocks. I grew and harvested my own coriander seed once so I can fully appreciate the difficulties in threshing and winnowing small, light seeds… To see rocks all through the coriander seeds and rice made me see them as being one step closer to real food, as opposed to that modern phenomenon – the “food product” (a truly unappetising term, don’t you think?).

Don’t get me wrong, I find it inconvenient to have to spend 5 minutes sorting through the rice before putting it on, but I guess my train of thought gave me a glimpse of how sheltered we* are from some of the realities of life for much of the world. While some fret for 2 hours about whether to paint the hallway Mellow Mocha or Dusted Damson, then spend 10 minutes deciding on what kind of take-away dinner to order, others spend 2 hours harvesting, washing and cooking the tomato, corn and cabbage for dinner, then spend 10 minutes sweeping the faded lino in the hallway. Both hypothetical hosts would say that they value having a tidy home and providing great food for their guests. I’m not sure what to make of it, but it certainly is interesting.

*  = these terms are fairly unhelpful, but can here be translated to mean “Australian(s)”.

—

ps. Here’s a photo of a storm we had recently. The crazy weather could explain the crazy train of thought… Another storm on the way as I write.

Great summer storm! Note the (never-completed) nuclear power station in the background...

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 3rd, 2009 at 12:01 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

13 comments so far for “Perfect Rice”

William says on

03Jul 2009 at 5:34 am :


I keep reading every post in Elly’s voice even if i’m blatantly notified that Stu is writing.

I think what we need is different fonts for both of you, keep the same font as it is for Elly, but Stuart, I think all your posts from now on should be in Comic Sans.

thanks

stuartgrant says on

03Jul 2009 at 8:59 am :


Dude, I should be offended… clearly I’m a Courier man… It’s all about the serifs. (Don’t think we can change fonts without paying tho…)

Sam Rainbird says on

04Jul 2009 at 2:19 am :


William,

You are such a tool. I think you missed the point of that post…. Maybe you could donate the premium so that Elly and Stu can have different fonts!

Grinny says on

05Jul 2009 at 11:15 am :


hi will – yr just Rainbird biased!!

Grinny says on

05Jul 2009 at 11:16 am :


it’s just that you’re both brilliant writers!!

William says on

05Jul 2009 at 1:49 pm :


what blog are you using? is it wordpress? if so it would be pretty easy to have your own font for users haha heaps of plug-ins out there. Then you really can be a courier man.

Btw @ Grinny its true that Elly and Stu are good writers, and surely someone else would agree that it is hard to tell their writing styles apart! I reckon that they do each post together and whoever is more lazy doesn’t do the typing and they get the credit. Its like coen brothers films where only one can be credited as director cause of the damn guild or something.

Anyway I hope you guys have some good rice now :)

Heth says on

06Jul 2009 at 5:29 am :


I’m still puzzled by how you get confused between Elly and Stu writing styles Will!!! I find it easy to tell the difference (again, I point out the use of exclamation marks!!!)

Interesting that you hear it in Elly voice tho!! For some reason, (be it my strange brain, or something else!) I just hear it in my head as a generic computer voice….even though I can tell who is writing!!! lol! Not like, a mechanic voice though…actually, maybe it’s just my voice!!!

Stu, I would just like to add, that the same occurs with Coffee – the rocks that is!!! There was an article in Bean Scene recently with a pile of what people had pulled out of their bags of green beans (apart from the beans that is!!) Wasn’t just rocks though – there was nails as well!!! Ouch!

And PS – The Doves album ROCKS!! Thanks so much for lending it to me – I’m loving it! They are back to their old best!!! Hurrah! Now let’s see if they can take on Coldplay again!!! :p

stuartgrant says on

06Jul 2009 at 8:51 am :


AND all the boring philosophical posts are by me (Stu) while Elly writes all the amusing/outrageous stories. Did you know there are documented cases of a phobia of exclamation marks? (I just made that up.)

Interesting topic, though. I hear posts in the voice of the either a) one of the “four Yorkshiremen”, ii) Queen Elizabeth II, or 3) Bill Bailey’s generic Polish accent. That’s just for entertainment value though, not because I think any of those people are channelling their thoughts through my posts.

Apparently people have occasionally found bullets in green coffee… presumably in Columbian coffee – where coffee farmers are forced at gunpoint to burn their coffee and plant coca!

Doves album rocks? YEAH it does (feel free to read that sentence in the voice of Sam W; I think he owns that phrase).

Enough random banter!
Byee
Stu.

Fred says on

06Jul 2009 at 4:17 pm :


I have two comments (for those of you unwilling to count them)

First, I, like Will, read every post in Elly’s voice. I haven’t attempted reading any of the posts with Stu’s voice because whenever I am in the company of the two of you, Elly does most of the talking (hmmm, what a surprise). I do agree with Will that different fonts would make the difference. Courier has no emotion to it since I did all my programming in courier. Stu, a serif font would definitely work. Maybe me and Will attach the speaker to text differently to Sam.

Second, I have discovered why people store all their dry ingredients in jars. Just think, you dedicate a weekend to stocking up on rockless, nailless, bulletless rice (and flour and coffee and …). This is opposed to where I would go to the supermarket and use the ingredient straight from the packet (and hence I don’t need any sort of jar). So keep you next weekend free an have a real bash, could also be great for Aydin’s fine motor and pattern recognition skills as well as incorporating a patience element and even counting, the possibilities are endless.

PS Heth, have you tried listening to Elly and stu’s posts using either Microsoft Sam or Michelle? Should deliver an even more convincing computer machine voice.

Andy says on

07Jul 2009 at 10:24 am :


Hey guys
I had to sort out the rocks out of my weetbix the other day, so i know exactly how guys feel. You guys are manfish. love andy

ellygrant says on

07Jul 2009 at 10:34 pm :


This is what our blog has been missing – Andy comments. Welcome aboard!

My next big post is coming up soon and I’m nervous that you all are going to ignore it and engage in a conversation on my exclamation marks or something…

Ah well.

Comment anyway please, we like to feel like we’re being read and paid attention to!

Amelia says on

09Jul 2009 at 5:46 am :


hey!!!
rocks hey?
hmm… yum…??
maybe you need to be bulgarian to appreciate that?
what else do they put rocks in over there??

Kristi says on

13Jul 2009 at 10:02 am :


… and what happens if you order a bag of small rocks? What else comes mixed in?