Bahadur

Product Description

• The Chinese word for rice is the same as the word for food
• In Thailand when you call your family to a meal you say, "eat rice."
• In Japan the word for cooked rice is the same as the word for meal.
• Most of us have either thrown a handful of rice at newly weds or personally experienced a prickly rice shower. This ancient rice throwing ritual originally symbolized fertility and the blessing of many children; today it symbolizes prosperity and abundance.
• Rice is the first food a new Indian bride offers her husband, perhaps instead of wedding cake; it is also the first food offered a newborn.
• In Japan where there is an almost mystical aura surrounding the planting, harvesting and preparation of rice it is believed that soaking rice before cooking releases the life energy and gives the eater a more peaceful soul.
• To encourage Japanese children to eat all of their rice the grains are affectionately called little Buddhas.
• In China young girls with finicky appetites are warned that every grain of rice they leave in their rice bowls represents a pock mark on the face of their future husband.
• In India it is said that the grains of rice should be like two brothers - close, but not stuck together.
• In China a typical greeting, instead of "How are you?" is "Have you had your rice today?" A greeting to which one is expected to always reply, "Yes."