Jewel Rice

I love cooking and sampling food from lots of cultures.  Here's a picture of Jewel rice I made for an event. The recipe originating from the middle east is full of flavours with saffron, herbs and orange peel and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds.  Rice is common to other cultures like China, India and Sri Lanka. However it is a very labour intensive job to cultivate and grow the crops.

When I was little, I remember seeing rice crops being grown in Sri Lanka. It was a very back breaking job  where individual paddy plants were planted in shallow fields and then the area had to have constant water.  The irrigation system is quite phenomenal. Quite an achievement when it is a hot climate. The paddy stalks were then gathered and oxen used to thresh the paddy by going round and round a tethered pole. It reminds me of  Maypole dances in Britain. Just as the villagers in a remote part of Sri Lanka gathered and sang and danced well into the night, the Maypole dancers revive a  Roman custom of appreciating spring in rural England.

Nowadays, paddy harvesting has  all been taken over by machinery and the singing and dancing no longer takes place.  Sad fact of industrialization is that the human connection of sacred rituals can be thought of as not required.

 Wherever we get our food from is something to be grateful for... especially when there is food shortages in many parts of the world.