27 ms·

There's an insane amount of rice varieties in India.

mullen 3y ago
There are an insane amount of rice varieties everywhere.
OJFord 3y ago
There's an insane amount of everything varieties, you just don't often get much (or at least not explicit) choice at the point of purchase. Potatoes are the biggest exception I can think of in the UK. Largely grown here! Could believe it's similar for retail rice in India for similar reasons. (That doesn't work for say wheat flour though. A lot grown here, but best you can do is pick your protein %. I'm also not sure if you should care about more than that though - milling aside.)
- rustedspoon 3y ago
  At which point of sale? If you mean in some chain grocery store then I would agree with you, but if you go to any local rice merchant they have tons of varieties.
  - OJFord 3y ago
    Well what I mean is that a lot of people don't have a 'local rice merchant' or aren't going there - so it's not 'often' much of a choice, i.e. across all points of sale. I'm not talking about just India (nor just rice) if that's the confusion - I don't know where I'd personally go for a choice of basmati cultivars, but there's probably things (potatoes?) I have more choice of in the UK than there generally is in India.
    - rustedspoon 3y ago
      Ah thanks for clarifying
  - mistercheph 3y ago
    Most Americans do not have access to local rice merchants.
- lacy_tinpot 3y ago
  The special thing about this is that creating new rice cultivars are difficult. Indian farmers specifically discovered and developed techniques to prevent self-pollination and encourage cross-pollination. This allowed for an explosion of rice varietals. In other words the special part here, along with the quantity, is that the process was deliberate and encouraged. There are like 110,000 identified cultivars of rice in India. There are special harvest festivals that specifically encourage the discovery of new rice varietals which are then shared in these festivals.
  - OJFord 3y ago
    That's awesome. I'll definitely be looking out for something interesting sounding/local or just different to try or bring back next time.

There are an insane amount of rice varieties everywhere.

There's an insane amount of everything varieties, you just don't often get much (or at least not explicit) choice at the point of purchase. Potatoes are the biggest exception I can think of in the UK. Largely grown here! Could believe it's similar for retail rice in India for similar reasons. (That doesn't work for say wheat flour though. A lot grown here, but best you can do is pick your protein %. I'm also not sure if you should care about more than that though - milling aside.)

rustedspoon 3y ago
At which point of sale? If you mean in some chain grocery store then I would agree with you, but if you go to any local rice merchant they have tons of varieties.
- OJFord 3y ago
  Well what I mean is that a lot of people don't have a 'local rice merchant' or aren't going there - so it's not 'often' much of a choice, i.e. across all points of sale. I'm not talking about just India (nor just rice) if that's the confusion - I don't know where I'd personally go for a choice of basmati cultivars, but there's probably things (potatoes?) I have more choice of in the UK than there generally is in India.
  - rustedspoon 3y ago
    Ah thanks for clarifying
- mistercheph 3y ago
  Most Americans do not have access to local rice merchants.
lacy_tinpot 3y ago
The special thing about this is that creating new rice cultivars are difficult. Indian farmers specifically discovered and developed techniques to prevent self-pollination and encourage cross-pollination. This allowed for an explosion of rice varietals. In other words the special part here, along with the quantity, is that the process was deliberate and encouraged. There are like 110,000 identified cultivars of rice in India. There are special harvest festivals that specifically encourage the discovery of new rice varietals which are then shared in these festivals.
- OJFord 3y ago
  That's awesome. I'll definitely be looking out for something interesting sounding/local or just different to try or bring back next time.