Rice is the staple food of life. Almost every culture manages to use rice and many regard it as essential. In the Philippines in Tagalog the term "ulam" means side dish because it's assumed that rice is the main dish. Mostly there's rice and a meat. What makes rice such a popular dish? Could it be that it grows so freely? It helps support sustainable landcare and can be grown almost anywhere. There's brown rice, white rice, orange rice, sticky rice, long grain, short grain, wild rice, bazmati, and safron. Those are just some of the common kinds. There are also other varieties from different parts of Africa. It's also a large part of the diet in Latin American countries. It's got a wide variety of uses too. Maybe this is why its such an important part of many countries diets. It can be used for a lot of things and its cheap. Rice is only 24 cents a pound, and that's considered expensive. Seven months prior to that price it was half that. So rice but what other than a dish can it be used for. Well it can be turned into flour, oil, noodle, and it can be used in soda, beer, and sake as a beverage. There's also use in pastry dishes. Mochi balls are made out of a pounded rice mush. Mix rice with brown sugar and you've got sweet rice. Then in America there's rice porridge, and rice pudding. Rice pudding is a big treat in Mexico and Horchata is a drink made from rice. So it's cheap and has a wide use, but what else. It's nutritious. Some rices are better than others though and these tend to be Brown rice. Brown rice has the bran intact whereas white rice has removed the bran. Even with the bran removed there's protein in the grain. So it's cheap, healthy and has a wide usage. Could there be something else. I'm not so sure. Rice has no flavor, yet it's consumption is huge. People in Asian countries consume a hundred and seventy six pounds of rice a year. That's remarkable.