...Turkish Rice…

...Turkish Rice…

Why should athletes need to eat rice?

I have always believed this to be true but it was not until recently that I found a way to cook rice .  It all began when I watched a documentary called “The Hidden Messages in Water”

For thousands of years, rice has been a staple food source for many Asian countries like China, Japan and India. It’s wonderfully versatile and is used as a base for many dishes from curries and stir-fries, to sushi and even puddings!

A grain of rice is a seed from a special kind of grass called oryza sativa. This grass needs lots of rain as it grows, and then dry conditions before it is harvested. Rice is grown in water-logged fields known as ‘rice paddies’ across Asia, but also in a few European countries, like Italy and Spain. Once the rice is harvested, the grains are shaken from the grasses, and their rough brown husks removed. A grain of rice is made up of three parts.

Many people say that Rice is a symbol of life and fertility, which is why rice was traditionally around  many weddings. Well it goes like this. Rice is the second highest worldwide production after maize (corn).

Well rice is an annual plant that is harvested once a year. The cultivation of rice is suited for countries with low labour costs and high rainfall as it is very labour intensive and requires large amounts of water for cultivation. Small rice seedlings are hand planted into rice paddies that are then filled with water. The seeds draw nutrients from the paddies water, which is also the same water. Since it has been such an important grain worldwide, the domestication and cultivation of rice is one of the most important events in history that has had the greatest impact on the most people in New Zealand.