@ARealCoolGuy@chax_
tortilla... I'm sure this won't be "sophisticated"
any meal I have with my family we always include at least 10 of them for anyone who wants to pair it up with their food
or maybe corn actually, that would possibly be the better answer
oh and beans could also be an answer
there are quite a few if you consider all the western countries instead of just America
@Ronye@chax_ I suppose we could say potatoes as well? Potato famines halved Ireland's population, and any dinner these days without some feels as if something's missing. I suppose cheese for some European countries would be sorely missed (though it's hardly the backbone of a diet), and I still stand by milk as being important to most western diets in some form, if not straight, as an ingredient. Rice is definitely more important to most Asian countries than any of the things we've listed though.
Why is it that Japanese authors always make the people of a fantasy world "too dumb" to find out how rice can be prepared, cooked and eaten?
If there is any eatable plant then you can be sure that the local people will know how to prepare that in some way.
So "rice growing everywhere but people being too dumb to know how to process it to become eatable" is stupid.
Wheat for example is also just an "eatable seed at the top of a grass".
You must first find out how that you can eat that seed because you need to remove everything else from that "grass" first, then peel the seed or grind it down and then cook it in some way.
That is exactly the same basic procedure as with rice.
So how can they know how to prepare wheat but not ever have tried it with rice?
At least poor people would have tried it at some point and then the knowledge would have spread.
@Talh Going by my countries history ... not really. I was surprised to learn how many plants we learned are edible because other countries found a way to prepare them so it doesn't suck.
@deadrabbits I have a rice cooker too, it still sucks. It is eatable a bit if covered in sesami chicken sauce or say in chicken soup. But plain white rice, meh.
@MrMcNasty I think your expectations of our godawful education system are a bit too high. English is one of the harder languages to learn to begin with because it's just overly complicated in stupid friggin' ways, but then the U.S. school systems are just like "You know what we need? People who know how to pass tests, who cares if they flush 90% of the information out of their brains afterwards. Just do well on your tests and make our school look good."
@Glomoro
One of my favorite sayings is: "The English language beats up other languages in a dark alley and rifles through their pockets for new vocabulary."
Of course rice is disregarded! If you don't live on a small ass island there are way better alternatives than that cheap mass produced plant! I will never ever understand the Japanese fixation on rice. It's small, taste bland, looks like maggots, is bad no matter if you dry it boil it or soak it...it's the goddamn worst.
@Glomoro
One of my favorite sayings is: "The English language beats up other languages in a dark alley and rifles through their pockets for new vocabulary."