Do you want rice with that?

I’ve written a little bit about the food here in one of my previous posts, but now I think it’s time to devote a full post to rice. Why rice, you may ask? Well, simply because it’s the most widely eaten food here, and Malagasy people consume more rice per capita than anywhere else in the world. Even with the acres and acres of tanam-bary (rice fields) all over Madagascar, the country still has to import rice from Pakistan in order to meet the people’s appetite. Why is rice the most popular food, as opposed to other starches like cassava or wheat? It’s because Malagasy people owe their heritage partly to settlers from southeast Asia, primarily Indonesia. So when those intrepid travelers set out in boats and arrived in Madagascar after spending months at sea, they brough their rice cultivation and consumption habits with them.

For many a Malagasy person, a meal consists of a giant bowl of rice, sometimes with some meat or beans, and occasionally a vegetable or two. A meal is not considered a meal unless rice is served. So, nearly every single breakfast, lunch, and dinner is rice-based, and because of this, nutritional completeness is almost always lacking. It’s an issue of not simply having enough calories, but having the right kind of calories. I remember watching in amazement when a few of my host family’s farm workers joined us for lunch one day, and all they ate for lunch for just a gigantic bowl of rice, with nothing else.

If you go out to eat at a hotely, the amount of rice given for one person is equivalent to about 4 American-size servings. They bring out a giant bowl of it for each person, in addition to whatever loaka (accompaniments such as pork, fish, chicken or beef) that you ordered. When I first started eating at hotelys, I always looked at these massive bowls of rice with a mixture of horror and amazement—how could anyone eat that much rice? But now, I’m fairly shocked at how much rice I can put away. I have no problem finishing all the rice they put in front of me. In fact, if I didn’t have a cat that I had to save leftovers for, I would definitely finish it all. Perhaps this is a good sign that I’m on my way to becoming “Malagasy fotsy” (white Malagasy). And amazingly, despite all the carbohydrates I’m eating, I’m not really gaining weight.

There are two kinds of rice that are available for purchase here: traditional white rice, and vary mena (red rice), which is more brownish-red than actually red. White rice is a little more expensive than vary mena: 400 Ariary [about 20 cents] a cup, versus 350 Ariary [about 15 cents] for vary mena. I always buy vary mena not only to save money but because it has more fiber. I have actually seen this for sale in a couple of stores in the U.S.: it’s sold as Madagascar Pink Rice in Kalustyan’s in NYC as well as some health food stores (Lotus Foods imports it.) So, keep an eye out for it!

Eventually I’m going to write a blog post with some of my recipes, but the usual rice dishes I cook are rice and beans, lentil and rice “risotto” (using La Vache Qui Rit cheese, because that’s all we have), and stir-fried vegetables and peanuts served with rice. I also recently made a really delicious oatmeal-style “breakfast rice” dish, with cinnamon, vanilla, bananas, and peanut butter from a care package. However, I want to branch out and start being even more creative with what I can make. So many cultures have rice-based dishes and so I want to explore what I can make using what’s available here. On my list to try replicating are arroz con pollo, arancini (Italian fried rice balls), and paella. If I’m going to make it through two years eating rice at least once a day, I’m going to have to flex my culinary creativity!