In Reply to: What about rice???? Can we posted by inmyblood on Wednesday, 21. July 2004 at 21:07 Bali Time:
Makro is a good place to do that as they have a wide variety, in big pillow size bags etc. I asked someone there what was the best quality and got a 25kg bag for 119,000. The big trolleys are good for taking stuff back to your van or taxi too.
I find the whole importance of rice very interesting and really enjoyed reading the folllowing article on it:
http://www.balivision.com/Article_Resources/RiceAndRitual.asp
Here is an exerpt:
Whereas Westerners do fine with just one word for rice, the Balinese need at least four. Padi is both Balinese and Indonesian for rice on the stalk, whence the English word, "paddy," which can mean stalk rice or an irrigated rice field. "Jijih" is the Balinese word for unmilled rice that has been separated from the stems (gabah in Indonesian). "Beras" is the High Balinese word for milled, uncooked rice (the Indonesian word is the same). The common Balinese word is "baas." And cooked rice is "nasi." So important is rice in the Balinese diet that most people just use the word "nasi" to mean food-any kind of food-assuming, naturally, that the meal will consist mostly of rice. This habit applies to other Indonesians as well. Another term that is sometimes used for rice is merta. This comes from the Sanskrit word, "amertha," meaning "not dead," and the letter "a" was latter dropped and the meaning changed somewhat to refer to "that which is essential for life"-rice.