The Rice Book

by Sri Owen

Overview

One of the Guardian's best food books of 2023
Winner of the André Simon Award
One of OFM's 50 Best Cookbooks of All Time

The Rice Book became an instant classic when it was published thirty years ago, and to this day remains the definitive book on the subject.

Rice is the staple food for more than half the world, and the creativity with which people approach this humble grain knows no bounds. From renowned food writer Sri Owen's extensive travels and years of research come recipes for biryanis, risottos, pilafs and paellas from Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, Spain, Italy, Brazil and beyond.

In a gorgeous new livery, with a new foreword by Bee Wilson and an updated introduction on the nutrition, history and culture surrounding rice, more than 160 delicious, foolproof recipes (20 of them new) and beautiful illustrations and food photography throughout, this is an essential book for every kitchen and every cook.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781526621641
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	09/28/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	59 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Sri Owen was born in West Sumatra in 1935, the eldest of six daughters, to parents who were both teachers. After secondary school, she attended Gadjah Mada University at Yogyakarta, where in 1961 she met Roger Owen, a young Englishman arrived fresh from Oxford University, with a three-year contract from the British Council as a lecturer. And he was recruited to teach Western History and English Language&Literature. When his contract ended, Sri accompanied him back to London, where she worked for some twenty years as a translator, broadcaster and producer with the Indonesian Section of BBC Far Eastern Service.

Sri and Roger spent two years travelling the world researching The Rice Book, which was first published in 1993 and won the prestigious André Simon Memorial Award, was shortlisted for the James Beard Award, and a year later, was listed in the Observer, among the twenty best food books published in English.

In total, Sri has written twelve successful cookbooks, most recently Sri Owen's Indonesian Food, which chronicles her life and details the social history and cooking styles of the islands she loves. Sri is a popular international lecturer on Asian cuisine and has run cookery demonstrations, workshops and courses across the globe. Her unrivalled expertise saw her win the Guild of Food Writers Lifetime
Achievement Award in 2017.

Editorial Reviews

Owen, an Indonesian-born food writer and cookbook author who now lives in England, includes a lengthy introductory section covering rice and history and politics, cultivation, and even the myths and folklore associated with this popular staple grain. This is followed by 200 recipes from a wide variety of international cuisines. Many of these dishes are indeed exotic and will be unfamiliar to American readers; some are somewhat complicated or time-consuming, but the instructions are well written and the headnotes informative. Marie Simmons's Rice, the Amazing Grain ( LJ 12/91) includes dozens of simpler recipes, but most libraries will want Owen's more unusual collection as well.

Library Journal

Subtitled, The Definitive Book on the Magic of Rice with Hundreds of Exotic Recipes From Around the World. Preceding the recipe section is about 75 pages of information on rice as a crop, a food, a commodity, and shaper of myths and rituals, governments, and industries, and on the various rice varieties, grades, brands, and types. Illustrated with line drawings. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Rice every which way, from cultivation to cooking, is explored in food writer Owen's all-about compendium. A good portion of her book is devoted to whetting the appetite--specifically, by her in-depth research on the physical and nutritional properties of the species "sativa", its agricultural impact, the cultural myths surrounding rice, and a worldview of this grain's importance. Then she moves on to the recipes, more than 200 of them, all gathered and tested with an eye not to trendiness but to traditional tastes in any country. She's very precise in helping cooks to prepare to tackle her instructions; she gives generic directions--including quantity, texture, and washing and cooking techniques--before presenting each recipe, each one of which is then followed by descriptive lists of ingredients and other culinary methods such as dicing and blanching. Both familiar and exotic dishes, most of them easy to cook, are included: among them, Greek dolmas, chicken and hot sausage gumbo, pork vindaloo, Korean bibimbab, pumpkin risotto, and black rice sorbet.

Barbara Jacobs