Even Rice-Eaters Are Different

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Rice in English can mean bigas (rice grain) or kanin (cooked rice) for Filipinos. The Philippines is in Southeast Asia and Filipinos eat boiled or steamed rice every day with ulam (viand) that's either meat, fish, or veggies. We eat with spoon and fork. Palay is the plant and also the grain with the husk. Bigas is the milled grain that is ready to cook. I've seen rice fields and mats of palay being raked and drying under the sun outside Metro Manila, but I've never witnessed planting, harvesting and milling. When it's time to cook, we tell someone, "Magsaing ka na," or ask, "May sinaing na ba?" (Do we have rice already?) Sinaing can mean kanin or cooked rice. We wash the rice grains twice. The rice wash is called hugas-bigas. The rice grain-to-water ratio we follow at home is plus 1, so, for example, 2 cups of rice grains (bigas) equals 3 cups of water. Others use the lines on their finger or the measuring lines inside the rice cooker pot. We used to cook rice in a thick metal pot called kaldero on the stove. Now it's so easy to cook rice in an electric rice cooker. It never overflows once the water boils and it never burns. If you increase the water, it can be made into porridge or congee like lugaw, goto, arroz caldo, where boiled eggs, pork rinds, tofu or chicken are added. It's like a one-dish meal, so you don't need to cook ulam to go with it. Leftover rice is called bahaw or kanin-lamig (cold rice). When it is fried, it becomes sinangag. Fried rice can also be a one-dish meal when egg, veggies like carrots and cabbage, and processed meats like hotdog, ham, sausage, luncheon meat, etc are mixed in. Malagkit is sticky glutinous rice that's steamed, baked or cooked in a kawali or wok to make Filipino snacks, desserts, and treats. Rice flour is galapong, while ampao is rice crispies or puffed rice. I remember hearing kape de arroz from my parents and relatives, which I think are rice grains toasted to make rice coffee in the province. When it's time to restock our rice supply, I just buy the two cheapest prices and mix them in the plastic container we store them in. Other people stick to one variant, but my nose and taste buds don't really notice the difference. When it's time to eat lunch (tanghalian) or dinner (hapunan), I don't mind reheating leftover ulam, as long as I eat it with "new rice" that's bagong saing. They say Eskimos have different words for snow. Do regular rice-eaters in other countries also have different words for rice in their language? (PS - I used mostly Filipino or Tagalog words here because I was born and raised in the capital, but the Philippines has many dialects, so there will be many regional differences.)