The Rice Book
Sri Owen, Bloomsbury
Born in 1935, Sri Owen grew up among Indonesian rice fields and has spent much of her adult life in London. The Rice Book, first published 30 years ago and reissued with a new foreword, is her masterpiece, a profound work based on years of travel with her husband, Roger, and their examination of rice’s cultural, historical, economic and culinary significance all over the world. It is an engrossing book. I felt like a rice ball bouncing through 80 pages of lively education before arriving, prepared, at the essential global recipes – donburi, nasi ulam, pilaf, paella and dolmas.
