Rice, At the Source

From Toraja we're carrying home new friendships, wonderful memories, thousands of photos, a full notebook ... and rice. Bags of it. Pounds and pounds of grains red, white, and black.

Toraja is rice country, paddies carpeting valleys and marching up slopes. We arrived in the middle of the rice harvest, when some rice fields were still a lush green tipped with gold and others sported a burnt brown stubble of shorn stalks.

In Asia we eat so much rice that we often take it for granted. But to be in a rice-producing area during harvest is to be reminded of the extent to which life in much of this part of the world revolves around these little bits of starch.

On most days we managed to get out into a field or three to watch farmers and their families (or hired labor; Toraja is a relatively prosperous area, rich enough to support some hired help in the fields) cut and thresh and winnow and, finally, burn leftover dried stalks to the ground.

Like many Southeast Asians Torajaan families erect structures specifically devoted to storing rice. Their alang-alang or rice barns are architecturally similar to their tongkanan, the traditional wooden houses with dramatic upwardly bowed roofs that resemble water buffalo horns (I'll write more later about the water buffalo and Torajaan culture). Many families have more than one alang-alang, each devoted to a different type of rice (glutinous and non, white and black, maybe some red, brown) grown on the clan's land.

For much of last week we stayed in a beautiful old tongkonan built on a piece of land nestled in the bend of the Sa'dan River. Across from us, visible through our front wooden shutters, was the rice barn pictured above (one in a row of several). At night we could hear the river sing and rain made a soothing light thrumming sound on the structure's high metal roof.

At first light two roosters played dueling cock-a-doodle-doo beneath our thick floorboards -- better than an alarm clock, even though we slept fifteen or so feet above where they stood. We didn't mind, because when we rose there was strong Toraja coffee to wake us us, pitch black and aromatic, made from beans roasted by the lady of the house and so delicious that this dedicated coffee-with-milk person savored hers with just a bit of sugar.

And there was breakfast, always based on rice. Fresh white rice, harvested just two weeks before and fried into a simple nasi goreng, or glutinous white rice to eat with a rich soupy mixture of grated coconut, sambal, and a bit of water.

Perhaps our favorite breakfast featured black rice -- which is really not black-as-night black but more of a deep black-purple with spotty magenta-ish highlights. It's a fantastic long-grained variety, full-flavored and nutty.

The flavor of Toraja black rice is so fine that it begs to be eaten on its own, or with the simplest of accompaniments. On this morning it had three: fresh golden-yolked hard-boiled eggs; grated coconut; and a tomato sambal sharpend with trassi (Indonesian shrimp paste) and hot-as-Hades Toraja chilies and mellowed with caramelized onions.

Onto our plates went rice. Then a mound of coconut, a splodge of sambal, and an egg. The latter we chopped with spoon and fork before mixing everything together.

As we ate we added a little sambal for heat here, then soothed our throbbing tongues with another spoonful of rice there. Now a bit more coconut for sweetness, which would ultimately need to be balanced with more sambal. A vicious cycle. Every bite different.

By the time our plates were clean the sambal had disappeared, and most of the coconut too.

Comments

[Ronny]

Interesting that they use Ketan Hitam (black rice) in a savoury dish, (and with sambal no less!). I think in Jakarta and most of Java it's mostly known to be used in, typically sweet, desserts (e.g. with glutinous rice, coconut milk sauce).

[drfugawe]

I hope you went on to finish that delicious looking breakfast! Thanks for introducing us to new concepts in eating - Love it!

[J2Kfm]

the black rice looks more like a side dish than the rice itself, at 1st glance!

how true, i for one, have never really stepped on a paddy field myself. being a Malaysian and all ...

[YIN]

I love your blog!!!

[Linda]

Robyn, thanks for another fascinating story.
I've never experienced a rice harvest, but last July while visiting Miao and Dong artisans (indigo dyers, silversmiths, papermakers) in Guizhou and Guangxi provinces, we found ouselves tramping through villages where rice planting was in full swing-such an interesting process to watch.
Toraja looks sublime and the alang-alang are like scuptures on the landscape. They remind me of spirit houses in Papua New Guinea and grain storage structures I've seen in small isolated villages in Portugal.

[Lina]

What a great story and beautiful photos! Would you recommend visiting this area? I'm using your blog as inspiration to make my travel plans. :)

[Vincent]

Beautiful... Simply beautiful!

[dinny]

Robyn, your story and Dave's photographs are beautiful! Thank you for coming and staying with us and our extended family. Mama Danny and Erni are so happy that you and Dave enjoyed their cooking.
I didn't know that you were still around the area...because last Saturday there was a Harvest Thanksgiving in Batutumonga near our house. Oh well, just come again!

[Tuty]

Superb photographs... I thank you both for sharing the beauty of my homeland. I haven't been to Sulawesi.

Did you try Coto (Soto) Makassar?

[tina]

Thank you very much for this wonderful post. I love the photos, the black rice seems so appetizing, I could almost smell its unique aroma.

[Rich]

Always a pleasure to read your blog.

The purple rice looks very much like the rice a friend bought for me recently. The label on the pack said "forbidden rice" it was purple (even colouring the pan with a purple hue) and had a nutty flavour. Unlike brown rice, it kept its shape even when cooked to a plump grain. Apparently very nutritious too!

[Robyn]

Hi Ronny - northern Thais (or at least some hilltribe people) eat black rice as a savory as well. This is not glutinous, but regular black rice.

drfugawe - are you kidding? Of course we did. And went back for seconds!

J2Kfm-not many paddy fields left on the peninsula these days. You'll have to get yourself up to Kedah.

YIN - thanks!

Hi Linda - Papua is on our radar. And very interesting about Portugal. Must google. Thanks.

Lina - I definately would, but avoid the rainy season. If you have alot of time you can add on some time on the coast or on an island, at a beach. And it's worth getting a bit off the beaten path ... Toraja is very touristed (but still incredibly beautiful) and everyone seems to be fixated on attending a funeral or two but the
region has so much to offer. We'll have more posts coming up.

Vincent - thanks from the photographer!

Hi Dinny - thanks for having us. What a great time we had, thanks to all of you. Shoot, I forgot about the Thanksgiving. Next year, perhaps...

Hi Tuty - we didn't get a chance to try coto Makassar. But we did have some fanTAstic bubur Manado, and I'll be posting it. Yum.

tina - you're welcome! Thanks for reading.

Rich - where was the rice your friend gave you from? Yes, this rice cooked up plump but still had a nice bite to it. Delicious.

[Shirai]

I want to know about Toraja coffee.

[Jollibee web site]

I didn't start my day without eating rice,that is really the source of my energy.ahmm,.I'm so curious about the taste of that black rice and this also the first time I heard rice combined with some coconut..it seems so appetizing..anyway,I love your post!

seth

[_ts of [eatingclub] vancouver]

Nice-looking breakfast! But, I just had to comment because that set of cutlery (spoon & fork) is the same exact one we had growing up. Currently, we only have a few pieces left as, for some reason, our father insisted on throwing them out! We managed to salvage some. We have even waxed poetical about that set of cutlery on our blog!

Here: http://www.eatingclubvancouver.com/2009/05/eggy-home-style-meal.html

[Robyn]

Shirai - You read my mind. Just posted on coffee.

Seth - give the rice and coconut thing a try. It's delicious, especially supplemented with some spicy sambal. :-)

_ts - it is truly a small world!

[Lady Macaron]

Oh i would love to try that! the black/red rice is usually eaten for desserts there but oh i could not imagine eating it with sambal trassi! but im sure it tasted wonderful! I def have to put Toraja in my travel list. Thanks for a great photo of that rice combination!

[Yum Asia]

We had black rice in a rice pudding with coconut milk when we were in Indonesia and it was delicious...never knew it was eaten as a savoury dish either. We are curious as to what sort of 'bite' the rice had when cooked normally? was it more like the texture of brown rice?

Great blog btw!

[Udo]

gosh, where do i get this purple/black rice from ??????
i want some - is it possible to buy this in Manila ??

great blog and bonne appetite
udo

[Mira]

Wow... Where did you stay in Tana Toraja? The view from your room is just breathtaking.

[Robyn]

Mira - we stayed with friends who have a home there but there is a guest house along the same road, with the same view in Batutumonga. It's not a big place, believe me -- only one road. You can't miss it.

[Account Deleted]

Almost all varieties from oryza.sp can be planted and grow in Toraja. And believe it or not,the taste or the rice from paddy that being planted in Toraja is different from other region in Indonesia. I know it because my family from Toraja.

[Robyn]

Yafeth - that's interesting, and I believe it, because palm sugar from various varieties of palm taste different depending on where the palm is grown. Terrior for rice and palm sugar, just like for wine.

[Nike Air Max TN]

Unearth the a single that helps make your coronary heart smile. Desire that which you would like to aspiration; go wherever you would like to go; be that which you would like to be, given that you may have only a person lifestyle and a person prospect to carry out each of the elements you must do.

[Sam Rice]

Oh. So this is how black rice looks straight from the soil! Black rice is super healthy and I can see why it is. Plus, I like how the black rice was used for this recipe. usually, black rice is used for dessert dressings. but I like it as the main dish.