Ten days ago I was exploring the old markets of Goa (Panjim) with its fish and exotic fruits and vegetables. I passed by a little office where a young woman was busy at filling out receipts. In front of her desk was a small table filled with tiny bags of rice, each with a label telling which variety it was. Each grain was a slightly different shape and colour. In Asia people have a fine sense of the varieties of rice and their attributes. This picture made me think of Asia’s ‘rice culture’ compared  of our ‘wheat culture’. It’s too bad they didn’t have a tasting station, where a less-than-savvy Westerner could have tested each of them out.