“The smell of steaming rice is a panacea. No matter how bad a day I might have had, when I’m home and I inhale that familiar comforting scent, the sadness, worry or disappointment I’m feeling dissipates.”

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi’s sentiments above are a fitting primer for her new book The Hawai‘i Book of Rice (Watermark, out Mid-May 2011), which celebrates rice and its place in our lives–from plate lunches to home-cooked meals and high-end cuisine. 

Covering history, legends, trivia and 101 recipes for rice (including one of my recipes for sabzi polo, a Persian rice dish), it is sure to transform and inspire your own relationship with rice, even if you haven’t, like Tsutsumi, had a long family history with the food. (Tsutsumi’s great-grandfather farmed rice on Kaua‘i for more than 30 years.) 

A portion of sales from The Hawai‘i Book of Rice goes to the Hawai‘i Foodbank, which annually feeds more than 183,000 people and distributed nearly 11.3 million pounds of food (including several tons of rice) to food banks on O‘ahu, Maui, Kaua‘i and the Big Island. And, the book highlights local contributors like Chef Mavro, Catherine Toth, Shawn Nakamoto, and more.
SCHEDULED EVENTS:
Saturday, May 21, 1pm – 2pm
Barnes & Noble, Kahala Mall
(808) 737-3323
Barnes & Noble Kahala will donate 3 cans of food to the Hawaii Foodbank for each copy of The Hawai‘i Book of Rice sold all day! You can also bring your own donation for the Hawaii Foodbank; volunteers will be at our signing event to collect food items or monetary contributions.
Sunday, May 22, 11am – 1pm
Longs Drugs, Windward City Shopping Center
45-480 Kaneohe Bay Dr.
(808) 235-6451
Monday, May 23, 4pm – 6pm
Longs Drugs, Kailua
609 Kailua Rd.
(808) 261-8537
Through May 31: Bring a donation for the Hawai‘i Foodbank to one of Territorial Savings Bank’s 26 branches statewide and receive an entry form for our drawing to win a gift bag full of rice products from The Hawai‘i Book of Rice, Foodland, RiceFest Hawai‘i and Cane Haul Road. See the Watermark website for more contest details.
Eat the lotus @ literarylotus.com