My quest towards achieving a healthier lifestyle led me to black rice. I’m not quite sure how I found out about it, but it was about two years ago that I stumbled upon this ancient rice that was served to emperors and royalties centuries ago.  It somehow vanish off the face of the earth….well not from the face of the earth, but it got lost in the shuffle. I guess with emphasis on brown rice, which I really don’t care for, sorta pushed the real healthy benefits of black rice out of sight.  I’m so happy that I’m one researching guru. My hunger for knowledge sort of leads me to places that I would have never found, had I not been curious.

One of my rule of thumb is: Time is of essence. Do something constructive. Be inspired.
The internet has a wealth of information. I don’t believe every single thing that I read, but I take away something from everything and I learn. I’m still learning. I’ve also realized that even the  ‘so called’ experts are paid to misinform the public.  Now, I couldn’t care less about paparazzi,celebrities or who is sleeping with who. That’s just not my thing. I use the internet constructively.  I channel my energy into positive things. Things that benefits my family and I. Things that benefits my health. Negativity serves no place in my world. So, even though I’m not into rumors and scandals, I do love humor, which means I’m always ready for a good belly laugh. If only you could hear me laugh….it’s so infectious, it tickles me every time.

Anyway, I found out about black rice on the internet. I know that any food that is black, purple or has deep color is good for my health, so I was ready to give this black rice a try. That led me to oriental markets. I love oriental markets. My curious ass spends like 7 hours in there, as opposed to the 3 hours that I usually spend in the English speaking supermarkets. Everything in the oriental markets is in Korean or Chinese ….or whatever their language is …and Lord knows I don’t understand it. I only know how to count to 10 in Chinese, and that’s because I had a friend who attended St Theresa’ Prep (in Jamaica), who had migrated from China. She lived right on the outskirts of Tivoli Garden (where I’m from), and her dad would give me a ride to school if they saw me walking past their house. So we became friends. Her dad had a bakery….but that’s not why we became friends….I wasn’t even into food back then. Anyway, she taught me how to count from 1 to 10 and she was also teaching me how to write the Chinese language, which I was good at back then. I was about 9 years old, and I was learning and it was fun. Well I don’t remember the how to write in Chinese but I still do remember how to count. Thanks Linda!

So back to the oriental market…I got off topic for a while, but I do that a lot…so get used to it.  LOLOL. Like I was saying, I spend hours in the oriental market reading the labels. Thank God that most of packaging has been translated in English. You have to look hard though. Every time I rub shoulders with a ‘NON CHINESE’ person, we would stop, look at each other and laugh, because we know we don’t understand a thing. Then we strike up a conversation which usually goes, “OMG do you remember the first time you came here, I spent like 10 hours reading” and then we would just buss out a big dutty laugh. But it’s fun though.

I find lots of stuff at the oriental market, like BLACK RICE. If you can’t find it at your local supermarket, which you probably won’t….it will ALWAYS be at the oriental market. Better yet, Find you a Korean, Chines, Cantonese, Japanese friend and follow their lead or ask them. There’s probably a market right next to you but because you have tunnel vision you never notice it.

Black rice is always in my pantry. It’s really purple not black. If you want a healthy version of a rice, this is it. Cook just like you would any other rice and top it with some Herbed Garlic Shrimp. It’s so yummy!