Friday, April 25, 2008

Rice Shortage?!?!?!?

With Fuzzy Logic finally traipsing into my life, in follows the possibility of a worldwide rice shortage... Please allow me to repeat. World - Wide - Rice - Shortage.

Now sure this isn't huge news, as it has been discussed all over the place for the last few months, but it really hit home in the past week. What, hmmmm...., has made this message hit home like the fried egg in frying pan 'This is your brain, this is your brain on drugs' ad? Well friends, it all began last week when my friend Ng was at Costco (the one in Alhambra, no less). Now this Costco is so heavy in the asian persuasion, they sell oyster sauce in the gallon size container - and families of 3 buy it. I swear, this is the suburban Chinatown, and also where I grew up. Well not in Costco, but in it a lot - since it takes one a good 17 hours to get in, get stuff, and wait in a check-out line on the weekends. Ok, where was I? oh yes, Ng calls all in a huff, and asks, 'Did you stock up on rice?' Wha? I am a family of 2, and a small dog. Now sure Moose will eat his and my weight in rice if given the opportunity, but my sister/roommate and I don't cook it all the time (this is pre-Neuro Fuzzy, of course). So I chalk it up to hysteria over a possible rice shortage. But Ng continues to tell me that even at Costco they are running low on supplies and she is getting 5 bags of 50 lbs rice. Shall she pick me up some? Now Ng is one of my favorite people in the world, gorgeous and all of 5'1. Her husband was a dancer so he ain't heavy. And though they are a family, their kid is 6 months, so I know he ain't chewing on them grains at the rate of a Tasmanian devil, but hey, kids grow up so fast nowadays...you never know. IMHO, 5 50 lbs bags is 250 lbs of rice. If I am correct, that is the entire weight of their family. Crazy. I love math. Must be all that rice I am eating. :)

Ok, so I trek on over to Costco to load up on allergy meds yesterday and low and behold, where there usually is a disproportionate amount of rice for all to partake after purchasing, there are a few paltry bags of 50 lbs left...and the sign above? Well it read that due to a looming rice shortage, a person's 'Rice Allowance' purchasable today will be based on their past purchases. Whaaaa? Ok, so since i never bought my weight in rice from Costco, should I even venture? I wasn't feeling lucky, so i left with only allergy meds in hand. And of course a non-fat fro yo from the food court. I have to every time!!!!!! My point is, in the longest way around to it, is that this rice shortage is causing mass panic when it hits my Costcos! And the worst part, will this infringe upon my future love affair with my Neuro Fuzzy? I can't even fathom...

And my lovely people, the reason I am not blogging of the wonders of new neuro in my life is because a day after I got it, I left for Salt Lake City, which is where I am now, for my cousin's wedding. Since I knew I was going to a Chinese family's home, I didn't think Neuro needed to make the trip. Otherwise, you know it'd be my carry on! I think I'm gonna have to decal up my new rice cooker. Maybe outfit it in a 'rice rocket' theme, put MUGEN POWERED across the top, little fire extinguishers on it's sides....Maybe paint it in iridescent purple. Rock out! Decals first, paint job later...baby steps people.

Pictures of trip to come. Blackberry down!

6 comments:

Brent Wheeler said...

I have a fuzzy logic bread maker... a fuzzy logic rice cooker.... I want a fuzzy logic vacuum.

I remember my college frat days... after parties I often had fuzzy logic myself.

Ah but I digress.

Brent Wheeler said...

Chi-Lan needs to post to twitter so she can tell us when she is eating rice... and when she is going to costco and petting her dog and thinking about Brad Pitt.

Dr V said...

Another hilarious story! I can verify that the rice panic is real. Yesterday when shopping for office supplies at both Costco AND Sam's Club, I saw the advisories about the rice limitations. I even saw people who tried to feign ignorance about the limitation, but were utterly denied the opportunity to commit a rice felony. Perhaps it's best not to commit that 3rd strike so early in the rice conundrum.

Let's hope your romance with your Neuro will not be derailed by neighbors hoarding those white magic pills. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a fairytale ending, complete with the decals and paint-job. Keep hope alive Chi-Lan! haha And stock-up on rice now, and it could save you a few bucks down the line. ^_^

Brent Wheeler said...

Across the Mississippi river in Arkansas they grow rice by the ton. They have fields of it for as far as the eye can see. They grow more rice in Arkansas than almost any Asian country. It's long grain though.. most Japanese like short grained sticky rice.

Charlie said...

The rice shortage is pretty devastating and a somewhat interesting thing to read about in as much as you can trace part of the reason for the shortage back to the ridiculous idea of ethanol here in the States. There was a really interesting article on businessweek.com yesterday entitled "Understanding the Global Rice Crisis" if anyone is interested.

As far as the pimping of the neuro fuzzy is concerned, I think that is a great idea. No reason to go with the standard white. I have many times looked at mine sitting on the counter and thought "a racing stripe would be quite sexy wouldn't it?" By the way, the best rice I have found to use in mine so far has been the Kokuho Rose short grain Japanese style sushi rice: A. because it tastes good, and B. because it is pre-rinsed and I am a lazy bum. Of course sushi rice is probably not the way to go with Chinese food but I am not too picky.

The Weaponized Pencil said...

Chi-Lan, whadda YOU know about MUGEN POWERED?!?

You're hilarious!