Back to the old days, a lot of my diet, in fact my main part was
Stickrice or "sticky ri" (pronounced sticky rye I had learned to cook
and appreciate working with the Laotians (sp?).

It's starting to make a showing in more than just Asian markets now and
my kids love it so we have been making it again.

Sticky ri is not the product of the cooking, it's the product you *are*
cooking. Glutenous rice or Sweet rice is used, it is a bit different
than "regular" rice and makes for great stick.

I take two cups of sweet rice and put it in a bowl with 1 1/2 tsp sugar
and 1/4 tsp salt, cover with water and soak overnight. Pour the excess
water off, but do not rinse, then steam for 45 minutes loosely and
tossing it a couple times during cooking to keep the texture consistent
through out the dish.

They make special cookers but I just use a wok and a basket suspended
over a pool of water by putting a steaming rack or even crossing up some
chopsticks to keep the basket suspended. Cover and steam for 45 minutes,
like I said above, mixing it up here and there, maybe twice during
cooking.

When you are done you have a nice plate of "Sticky ri" ready for your
dipping sauce, and this is after all what you made the rice for in the
first place

A typical sauce begins with the drippings and pan scrapings from the
night before and can be made directly after eating the evening meal, in
the same pan. Take the scrapings (especially the crispy burnt ones) and
add some of the excess veggie and meat juice from the meal and heat it
in a pan. Add some minced mushrooms, spinach, potato or anything that
will add flavor and carry flavor, and add texture, basically what ever
is left over from the meal. We are talking only a couple teaspoons all
together of solids. Make sure your pan is on high and you have a
stirring utensil available, I use wood as it won't harm the wok or pan
when you start smashing the whole thing. Now take a clove of garlic, a
hot pepper (very important, it's not sticky ri, if it's not spicy), and
a bit of soy sauce, or any other flavorful sauce Next you need to smash
them all together in the pan, turn it into a thick paste. Add a bit of
salt to taste and then burn the whole thing black, again, if you aren't
going to burn it, don't bother cooking it.... Add a bit of moisture
here and there to keep it moist but burn it good.. That is key to the
flavor.

When this is done, typically we would just pour it into a piece of
leftover tin foil and throw that package in with the rice for the next
days consumption.

Now the fun. Take a couple oz. chunk (a tiny handfull) and squeeze it in
you fist to it forms a long thin snake that kind of looks like a huge
grain of rice. Now dip the "worm" into the sauce and eat. The
combination of hot spicy and mild rice are beautiful, one of my favorite
snacks. Back in my single days, I lived on this stuff. About two cups a
day, maybe two oz. of meat (one steak lasted over a week for me), and
loads of fresh veggies (the biggest part of my food budget was fresh
veggies, maybe three to 4 cups a day minimum). I would buy maybe one
gallon of milk a week and sometimes, but rarely a loaf of bread. I was a
hard core athlete back then and ate better than any of my friends, on
less than 30 dollars a week that way. I wasted nothing from cooking, and
I ate better than any of my American friends... Oh, and I had one wok,
a couple bowls, and a rice basket for lunches... That was my kitchen in
a nutshell, life was so simple then.

Anyway, try it sometime, you will love it...