"Yanks, go home"

At dinner, somebody asked me why I hadn't served myself rice, and I said I don't really like rice. Somebody else retorted with, "Yanks, go home! If you're in Asia, you need to eat like the Asians and don't expect bread." Conveniently, half a slice of home-made bread rested nicely on my plate, awaiting its fate. (It rhymes!) Well, I do like rice under certain circumstances. I don't really like bread all that much, either -- home-made is nice and heavier bread is the best. Even pasta... I'll eat all or any of those if they're served and/or I'm hungry, or if they're served with specific accompaniments that happen to please my palate, when combined, but if there are other "fillers", I usually gravitate toward other things (like [dinner] a pile of spicy eggplant when it was actually more of a side thing and a bowl of lentils eaten like soup instead of on the rice). Plenty of rice is eaten in Brasil, so it's not just an Asian thing (although we definitely didn't grow up with rice for breakfast -- well, when we did have rice for breakfast, it was in the form of very yummy and very special rice pudding, heh). In the heat, I naturally desire starch even less. Maybe this belly just prefers other sorts of yummies, although it won't complain if times are hard and plain rice is all there is on offer. :) Maybe it's just a case of "the palate" viewing starchy things as entirely separate "dishes" and, when given a choice of dishes, choosing the ones that appeal the most, which are generally protein and/or vegetables... They're much more flavorful. And/Or who needs rice or bread if one is sufficiently satisfied with everything else that's served? Exactly. So, Yanks can stay and enjoy everything else (including stinky tofu, fish and scary chickens, haha) and rice when needed or desired. Yay!