Ain't Nice Without Rice

The first time I wanted to change my life, I had to think twice about rice.

You see, in Asia, rice is life.

Rice is the first thing we eat right after weaning from our mother’s milk. After that, rice takes 80% of our plate — at breakfast, at lunch, and at dinner.

And snacks? We have rice noodles.
And dessert? Rice cakes.

We’re rice people like that.

And our mountains? Our older folks carved them into rice terraces that turn into gold during harvest season.

A few years ago, removing it from my diet felt like air was being pulled out of me.

I couldn’t live in the same way I couldn’t breathe.

And if there was no rice in a party, all the pastas and pizzas and grilled chicken, no matter how much we ate, these all are just a snack.

You go to a function with a buffet of potato dishes, saucy beefs, and big cakes, still a snack.

You go to a steakhouse and eat a slab of charcoal-grilled pork belly with veggies on the side, a snack.

Without rice, any food is just a snack. Nothing ain’t complete without rice. It’s the bulk making up all the real estate inside my belly.

Without rice, we just feel incomplete. Part of a whole. Unsettled. Unsatisfied.

So after a party, we still go home and eat our mother’s cooking. A mountain of rice with a little savory sidedish.

All the rice pyramids were almost gone

Ridding rice from my life was really hard in the beginning. For a few months, my body was rice-starved and my soul felt crippled beneath my skin, crying for that white, tasteless fluff of grain.

With eating rice, I felt I belonged to my family, my country, and my Asian ancestry. Without it, I was rootless. Placeless. And so unasian.

After eating it for decades, rice had become a part of my identity. My whole body was 80% steamed rice, fried rice, and refried cold rice.

I thought, without rice I don’t belong anywhere now. It was a tragedy.

So, it’s been eight years since I stopped eating rice. I was battling with some issues, only to find out many years down the rabbithole that I am gluten intolerant.

I avoided so many types of food since I stopped eating rice, only to find out I can’t have pasta, pizza, and bread — the very things I replaced rice with. Surp-rice!

Could’ve been rice in creamy smoked boar meat sauce

Unfortunately I cannot eat 90% of all grains on the planet, especially wheat.

A specific protein in gluten was pulling some minerals from my body, leading to imbalances, rashes, and mood swings.

That was a long, damned road. And I wish I took a blood test earlier. (Which I did, in 2020, but did not believe the results until four years later.)

My favorite breakfast on a high fruit diet

Now, after all the diets I’ve tried, I thrive best on a high fruit diet or a high fat diet.

Fruit was the best fuel I felt in my life. I was above the clouds. Fruit has the closest vibe to the sun, being a sun-riped munchkin.

My only issue with it is that I had to eat so much. Especially when nuts and seeds aren’t always at a hand’s reach. Who in the world eats flaxseeds? I don’t want to be a bird either.

Easy fatty chia and banana and a side of sliced apples

Now I eat only fat and meat. Beef is my beef. And I am always in ketosis, my body eating its own waste and fat.

I love carnivore as much, and how minimalist it is. So now I eat only meat, eggs, butter, and yogurt. Protein takes up about a fifth of my diet and the rest is just flubbery fat.

And then this high fat cheesy plate

The fifth category on my diet is chocolate, my favorite fat. That’s the only plant-based food in my kitchen.

I don’t think I can go on living without chocolate. Maybe one day I’ll go on a cacao diet and become immortal too.

Yummiest hot cacao at my poetess friend’s restaurant

Then I would miss the feeling of mortality and the idea we’re all gonna die anyway, that I would go back to eating rice.

Then maybe, just maybe, rice isn’t so bad after all.

// 25 Sep 2025