My Facebook

March 5

As with most people who love their jobs, my work and play are inextricably intertwined, and that’s reflected on my Facebook page, where my collection of “friends” range from family members to elementary school friends to work colleagues, fellow journalists, publicists and chefs. Some of my actual real life friends are on there, too.
I have found that Facebook is, in fact, a useful work tool, and when my status updates are work-related, the responses are sometimes useful.
The responses below are not especially useful, but I found them amusing.

In response to “Bret Thorn wishes he could think of something interesting and maybe a little bit newsy to say about rice.”

Matt Rodbard [from Metromix]at 4:14pm March 4
Breaking: Rice was found by US special forces growing in a cave in the Kohistān border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Jennifer Beck Baum [the publicist] at 4:15pm March 4
It comes in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes?

Suzie Amer [friend] at 4:16pm March 4
It may be the main course for a long, long time, should current economic trends continue?

Bret Thorn at 4:18pm March 4
Indeed, Suzie, I made sprouted brown rice for dinner last night because I got it for free. It was chewy and very satisfying.

Suzie Amer at 4:21pm March 4
See that? Do I have a nose for news, or what?

Marisha Morris [foodservice professional and NRN subscriber] at 4:29pm March 4
food cost ---rice bowls, not just, for yoshinoya and jack in the box, they'll be a home cooked meal.... I definitely agree w/ Suzie...... And I'll have to try 'sprouted brown rice' .... nothing beats having fresh rice from off the farm, with the hulls and all.... now that's chewy, lol. By the way, my grandfather was a farmer in Arkansas with 28 acres of fresh vegetables and fruits... mmm, good times :)

Anne De Ravel [food writer among other things] at 4:35pm March 4
red rice from Camargue? It reminds me of many, many years ago when wild rice was the cool rice but few people knew what to do with it. It's a similar here with this red rice, it's delicious but you rarely see past it's assumed "boil and serve" role. Not sure if it's exported in the US.

Bret Thorn at 4:50pm March 4
I was thinking of writing about wild rice, but technically it's not rice at all, but some sort of aquatic grass seed. It's tasty, though.

Alan Grant [friend, from my Bangkok days; great guy] at 7:30pm March 4
Bret old stick, I could wax lyrical about rice all day. You could explain the many differences and how annoying it is when they serve basmati rice in a non-Indian environment. Indeed, basmati may well be my least favourite rice even though I adore and consume Indian food on an almost daily basis. Interestingly here in Singapore, many of the Indian restaurants serve the more moist and delicious Thai jasmine rice if you order white rice, serving basmati only in byrianis, pilaus and the like.

Then there's our old favourite khao neow ...

Todd Thorn [brother] at 7:56pm March 4
How come I have to run the vacuum cleaner over a grain of rice seven times to pick it up, but when the vacuum gets within six inches of a shoe, it sucks the lace right up? What about that, huh? No good? I know, but it really chaps my a$$!

Don Odiorne [publicist for Idaho potatoes] at 8:18pm March 4
Americans eat about 126 pounds of potatoes per capita, 35 pounds of rice and 25 pounds of pasta. I think you should write about potatoes instead. Just kidding. Rice doesn't make much of an exciting late night snack or appetizer though. My favorite rice dish was Mom's beef, tomato sauce and rice stuffed peppers (probably the recipe was right out of Better Homes & Gardens cookbook). Who eats more Chinese fried rice, the Chinese or Americans?