Glutinous rice

Glutinous rice (Oryza sativa var. glutinosa; also called sticky rice, sweet rice or waxy rice) is a type of rice grown mainly in Southeast and East Asia, and the northeastern regions of South Asia. It  has opaque grains, very low amylose content. It is especially sticky when cooked. It is widely eaten in Asia.

It is called glutinous ()"glutinous, a." Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition. 1989. Online edition. Retrieved 2008-02-20. in the sense of being glue-like or sticky. It does not contain gluten. While often called sticky rice, it differs from non-glutinous strains of japonica rice, which also become sticky to some degree when cooked. There are numerous cultivars of glutinous rice, which include japonica, indica and tropical japonica strains.

Cultivation
Glutinous rice is grown in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Northeast India, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines. About 85% of Lao rice production is of this type.

As of 2013, approximately 6,530 glutinous rice varieties were collected from five continents (Asia, South America, North America, Europe, and Africa) where glutinous rice is grown for preservation at the International Rice Genebank. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has described Laos as a "collector's paradise". Laos has the largest biodiversity of sticky rice in the world. IRRI-trained collectors gathered more than 13,500 samples and 3,200 varieties from Laos.

References

Category:Bangladeshi food
Category:Bhutanese food
Category:Burmese food
Category:Cambodian food
Category:Chinese food
Category:Indian food
Category:Japanese food
Category:Korean food
Category:Laotian food
Category:Filipino food
Category:Thai food
Category:Vietnamese food
Category:Rice