Rice and Pasta-Type Products

The Lao are notoriously partial to sticky or glutinous rice; but contrary to the belief sometimes encountered outside Laos they do not eat it exclusively. About a third of the rice consumed in Laos is ordinary, non-glutinous, rice. (The distinction, incidentally, is not clear-cut. There is a more or less continuous spectrum of varieties of rice from the markedly non-glutinous to the markedly glutinous. All varieties of rice belong to the species ORYZA SATIVA. The Lao name for glutinous rice is khao nyao; and for non-glutinous rice khao chao.)