them soft and malleable, then pressed between
rollers to make them thin and quick to
reabsorb water during cooking or simple
soaking (as for muesli). The thinner the oats
are rolled, the faster they rehydrate: regular
oats are about 0.8 mm thick, “quick-cooking”
oats are around 0.4 mm, and “instant” even
thinner.
Rice
Rice is the principal food for about half of the
world’s population, and in such countries as
Bangladesh and Cambodia provides nearly
three-quarters of the daily energy intake.
Oryza sativa is a native of the tropical and
semitropical Indian subcontinent, northern
Indochina, and southern China, and was
probably domesticated in several places
independently, the short-grain types around
7000 BCE in the Yangtze River valley of
south-central China, and long-grain types in