It is true that Indonesians don’t eat rice. Although all literature say in contrary.
Here is the explanation.
In English dictionary, there is only one word describing about the basic food, Indonesians and many South East Asia country inhabitants consume every day, rice.
However, in reality, the word “rice” refers to 4 forms of the same food material. Indonesian has different name for each form.
Four Form Of Rice in Indonesian
Padi (Pa-di)
This is the form of rice when it is still planted on paddy field. The plant has the same name i.e. Padi.
Definitely, we can not eat this form of rice. It’s not ripe yet and the grains are still attached to the plants. So how can we eat them?
Gabah (Ga-Bah)
When rice is ripe enough, then it is harvested. The grains are then separated from the straw. Later on it will be brought to rice mill to be hulled and separated from its bran.
The form of the rice grains with bran is called as Gabah. For sure, I never saw any persons who eats this form of rice.
Do you?
Beras (Be-ras)
In the rice mill, the grains will be hulled and separated from the bran. The result is what we call as Beras.
White and a bit yellowish.
Still, nobody wants to eat the rice in this form. It’s still hard for our teeth to chew.
Nasi (Na-si)
This is the form of rice that Indonesians eat. There are some more forms such as rice cake or other but this is the form that is eaten everyday. Nasi is resulted by steaming process.
You may have tried Fried Rice or Nasi Goreng. It is made not by frying “beras” but by frying “nasi”.
So, Am I correct to say that Indonesians Do not eat rice but steamed rice?