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Isn't Rice Always White?  by Qiu Li Min
As we sat down to dinner one night, there came a knock on
the door. When I opened it, our landlady stood there
bearing a plate of steaming glutinous rice. “It’s Sanyuesan (三月三，3rd day of the 3rd lunar month, an important Zhuang festival) tomorrow,” she said, “try some of this 5-colored rice.” The plate she handed me actually bore only four colors of rice (white, black, purple and yellow) as she had not been able to make the red dye. It was our first taste of this traditional Zhuang food.

Rice is the staple food of the Zhuang, and myriad forms of rice feature on all festive occasions. Their taste buds are so discerning that they prefer not to

5-colored rice
Traditional Zhuang 5-Colored Rice in Wuming, Guangxi.

add any seasonings to the steamed glutinous rice so that they can savor the flavor of the rice on its own.

A legend tells of the origin of this dish. Once, 5 beautiful spirits visited the Zhuang people, doing many good works. The people built a house for them and decorated it with colorful flowers and leaves. They also wanted to make special food for the spirits but were embarrassed that they only had plain white rice. So they decided to make natural dyes from leaves to color the rice. And thus was created the first 5-colored rice!

Today, the Zhuang still soak leaves in water to make black, purple, yellow and red dyes, then soak the uncooked rice grains in the dyes before steaming them. Sometimes the grains are spread in multi-colored patterns in the steamer, especially if made by young women wanting to impress potential suitors, but often they are steamed in blocks of color. No Sanyuesan (三月三) meal would be complete without this fragrant and colorful dish!