Long ago, the days of cold rice.

Everyone knows what leftover rice is. But there's a common misconception: It's not just rice that's no longer hot that's considered "leftover rice"! And it's certainly not rice cooked in the morning and eaten at noon, or cooked in the afternoon and eaten in the evening. Leftover rice is rice that's been left overnight – cooked today and eaten tomorrow, or cooked in the afternoon and eaten late at night, meaning it's left overnight. That's what I'm referring to as "leftover rice"!

They cook extra rice to eat the next day, not because they're too lazy to cook tomorrow, but because you really appreciate the taste of cold rice! That's why many people cook rice and wait until it's completely cool before eating it. Cold rice, scooped into a ball and eaten with chopsticks or by hand, can be eaten with anything. You have to chew thoroughly to truly appreciate the flavor of cold rice!

In the countryside decades ago, a house could run out of anything, but it was never short of... leftover rice. Leftover rice wasn't a luxury, but waking up in the morning without eating it was like craving coffee but not being able to drink it!

Seventy years ago, there was something that every household in the countryside, rich or poor, had to have: leftover rice. Every morning, children, and sometimes even adults, would rummage through the leftover rice to eat before going to the fields, the sea, the forest, tending buffalo, or going to school. A bowl of leftover rice, usually eaten with a dried fish (often the large, paper-headed, red-bellied, or flatfish that fishing families usually stocked just to eat with leftover rice) or a lump of sugar, knew it wasn't as nutritious as a bowl of pho, noodle soup, or a meat sandwich, but it certainly filled the stomach, because without a full stomach, how could one work hard all morning? (A farmer could easily eat a whole pot of leftover rice!).

In the past (because it was a long-standing tradition), eating leftover rice every morning (nowadays called breakfast) was, without exaggeration, a traditional culinary practice. For most Vietnamese people, who were primarily farmers, it was considered a staple food passed down from generation to generation. Now, in a civilized society where even eating and sleeping are modernized, leftover rice is just... a myth!

"...My dear, why would you betray me?"

"I am like leftover rice, there for when you are hungry…".

Besides their roles as wives and mothers, women also hold the key to the family. Yet, in this life, sometimes women have to bear the hardships and misfortunes. "My dear..." that folk song sounds so heartbreaking, mixed with a touch of cruelty. "I am just leftover rice, only thought of when you are hungry, but when you are full... never mind!" "My dear..." it's like a plea, a begging, a compromise... if anything happens, I will bear it all, even if it means being as insignificant as a grain of leftover rice, just hoping that you won't betray me. That's how you know that leftover rice, though just... leftover rice, in this situation and in times of hunger, becomes a priceless meal!

I remember those late nights studying, hungry, sneaking down to the kitchen, rummaging through leftover rice, painstakingly lighting a fire, putting a pan on the stove with a little oil, breaking up the leftover rice, then frying it until golden brown and sprinkling a little salt… it was that simple, I bet no one could resist! And if the leftover rice was fried with lard (the kind in the tin cans from America), I'd miss it if I didn't eat it every night!

Does anyone still eat leftover rice these days? In life, there are things we regret losing, but sometimes we're criticized for keeping them. For example, eating leftover rice for breakfast feels so poor, and perhaps it's because of poverty that people eat leftover rice?

Leftover rice tastes best when cooked over a charcoal stove, so it's still leftover rice, but the leftover rice of the past was different from the leftover rice of today, in the age of gas stoves and electric ovens.

Recalling the days of eating leftover rice... some say that back then, people were lucky to even have leftover rice to eat because of hunger, so what's so special about leftover rice? Wrong! In the past, it wasn't just the poor who ate leftover rice; even the rich did. Now, if you don't believe me, try eating leftover rice with some dried fish (grilled over charcoal) or a lump of granulated sugar (the kind made manually in rural sugar mills (using a buffalo to pull a rotating shaft to press sugarcane juice into a pan to make sugar) – it's fragrant, subtly sweet, and has a very distinctive flavor – a clean sugar guaranteed to be addictive! Just kidding, but there's no such granulated sugar these days!) or with anchovy fish sauce, pickled vegetables... and crushed chili peppers. You'll see... the whole pot of leftover rice is gone! That's why people are right when they mention someone who's far from home:

"When I'm far away, I miss my hometown."

"I remember leftover rice with pickled eggplant in soy sauce..."

Nowadays, in rural areas, whether urbanized or not, who still eats leftover rice? Modern cuisine offers many delicious and exotic dishes. People no longer die from war, but from food (not from fighting over food)... and in that food, there are so many toxins!

Eating leftover rice, a culinary tradition deeply rooted in the national identity of rural areas, has unfortunately been lost to modern life, a long-standing custom.

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