Glutinous Rice

White Glutinous rice (Oryza sativa var. glutinosa; also called sticky rice, sweet rice or waxy rice) is a type of rice grown mainly in Southeast and East Asia and the eastern parts of South Asia, which has opaque grains, very low amylose content, and is especially sticky when cooked. While it is widely consumed across Asia, it is only a staple food in northeastern Thailand and Laos.

It is called glutinous (Latin: glūtinōsus)[1] in the sense of being glue-like or sticky, and not in the sense of containing gluten (which it does not). While often called “sticky rice”, it differs from non-glutinous strains of japonica rice which also become sticky to some degree when cooked. There are numerous cultivars of glutinous rice, which include japonica, indica and tropical japonica strains.

Glutinous rice is grown in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Bangladesh, Northeast India, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines. An estimated 85% of Lao rice production is of this type.[3] The rice has been recorded in the region for at least 1,100 years.

The improved rice varieties (in terms of yield) adopted throughout Asia during the Green Revolution were non-glutinous, and Lao farmers rejected them in favor of their traditional sticky varieties. Over time, higher-yield strains of glutinous rice have become available from the Lao National Rice Research Programme. By 1999, more than 70% of the area along the Mekong River Valley were of these newer strains.