Maybe because most of those Mcs don't know how to cook so they are used to the easy to prepare 'Rice' not to mention that it can be made into many other dishes so they crave it as it reminds them of their struggles in their lonely lives (many MC are weebs: neets, otakus, hikikomori, you name it... no to mention they live alone from their parents as they are either dead or overseas or something) but then suddenly they became OP in an isekai and got someone to cook for them but their taste buds are already used to Rice so they must crave it (there is the saying "you don't know what you have until it's gone" so it must be something like that)
You're stepping over Japanese pride right there. Don't tell the isekai mcs that, they might just cry.
i believe satou from death march prioritized good food over everything else if i havent remembered wrong
I think it makes sense that you would crave what you usually eat. Your body would be better equipped to break down that type of food. I can imagine reincarnators might sometimes want to have it but I really doubt it would be that strong of a feeling.
I'm an asian, and I eat rice for every meal. if I don't eat rice, it won't be a meal, but a snack. that's my feelings since long ago.
well I can understand their obsession for rice . I heard many people saying they can't live without rice where i live. Maybe rice is addictive??? But I can see why because i don't get bored from eating rice like other foods that i feel like puking if i eat them daily.
sure, if you're desperate for what you crave. but its different food. it's different than anything else they have eaten and that makes it unique, especially to those rich nobles who have likely tasted all the best. it doesn't matter if the food is a super high quality, its that it's something they haven't had before. I think it's played up a lot in novels and such but I could see western-based nobles clamoring over Japanese or other Asian inspired food simply because of it's uniqueness. it could just as well be Italian inspired dishes and the standard nobles in isekai could be blown away by the taste.
Do you know what Asians from an East Asian and SEA country look for the most when the study abroad? Rice. Not most, not many, but all of Ai-chan's friends who studied abroad told Ai-chan that the thing they missed most while studying abroad was rice. When Ai-chan's brother came home from studying in the USA, he told Ai-chan the Indian rice he got there was nothing like the rice we eat locally here. He told Ai-chan that the rice served in Filipino and Chinese restaurants tasted like crap. Ai-chan's brother is a Muslim, but he bought non-halal food just because there was no other choice in his home area for halal rice dish at that time. Another of Ai-chan's friend said everytime he came home for summer holidays or whatever, he'd smuggle rice to the states because the rice they could buy there tasted like sand. When Ai-chan went to Provence, Ai-chan too looked for rice and had to settle for provencal risotto on the second day because Ai-chan had a craving for rice. Ai-chan doesn't like risotto rice, but there was no other choice at that time. South Asia such as Pakistan and India do not have such a craving because wheat and rice are often equally consumed. In EA and SEA countries, rice makes up the core of every single meal, with wheat only consumed as a snack or as secondary carbohydrate source. . In these countries, you cannot avoid eating rice and you grew up eating rice for every meal.
I don't know about rice, but if I was transported somewhere and there was no pizza . I probably would cause a scene and perhaps a war
LOL I have heard so many stories about that kind of thing from Japanese people that I don't even know where to start... One of my co-workers had to live in South America for a while and she researched methods of making homemade konnyaku (that potato gelatin-like thing that was trending as a diet food) and bought specialized tools for it because she was afraid she wouldn't find it... of course...the Asian food market near the place she stayed at had it. Also, the country she went to is well known for having a lot of Japanese immigrants descendants so at first when she told me that I was making a wut?? face and she finished the conversation saying miso and tofu were also easy to find so she shouldn't have worried so much. The senior Ph.D. student at my friend's lab went to Norway for only for 3 weeks and took her rice cooker with her... When we make the family meal at the restaurant I work part-time, we need to count how many Japanese staff are in that day and take in consideration if what we're cooking is something that makes the rice "disappear". There were so many times that we ran out of fresh rice because the "side dish" was curry, stew, or something gravy-like... I'm Asian too but I was born and raised in a country that has a lot of food diversity due to immigration so I don't really care a lot about rice in every meal. I also lived in other countries before so I just try to cook with whatever it's fresh and available?
Try not to eat nice for a month... You'll be definitely be craving for it P.S I also eat rice on a daily basis~ EDIT: Rice is Life.... Life is Rice!
...I don't think I could do it. The longest I think I've ever gone without rice was a couple days because I was at a camp that only served western-style food. Sure I get that people get homesick and would want a taste of home, especially since rice is a staple food, but I swear isekai mcs actually worship rice. As soon as they hear about rice in their new world they just go ballistic.
well, that's just 'par for the course' fantasies like isekais always tend to 'turn it up to 11' when it comes to things. So if a normal person, homesick in a distant land, craves rice badly. then a protagonist, in a distant world, would start a world war for that precious grain~
That'd be amusing. Historians look back on the reason why a world war started, "So why did the world war start?" "Rice" "What?" "Rice. The hero that started the war heard about rice and then went insane and rampaged and destroyed the world demanding to eat rice and soy sauce" "...."
" what the hell is rice" "No clue, never heard of it." "He started a war for something you haven't heard of?" "Yeah the hero said it was like a grain but you cook it instead of grinding it to make bread" "He....he....wait...let me get this straight." "Take your time" "He started a war" "Yep" "With multiple countries" "Yeah huh, think he said it was in the east somewhere" "For a grain" "Uh huh" "...that no one has heard of, except 'maybe in the east' " "Yeah, sounds about right" "I fear for the next hero our 'Goddess' brings us"
Wow, Aus is a major producer of rice (when we're not in drought) because our climate is well suited for growing medium grain japonica varieties You learn something new every day.
@Traveling Chef @Silv0 that'd be an unironically interesting story, lol. 10/10 definitely would read again.
not gonna lie, I'd read it too, I imagine it'd be told completely from the perspective of the people of this fantasy world. just imagine all the crazy shit a protag could do that these people would get to react to~ with the occasional chapter told from perspective 50~ years in the future. would be an interesting read to say the least.
I have some suggestions for the title, "How rice ruined the world", "The story of the apocalyptic rice eater" or best yet, "Please goddess just don't give us another rice-obsessed hero"