• Rice grains — "Minoru hodo kashira wa/hikuki inaho kana." "The fuller the rice grain, the lower it hangs." (He who is blessed with richness should be humble.) — Ruth Iwata, Hilo

• "Atama sage te." — Memories of a father who always kept a rice plant growing in a pot of water, to remind him to live, "with bowed head." — Ruth Fumiko Tanji Ogata, Kane'ohe

• "Ba-chan" — "She always gave me/ best part of musubi; rice/ stained pink by ume." — Robyn Moriyama, Honolulu

• The rhythmic "pettan, pettan" of the mochi pounder thudding against the lava rock mortar, a vibration felt through the whole body, experienced here in the Islands by Japan immigrant Mariko Nakade-Marceau years after her family had begun making mochi by modern means.

• Rice kites — newspaper comics pasted to thin strips of balsa, with a rice-water glue. Kites today don't fly as well; "must have been the rice." — Marlene Honma, who grew up in Hilo

• Why not potatoes — "the problem is this:/gravy runs along the surface/ like rivulets off the hood of a truck./ It doesn't saturate the grain/ the way salt water ripens/ the perfect sand ball — soaked and heavy/ ready to launch at your little bro" — Tracee Lee, Los Angeles

• Brown rice — the "Queen of Nutrition" decrees no more white rice and a family rebels. — Nina Pang, Waipahu

• Washing rice — a meditation, a memory of mother, "palm on the rice like touching the face of a baby on a rainy day" — Suiki Chu, Honolulu

• The kama — the heavy, cast-iron rice pot set on the wood-fire stove and topped with a round wooden lid, tended by the children so carefully, lest the rice burn. — Recalled by Eleanor U. Hirano, Hilo

• Gnung jook — crunchy rice from the bottom of the pot, served with the oily sauce from hom yu, salty dried fish — Nancy Usui, Kane'ohe

• Haole ume — a malihini mom tries to quell her daughter's bento envy, rolling a dainty rice ball ... stuffed with a maraschino cherry. — Linda Green, via e-mail

• How to get a beautiful husband (or wife) — clean your rice bowl every time. — Henry H.C. Lau, Honolulu

• Ready to marry? — only when your rice, cooked on the stove the old-fashioned way, turns out right every time. — Edna Esona, who grew up in Kealia Camp, Kaua'i

• Chinese custom — always have two servings and your rice bowl will always be full. — Lucille Choy, Honolulu