The UN declared 2023 ‘the year of millets’ [https://www.npr.org/2023/06/08/1180964010/the-united-nations-declares-2023-the-international-year-of-millets](https://www.npr.org/2023/06/08/1180964010/the-united-nations-declares-2023-the-international-year-of-millets)
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This reminded me of a scene in ‘The Seven Samurai’ in which a samurai who disdains the villagers who want to hire them taunt one who is interested by holding up his bowl of rice and asking, ‘Why go to that miserable village and eat millet when you can stay in town and eat rice!’
4 comments
Does millet taste good? I’m not eating things that don’t taste good to placate npr and UN bugmen
Millet was historicslly considered not as good as rice. But it is used in some confections and food.
Millet has been a part of the Japanese diet since antiquity. Archeological evidence shows millet appearing since the Jomon and Yayoi periods, and references to millet have been found as recently as the Edo period.
Rice (particularly white rice) was a more prestigious food until recently. During the Meiji and Taisho periods, sailors in the Japanese Navy would could often only afford the bare essentials and usually chose the now fairly cheap white rice as their staple diet, ignoring other more expensive foods. This led to beriberi outbreaks.
Mmmm yes, it’s two of the five grains (rice, soybeans, wheat, and two types of millet). Traditionally, it’s easier (and therefore cheaper) to grow than rice. If you were too poor to rely on rice as your main staple, you would likely cut it with something cheaper – usually wheat, foxtail millet (粟、あわ) or proso millet (きび).