Ancient asian grain crop type qualities?

[Owledge]

This is a specific question that's bugging me because I used to know but forgot, and I thought people here would be likely to know such things.

 

I'm not sure whether it was typical for Japan or China, but I remember that in old times there were two main (widespread) grain crop types, one of them of high quality and then a poor man's grain of remarkably low nutritional value.

It could be that the high quality one was millet, but then what was the inferior grain for the very poor social strata?

Or did they grow wheat back then? Maybe that was the superior one.

 

(If I read it, I'll probably remember whether that was what I had heard.)

 

I think I learned it in a historical movie or something, and I was actually surprised that rice wasn't always the abundant/dominant crop everywhere.

Edited November 13, 2016 by Owledge

[TheWhiteRabbit]

You are thinking Yi yi ren... Job's tears or coix lacrymae which was the staple back then,

 

Then even more ancient is another grain it will come back to me in a second... I just have to relax.

[TheWhiteRabbit]

Okay the other one was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaranthus_caudatus

 

Back drop on yi yi ren:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job%27s_tears

[Owledge]

Hmm, the names don't ring a bell. If only I could remember what movie I heard it from. I think at least one of the two had a familiar name. But Wikipedia states that Job's Tears is also called Chinese pearl barley, so I wonder whether it was "barley" that was mentioned.

Being grown in higher areas where rice doesn't grow well would explain it. Probably was a highland area in the movie.

Not sure whether it was the inferior one or the other. I think they mentioned consuming the inferior one in the form of a mash. Characters might have remarked how they're sick of that mash and want the good stuff.

 

 

 

P.S.: Why doesn't the master of the house give me a job? (Who is that guy anyway?) I tried self-employment, but there's no demand to be found.

Edited November 13, 2016 by Owledge

[TheWhiteRabbit]

Hmm, the names don't ring a bell. If only I could remember what movie I heard it from. I think at least one of the two had a familiar name. But Wikipedia states that Job's Tears is also called Chinese pearl barley, so I wonder whether it was "barley" that was mentioned.

Being grown in higher areas where rice doesn't grow well would explain it. Probably was a highland area in the movie.

Not sure whether it was the inferior one or the other. I think they mentioned consuming the inferior one in the form of a mash. Characters might have remarked how they're sick of that mash and want the good stuff.

 

 

 

P.S.: Why doesn't the master of the house give me a job? (Who is that guy anyway?) I tried self-employment, but there's no demand to be found.

 

Well, that is the beauty of things.  I am sure when you are doing something else you will most likely remember what it is that you were trying to remember.

 

As for the master of the house...  One can only ask.  But be careful he seems to have a sense of humor.  I prayed once and asked for a bus load of sorority girls and he sent a bus load of Trinity Bible College girls.  The Universe is not without some sense of irony.   Those are the facts.

[Owledge]

The universe shows you a sense of humor when you're in the right mood.

Which makes sense since we are all that.

[gendao]

Or did they grow wheat back then? Maybe that was the superior one.

They still do grow wheat in the North - based on its greater hardiness.  That's why the cuisine there is based on wheat flour (buns, potstickers, noodles, bing, etc).

Whereas rice grows in hotter, wetter climates like Southern China - where the food there is thus rice-based.