Rice from Riceland

This bag of rice caught my eye in an Amman grocery store, not because we needed rice, but because of where the rice was grown: Stuttgart, Arkansas, not too far from where my mother grew up. Stuttgart is known as the duck and rice capital of the world. Seriously.  



It seemed really weird to be standing in a Middle Eastern grocery store and look down and see something so "homey." Certainly, the packaging was Arabized, with not just Arabic language writing, but the "Two Girls" are decidedly Arab looking, rather than looking like the girls-next-door in Stuttgart, Arkansas.