At first I was confounded. What do they mean?
"Oh, you mean Xuan paper?"
I've been trying hard to correct this misnomer until I searched Wikipedia. I am disappointed that the paper which has nothing to do with rice is called rice paper. The term was supposedly coined by Robert Morrison, a missionary back in the 1800's.
The main ingredient for making Xuan paper is fibers from the bark of the Blue Sandalwood. The proportion varies from 40 to 80%. To that is mixed in with fibers from indigenous area, and these may include rice straw, grass straw, hemp, mulberry and bamboo.
The rice paper I grew up with is an edible sheet of dried starch used to package food. I am submitting a picture of a plum paste jelly/walnut snack wrapped with rice paper. The paper shields the outside packaging from the sticky content and saves the consumer from having to peel off the wrapping paper before eating the goody.
How could an ill adopted name from centuries ago survive this long. Was there no one to speak up?
I am just saying. I believe in calling a spade a spade.
