A tempest in a rice bowl.

A four year court fight that has yet to be resolved and has cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees would not be news if we were talking about an antitrust case or a patent fight, but a lawsuit over rice?

It seems that a Chinese restaurant is paying a premium for the exclusive right to sell white rice in a Rhode Island food court and wants the Indian restaurant in the mall to stop putting rice on its menu. Of course, it happens that rice is a staple of the cuisine of both China and India and the Indian restaurant says you can't have Indian food without rice any more than you can have Chinese food without rice and so it dyes its white rice yellow. The prolonged court fight is the result.

Ironically, the Chinese restaurant doesn't have a problem with the Taco Bell in the food court serving orange rice with its burritos.

From the Boston Globe