RE: Formal Chinese dinners/banquets

LOL...I've experienced the "no rice" thing many times too. I was fortunate enough to have learned a little and have been exposed to traditional Chinese (mostly Cantonese) culture at a very young age. And, if I recall, a banquet or feast for an honored guest is to enjoy food to its fullest where the joy of dining and the celebration of its great cuisine should be in complete convergence, and rice, meant to fill one's stomach quickly, would be a distraction from the 10 - 15 courses the Chef would have painstakingly prepared for his/her guests.

Moreover, not sure it's applicable now, but it was also impressed upon me that there's an etiquette where where one's chopsticks should never touch his/her lips during the feast, since each dish would be prepared in perfect bite size portions. Finally, at the end of the feast, some fried rice (southern China cuisine) or noodles (northern China) would be served where each person will have a token amount, to show homage and respect to the rice/noodle growers who have provided food for the country over the centuries.

Aside from these rare occasions, I suspect everyone in SE Asia enjoys rice/noodles with his/her meals daily. I know I sure do.