The rice husks are used to heat the empty bowl. The black volcanic sand is added along with a few spoons of Cocunut oil. The entire wok is slowly heated to a scalding temperature. No smoke. No flash point. Hot!!
The rice kernels are thrown into the hot sand and stirred vehemenantly. Almost immediately the first kernels pop like pop-corn.
Yet this is rice! Movie night with rice. The heat engineer is stoking the flames and stirring the kernels. Rice is popping all-over. Then as quickly as the batch started it is poured into a screen that saves the popped kernels and returns the black sand to the oversized wok.Truly a cauldron boiling with trouble and promising a break. The rice kernels taste a rice-rich-reminiscent of cereal. This is better than anything the local theatre or microwave can produce. This is tradition.