It is hard for me to understand those who do not eat rice. Eating a meal without rice is like doing a painting with a canvas. There is nothing to keep the meal together. Noodles are fine, but they are not as solidly stable as rice as a food. They are also not as versatile - who would eat noodles with steak? Not many, I imagine a lot of people would find that combination awkward. Bread also isn't as powerful. Bread fulfills a specific niche specifically for sandwiches, or as a temporary substitute, should there be no plate to eat with.
Rice is an incredibly stable food, however. It is dry, you can take a set amount without upsetting the rest of the rice reserves, and it comes in many flavors. White rice, brown rice, jambalaya rice, all kinds of rice. "How would you like to do your painting today?"
I am a fan of sticky white rice, the Korean/Japanese kind. Rice that does not stick together is much harder to eat, in my opinion, and is just dryer in general. There's no fun in that. There are few foods that you could not eat with rice, and that alone explains just how versatile this staple is. Rice with meat, rice with eggs, rice with cheese, rice with fishcake, rice with potatoes (incredibly filling), rice with spam, rice with spam and eggs, rice with rice - all of these are valid. You would not, however, eat noodles with spam or bread with fishcake (If you do, please let me know).
And eating a meal without rice? Unthinkable. Where's the balancing part of your meal? Everything that you might eat with rice has some kind of unique flavor rice is the balancing factor, the thing that returns you to 0 before traveling in a different direction on the vehicle of another flavor.
To be without rice is to be without substance. No rice, no life.