The terms "Indica" and "Japonica" could be taken to mean "long grain and non-sticky" and "short grain and sticky" respectively and represent the two ends of the spectrum. The westerners, either in America or in Europe including UK, find long grain rice suitable for their style of cooking. Within these broad categories there are innumerable varieties and we would deal with some of them in this article.

The western cook books usually mean American long-grain rice when they refer to long-grain rice. Carolina Rice is considered the best among the American Long Grain. Intriguingly, rice is no longer grown in Carolina. The name indicates to a past when the British gentry wanted to savour rice but found it rare and expensive. Some British merchants dealing in Patna Rice took the grain from India to Carolina which was then a British colony and grew it there. They made a rather decent job of it. To this day, the best American rice is called Carolina rice though its cultivation was ceased there at the end of the American Civil War. Most of American long grain in now grown in Arkansas, California, Texas or Argentina and Brazil in South America.

Westerners erroneously do not differentiate between Carolina Rice and Patna Rice and use the term interchangeably. Please see website :

http://www.harvestfields.ca/CookBooks/001/04/27.htm

American long-grain (which includes Carolina rice) has a somewhat bland flavour. The popularity could be due to the price and availability since long grain from India is rather rare and expensive. The situation could be considered analogous to Wine. While Wine from Argentina is quite good, it is not quite the same as the wine from France.

The craving for genuine long grained rice with decent flavour that a westerner feels can be gauged from the question put up by an expatriate British in Thailand:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=44562

Observe the surprise of a gourmet when he finds the rice he is served is authentic Patna "It's really patna!"

http://www.montrealfood.com/restos/bistroavenue.html

Patna rice originally comes from Bihar in the Gangetic plains in India. It has a robust, long and narrow, opaque grain that keeps its shape well for curries. It has a mild fragrance and has been grown for millennia. Patna rice is considered the best for use with curries. (http://funkymunky.co.za/currytips.html)

Patna is the capital of the State of Bihar in India and the rice takes its name from the city. The earliest written reference to the rice grown near Patna is in the Buddhist literature at the time of Gautam Buddha himself. Rice gruel is referred to as offerings to Lord Buddha when he went around asking for daily alms. Reference can also be found about varieties of rice being superior and inferior quality.

Hiuen Tsang is a Chinese traveller who travelled to India in the seventh century AD. He spent considerable time at Nalanda near Patna, then a university of great repute and the most renowned centre of Buddhist learning. He was served a strain of Patna rice called Mahasali rice. He describes it as "grain was as large as a bean, and when cooked, was aromatic, and shining like no other rice"
Source : http://www.indiasite.com/bihar/nalanda.html

Another reference to the rice of Patna is in Ain -I-Akbari written by Abul Fazal, the court historian of Mughal king Akbar. He collected various strains of rice grown around Patna and reported that even if one grain of each strain was taken, it would fill a large vase.

Europeans took to the rice of the region in a big way in the seventeenth century. Fortunes of several merchants were built by dealing in Patna rice. The most celebrated is the case of William Fullarton of Skeldon UK. Having made his fortune by dealing in Patna Rice, he returned to the UK. He started a coal mining business in Scotland. He felt so obligated to Patna that he named the hamlet he built for his miners as Patna. To this day, this town in East Ayrshire, Scotland is called Patna.

Source: http://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/comser/my%20area/patna.asp

Since at one time, most of the rice sold in Europe came from this region, Patna Rice is also sometimes loosely used to mean any long grain aromatic rice.

Basmati rice, another Indian export, is a close relative of Patna Rice, has a nutty taste and goes well with many Indian and Middle Eastern dishes. Basmati need not be grown in the Patna region. Even rice grown in Pakistan is sometime referred to as Basmati. This variety of rice has a stronger aroma.

Authentic "Patna" is of course the king of rice. It is described as "The most expensive long-grained Indian rice, aged for two years to enhance its fragrance and texture. Worth the extra money."

Source: http://gourmetclub.signonsandiego.com/20030129-9999-rice.html

Botanical.com describes Carolina and Patna rice as "the most esteemed in England and the United States. The grain of the first is round and flat, and boils soft for puddings; the latter has a long and narrow grain that keeps its shape well for curries"