Spoiler rice flour and tapioca starch are the main ingredients. So I would still think that rice paper is made from .....rice.
Spoiler Although not actually made from rice grains rice paper is made from the pith of the rice paper plant. The plant is mostly found in Taiwan. To make the rice paper, the boughs are boiled and freed from the bark. The cylindrical pith is rolled on a flat surface and cut into thin layers with a knife. These sheets have ivory like texture and because of the paper texture it is not suitable for writing.
Spoiler Hardly ever a straight answer. When I was learning how to repair and calibrate instrumentation I learned about pith and peg wood. Now pith has, after 50 years, crept into the text of the response to today's question. The soft inner part, or pith, of the Tetrapanax papyrifer plant, a small tree that provides the raw material for rice paper is native of Formosa (or Taiwan). Interesting though, the paper is not suitable for writing and is used instead to make artificial flowers or watercolor drawings. Another misnomer bites the dust of factual information. Jerry
Spoiler Ah, this was confusing, until I realized there are two types of rice paper. I was thinking of the rice paper candies, which have a rice/tapioca outer paper that is edible, dissolves in water. Then there is rice paper that is used in oriental screens, wall separators. That is made from the rice paper plant pith, and does not dissolve in water or our mouths. Good question, never thought of the difference before.
