The emperors of the Qing Dynasty called eating, passing rice or eating. Every meal has a menu (kept in the First Historical Archives of China).
Eating is not necessarily exclusive to the royal family. For example, the second episode of "Evil Sea Flower" reads: "The two of them have finished eating, washed their faces and rinsed their mouths, and the waiter replied that the carriage was waiting at the door.
The two people here are not royalty, so dining is a person of status.
Therefore, people with relative status can call eating "rice", which is a more decent statement. Generally speaking, gentry can, and later businessmen and landlords with status can.