15:09 Nov 18, 2011 

Thanks! To all of you knitters! All replies were helpful. I chose Gilla because she mentioned the three names I'd found for the stitch, with explanations, thus confirming my choice of translation.

14:29 Nov 18, 2011 

I have found in one of my knitting books a description of a "rice stitch" which is different from moss stitch and punto de arroz. Moss stitch consists of one row of single ribbing (knit and purl) followed by another row of single ribbing but this time with the knit on top of the purl and the purl on top of the knit, which coincides with "punto de arroz". For "rice stitch" on the other hand you kint the first row as a normal row (knit only) and then the next row as single ribbing, and keep repeating these two rows - this is not punto de arroz as I understand it. So I think the correct translation is moss stitch.