Ode to Rice

I love rice.

It's #1 on my Top Ten Starch list, followed by bread, then noodles - aka pasta. I enjoy eating potatoes, but spuds don't top my list.

I'm a rice eater from way back. Dad would carry home those 50# sacks of Texas Patna long grain rice from Chinatown and we'd empty the contents of the bag into our covered rice barrel stored in the kitchen pantry. Inside the barrel was kept a rice bowl that served as a measuring cup.
Cantonese lesson: 'Muh-ai' (say it as one syllable) is raw rice, 'Fon' is cooked rice.

In my parents' kitchen, I learned how to properly prepare a pot of rice using the finger measurement technique to determine water-to-rice ratio. To make 'steamed rice', the grains are actually boiled then steamed.
Referring to the bowl measurement for uncooked rice, Mom would say 'Two even' or 'Two level' - if just the six family members were dining that night. If company was expected (it wasn't unusual for another one to three people to casually drop by for dinner), Mom would instruct me 'Three heaping, and use the BIG pot'.
For further instruction, she might add 'One notch' or 'Just over one notch', meaning how high the water line should be using the finger measurement technique. I never questioned the ratio, and the rice would come out just about perfect every time.

Since the days of consuming only long grain white rice I've discovered short grain, medium grain, brown, sticky, saffron'd, wild, super fragrant varieties and more. Rice is delectable served up plain or with the sauces from accompanying dishes.

At this point, I feel compelled to make mention of the fact that in most inner Asian circles, it is considered a major faux pas to douse one's steamed rice liberally with soy sauce. Certainly, if you're served an inferior rice, sousing it with soy serves to provide some taste to a bland, watery or undercooked rice, and to mask any off-flavor. However, showering soy sauce on a serving of perfectly cooked higher quality rice distracts from the subtlety of its taste. Ditto with immersing nigiri sushi in a soy-wasabi bath, btw....
(Remember the scene from 'The Joy Luck Club' film where the clueless boyfriend of one of the daughters liberally splashes soy sauce all over his future mom-in-law's signature dinner entreé?)

Yes, it is possible to discern differences in taste between grades of rice. And you thought rice was tasteless! True rice connoisseurs can detect the subtle nuances of delectable flavor and aroma in a bowl of unadulterated high quality perfectly steamed rice.

Some folks tell me they 'can never cook rice right' and succumb to the evils of instant quick white rice (Pssst! True confession: whilst I eschew Uncle Ben's, I do enjoy any flavor of DingalingRice-A-Roni. Go figure. Perhaps it has something to do with being 'The San Francisco Treat'?).
The only truly bad rice is poorly cooked poor quality rice, and really, there's no excuse for that in most parts of the world...
If even the tried and true 'finger method' of rice measurement fails you, best outfit your kitchen with one of these four top electric rice cookers for under $40.
It ain't cheatin', it's cookin' rice.

Rice figures significantly in Asian tradition.
We write about it, create art about it, devote entire blogs to it (!!!) This post is pretty darn novella length, but check out that rice blog!!! Do 'we' dream about it? Probably.

Besides eating rice as a main course, you can indulge yourself with rice snacks and rice-based desserts too. Just writing about it, I'm craving a pot of the steamed white stuff (maybe I'll add some chopped up lop cheong...), and am also eager to try recipes using red, black and green rices. I recently promised to make Persian Cherry Pilaf for DollinkDaughter JrS, who was fortunate enough to eat a lot of this at a friend's house some years ago...

MmmmmmMmmmmm RICE. Congee, sushi, sweet puffed rice cakes, glutinous rice joong, mochi, Indian rice pudding...
Good to the Last Grain Recipe:
Using the bottom layer of hardened rice left in the pot, add a pat of butter and a sprinkling of kosher salt, slowly heat over a low flame, roasting to a crisp golden brown layer that can be lifted off with a fork. Munch on as an after-dinner-before-washing-dishes treat...

Last, but not at all least - there's a delightful little NYC eatery called 'Rice' that features a variety of rice colors, types and flavors in simple but oh-so-tasty dishes. When DollinkDaughter LLS and DollinkSonInLawDRF moved back to California from NYC, I know they bemoaned not being able to frequent 'Rice' like they used to!

See ya - I'm heading off to the kitchen...