Rice Fight Rice Fight

[minoanmiss]

"Is washing rice still necessary?"
AHAHHAHAHAHAH the apple of discord is a bowl of rice.

There's no way to talk about rice without being controversial, as this video notes.

Watch on YouTube

The thing is, as it takes him 15 minutes to point out (and he needs every second except for the ones he spends shilling for his sponsor) is that there are so many different varieties of rice and rice dishes and rice growing conditions and rice storage conditions and so on. Saying "is washing rice still necessary?" is like saying "is cooking food still necessary?" it DEPENDS on SO MANY FACTORS.

BUT.

One reason I'm writing this is a video he excerpted where a Chinese man mocked a South Asian woman for washing rice. She's working with a VERY DIFFERENT variety of rice than the ones he may be experienced with (at least in my experience South Asian and East Asian rices tend to be from different varieties and different grain lengths) and I frankly found his commentary at least ethnocentric and edging on racist. (People think racism is only between White people and POC, but alas, in the jockeying for "not as bad/not as deserving of oppression" and also general attitudes of cultural supremacy, there's a lot of racism between different groups of POC. I mean, the term 'POC' is only useful in a milieu where all groups of POC are minorities, such as the USA, and/or in dealing with White vs Earlier Inhabitants colonialist issues, and both of those are other posts.)

The man making this video says, "I don't think anyone can claim to own something as elemental as rice" but the thing is I have seen people do precisely that. I still remember one essay by a Korean-American writer about how the only proper way to cook rice is in a rice cooker and anything else is White nonsense. A couple of friends talked me down from flaming her with all my ancestresses behind me, but I still kind of wish I hadn't let her get away with calling my ancestors' rice heritage "White nonsense". (Plus paella and risotto may be European rice dishes but they are not nonsense.) It's like people forget, or wilfully ignore, how many different kinds of rice there are, let alone cuisines, let alone dishes. Rice cookers are great but they are not the only way to cook all rice everywhere (and one of these days I am going to unleash this rant on the next person who recommends them to me as such).

And yet as I write this I find myself wondering why rice inspires such passion, in me and in the thousands of people who would have agreed with that writer that my rice heritage is worthless in the face of hers, and in all the people who landed in Adam Ragusea's comments to comment on how he cooks his rice.

In the end, "Consider if someone else's rice is a threat to your rice," as he also said.

Rice won't go with tonight's dinner but I think I'll make some for tomorrow.

Comments

[clevermanka]

I literally just finished rinsing my rice before I put in my rice cooker. 😄

[minoanmiss]

And millions of people are doing the exact same thing today along with you! All in all hooray for rice!

[musesfool]

That was a really interesting video. Thanks for linking!

[minoanmiss]

You're very welcome! I fell into his channel today and he looks quite informative. The Refrigeration video was adorable.

[goss]

I always wash rice. Actually, I always wash any type of grain before cooking, or any non-manufactured food item for that matter - vegetable, legume, meat, herbs, all of it. It's basic sanitation where I'm from. I don't get the big issue. *eyeroll*

Also, I have never encountered a rice cooker in my life. My ancestors cooked rice using a pot over fire and managed just fine. I'm sure I'll survive without it. :b

ETA: Speaking of rice, I remember my mom mentioning that when she was a kid, she had to help out her parents to plant rice in the marsh land and reap it too. I think if you grow something yourself, you should be able to prepare and eat it any damn way you wish without ridicule.

[minoanmiss]

I hear you, but then I spent the best parts of my childhood on the next island over. :)

Also, I have never encountered a rice cooker in my life. My ancestors cooked rice using a pot over fire and managed just fine. I'm sure I'll survive without it.

I clearly died long ago without one. *snerk* I admit to some "hype backlash" concerning rice cookers because a few too many people have told me it is Impossible to make rice without one. Clearly we and the people who taught us to cook don't exist.

[princessofgeeks]

I am a white bread and mayonnaise kind of girl from the USA Southwest and I have been making rice since childhood in a pot on the stove.

I have no cultural heritage of rice but I do know how to cook it without a damn rice cooker for heaven's sake. So there.

It is amazing what people will argue about and get so insulting about. How do they sustain that kind of negative energy. I don't get it.

[minoanmiss]

I do kind of get annoyed at myself at how I keep soaking that negative energy up. Maybe I should eat more rice.

[conuly]

Also, I have never encountered a rice cooker in my life. My ancestors cooked rice using a pot over fire and managed just fine. I'm sure I'll survive without it. :b

Commercially available rice cookers for the home are juuuuust under 80 years old.

Traditional, pre-rice cooker Japanese style rice is apparently quite arduous to cook, involving spending hours squatting in front of a stove making sure the temperature is right. Nevertheless, it was a real hassle convincing anybody that actually, proper housewives would leap at the chance to not do any of that.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/rice-cooker-history

[goss]

I enjoyed that article! Makes me curious to try Japanese species of rice.

[cellio]

I have never used a rice cooker, and I'm pretty sure my Italian grandmother would be rolling in her grave if I ever suggested that's necessary, let alone the "one true way". Risotto was good enough for us!

[bikergeek]

[minoanmiss]

I love you. :)

[bikergeek]

I love you too, which is why I find and send you weird shit.

[cjsmith]

That is AWESOME. Thank you for sharing it. :-D

[bikergeek]

You're welcome. Glad you enjoyed. :)

[nagi_schwarz]

I...didn't realize this was an issue worth getting angry over? I never rinse my rice (I know it can be done, but I'm also lazy af). I do use a rice cooker (same one I've had since first year of college in 2003) but I do also know how to cook rice without one (the joke I always heard growing up was that having a rice cooker meant you had your Asian card but for a gold sticker on your Asian card you had to know how to cook rice without it).

I'll admit to having particular taste in rice, because I was raised eating a certain kind, and I like my rice cooked a certain way as well, but rice is just...rice. There are so many different types and so many ways to cook it.

...Sometimes I do look at those fancy rice cookers I see in K-dramas and want one, but mine still works, and also it has a thing so I can steam vegetables or steam buns at the same time, and I'm not giving that up for anything.

Maybe Asian people are kind of defensive about rice because it sort of defines us? Although not always in a good way. I got real pissy at school as a teen when people called me a "rice eater" (though how much it defines us is debatable; my sister prefers potatoes over rice, which we attribute to my English father), or when they referred to Asian-made cars as "rice burners".

I will say that rice cookers are hella convenient, though.

[minoanmiss]

Maybe Asian people are kind of defensive about rice because it sort of defines us? Although not always in a good way.

This is at heart why I posted this, because I thought, "I am annoyed about this in a way that can give me tunnel vision and so I should really get other people's perspectives on the subject." And yeah, in the Single Story framework that so many of us are crammed into in this stupid society, Asian people in the US get tagged with #rice . Which is of course reductionist. (To semi-betray my own heritage, potatoes are better than true yams, which I ate a fair amount of in childhood. Potatoes are awesome! And so is rice.)

[anna_wing]

Different Asians do different things with different kinds of rice, for different culinary reasons, I think would be the most concise way to answer that. Not to mention different non-Asians....

Regardless of cuisine or cultivar, rinsing would be necessary in a lot of places, for basic hygiene reasons.

The easiest way to cook rice is in a microwave, though you do have to adjust the amount of water depending on the rice and the recipe.

[tibicina]

I must admit my basic response was 'what kind of rice? Where did I get it? What am I going to do with it?'

Because, like... my answer for Thai sticky rice is not my answer for forbidden rice is not my answer for long grain rice is definitely not my answer for risotto.

I mean, usually I at least rinse it briefly, but I'm more careful with it for some things than for others.

[cellio]

Yeah. Sushi rice, jasmine rice, risotto, fried rice, basmati rice... these are all different things.

[lunabee34]

Thanks for this; very informative.

[gingicat]

See, I *told* you people would agree with you.

[cmcmck]

I don't wash risotto rice because you should NEVER wash risotto rice as it destroys the wonderful glutinous texture, and basmati doesn't generally need it, but as you say, it depends on the rice.

[princessofgeeks]

Forgot to weigh in on the washing thing. Usually I don't but it depends!!!!

Also shall we add to the fray the DO YOU THROW IT AT WEDDINGS OR WHAT argument that blew up all the advice columns a while back.....

[conuly]

What? Do you have links?

[princessofgeeks]

I don't have links but it was quite the kerfuffle over whether throwing rice or birdseed was the RIGHT THING TO DO.

[conuly]

...birds can eat rice grains, though, same as they an eat millet and wheat?

[princessofgeeks]

Well, IMS, there was some discussion that uncooked rice is actually bad for birds.

[minoanmiss]

Fortunately birds can handle raw rice just fine

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/against-the-grain/

BUT it can make walking precarious for humans!

[lb_lee]

See, my reaction to the rice cooker thing is to just be like, not all of us have electricity or space for one. It's a relatively recent invention after all!

Though plz help your less culinary blog friend! I never was much into rice, but I'm trying to change my mind. But there are so many types to choose from! I am overwhelmed. I think I like wild rice? But it seems super expensive and only available in weird blends? I know I found white rice boring, but maybe brown would be different?

Have you any advice for a rice newb trying to diversify his diet? I feel embarrassed even having to ask, but I grew up with pasta and potatoes, not rice so much? T_T

[minoanmiss]

Dude, how will you learn unless you ask?

I don't think any grain is as diverse as rice.

https://www.seriouseats.com/guide-to-rice (I would quibble with some of the details but whatever)

There are three kinds of rice: long grain, medium grain, and short grain. These cook up with different textures due to their different proportions of starches, with long grain the most separate, short grain the most sticking-to-each-other, and medium grain in between.

Then there are a couple of ways to process rice: de-husking yields brown rice, which is more flavorful and nutritious but spoils fast unless kept frozen (due to the oil and protein in it). Removing the bran and germ from brown rice yields white rice, which is almost pure starch and keeps at room temperature for a long time.

Then there are different varieties of rice, from basmati to arborio to mochigome. There are so many of these. There are literal books about how many rice varieties there are.

Then there are different ways to cook rice, and rice dishes. Again with literal books.

Then there's 'wild rice' which is a different plant altogether, and is expensive because 1) it is harvested by hand and 2) as a plant grown by Native Americans it has suffered from habitat destruction, colonialist theft and destruction, and so on.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_rice

There is SO MUCH to learn about rice. I'll keep looking for resources for you.

[lb_lee]

Thanks so much, MM! That helped me figure some things out!

For now, I have started with a long-grain brown rice. We'll see if I like it! At worst, I could always get a little sushi mat, some sushi rice, and make myself veggie sushi on occasion! (Since even I know that long-grain brown rice will make the world's saddest sushi.)

No wonder wild rice is so pricey. *sigh* Another delicious thing, restricted to being a treat only!

[corvidology]

I mostly cook basmati rice, brown in particular but then that's the rice I grew up eating. I don't wash it and while I used to cook it in a pot I now cook it in the oven for the most accurate rice cooking I've ever achieved. :D

[baranduin]

I don't wash it and always cook it in a pot on the stove. Mom used the finger in the pot to figure out how much water to put in but I use a measuring cup. Every now and then I lust over a rice cooker but remind myself that since I have diabetes and shouldn't eat the stuff, it would be wasted on me but I still yearn a bit every now and then.

[annonynous]

Maybe I'm just a "meat and batatas" person, as my Dad used to say, but, since I was still living with my parents decades ago, the only rice I have ever known is plain, old fashioned white rice. Which I would cook in a pot on the stove with some water. But then my mother used to cook hamburger by frying it on the stovetop. Eh.

Ann O.

[cjsmith]

People think racism is only between White people and POC, but alas...

Yeah no. :/

In the end, "Consider if someone else's rice is a threat to your rice," as he also said.

100% this.

People are so quick to take their own experience and overgeneralize it into the One True Way. And so many people get so much... something... out of yucking someone else's yum.

There is no one true way. "Best" isn't objective reality. Someone else's yum isn't automatically a threat to your yum.

I need a short word for this whole class of dialogue: claiming to have the only good answer, putting others' preferences down, often with gatekeeping or racism or classism thrown in... I need a short word for all that negativity, that particular style of negativity so popular on sites like FB and Twitter, so that I can say what it is and what I don't like and what I'd like to do less of.

Thank you for sharing the video, and in particular, choosing one from a presenter who says why some people would do it one way and others another.