911 on Rice

Rice - every Asian's favorite carb.

Although I own a rice cooker, I hardly ever use it except for making sushi rice. Most times, I cook rice, as I've been doing for years, in a pot. I know exactly how long it takes so I don't ever burn the rice unless I intentionally want that to happen.

The reason I cook rice in a pot is because I'm too lazy to clean another appliance but mostly because I like the crust. When we were kids, my grandmother would pour hot water into the pot of leftover rice & we would fight over who gets to eat the crust.

Burnt rice is excellent when accompanied with soup. I usually burn my rice for shabu shabu or whenever I prepare chinese soups. For those who have not tried this, go burn your rice today & you won't regret it.

I decided to do this post on rice because what I take for granted about rice is not apparent to most. By most, I refer to non Asian & non regular rice eating folks. It came as a big surprise to my friend Gaby when she found me washing rice one day.

I've been doing it forever & so did my mother & my grandmother & her mother before her, we do it without ever questioning if it's really necessary. I wash my rice about 4-5 times till the water runs clear. I told Gaby the reason is to clean the grains & to remove extra starch.

Even then, I wasn't thoroughly convinced & so decided to do some research online & came up with the real reason here.

I was also asked what type to use for fried rice. Leftover rice kept in the fridge over night is perfect. The grains are drier & thus don't clump together as much when frying.

Here's wishing all my Chinese readers
a very Happy & Prosperous Year of the Ox !!