Japanese rice versus the rest of the world

[eneman]

Ok, this thread has probably een done to death but I am too lazy to try and trace it. A student said that japanese rice is different than the rice grown elsewhere, in consitency and taste, size etc.
I reckon it is the usual us and them palaver but thought it worhwhile seeing if anyone else can shed some informed light.

[Taro Toporific]

[cstaylor]

A student said that japanese rice is different than the rice grown elsewhere, in consitency and taste, size etc.

Your student is just repeating ad nasuem the "wareware Japanese" line.

I highly doubt the student has visited the countryside to see how the rice is grown.

[Taro Toporific]

A student said that japanese rice is different than the rice grown elsewhere, in consitency and taste, size etc.

Your student is just repeating ad nasuem the "wareware Japanese" line.

I highly doubt the student has visited the countryside to see how the rice is grown.

I should post pictures of green toxic waste oozing onto a rice paddy from a junkyard---the standard Kanto farming practice.

[Andocrates]

Your student is just repeating ad nasuem the "wareware Japanese" line.

You are forgetting the added taste of Japanese pesticides. I think it's all in the preparation. I used Japanese rice to cook but it still tasted like ass. CoCo ichiban Curry has some tasty rice.

[eneman]

Would fresh overseas rice taste, feel and look the same? Would normal people or sushi chefs for that matter be able to tell the difference? What is Japonica?

[Taro Toporific]

Would fresh overseas rice taste, feel and look the same? Would normal people or sushi chefs for that matter be able to tell the difference? What is Japonica?

"Japonica" is the subspecies of medium grain rice grown in Japan. Regular medium grain rice used in Centeral and South America is slightly fatter in diameter.

As a practical matter, fresh Japonica grown in California, Thailand or elsewhere tastes to same to Japonica grown in Japan to 99% of Japanese folks. I havewon many bets with Japanese nutcases that they could not tell the difference. Just don't bet with a sushi chef.

[NeoNecroNomiCron]

The best rice in japan is the really fat one with a little speck of brown in the middle. Usualy you get it at Tendon shops. That rice is the bomb.

[tatsujin]

Just to jump off on a slightly different tangent - I went to a really interesting sake bar called Yaruma in Karasuma-Oike.

The owner there was from Israel and really knew his sake. He claimed sake has a huge dependency of the particular rice thats used (obvious I know). He also claimed that he has extremely unique sake that is "tough to get" - Taro have you had any dealings with sake producers?

The reason I ask is I never realised there was so much to the sake industry, anyone have any insights?

[Taro Toporific]

The best rice in japan is the really fat one with a little speck of brown in the middle. Usualy you get it at Tendon shops. That rice is the bomb.

YES!
That's 3/4s milled rice, not the crappy "White Death" ---polished-to-death and coated with asbestos-tainted talc --- rice that Japanese prefer.

[NeoNecroNomiCron]

The best rice in japan is the really fat one with a little speck of brown in the middle. Usualy you get it at Tendon shops. That rice is the bomb.

YES!
That's 3/4s milled rice, not the crappy "White Death" ---polished-to-death and coated with asbestos-tainted talc --- rice that Japanese prefer.

Tatsujin, its pretty much the same with sake. Everything in Japan taste related has to do with subtlety. Japanes food and drink is ok. But Great rice and sake there is a lot more work put into it to make if perfect.

I started drinking sake seriously about 3 months ago. The best I have ever tasted, although it had a fairly high alcohol level had an extreamily subtle taste to it. Like really soft pepper. It also was a little cloudy. After that I will never drink sake that is given at nomihodai or cheap events because its just nasty.

[cstaylor]

After that I will never drink sake that is given at nomihodai or cheap events because its just nasty.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Better to drink beer than bad sake.

[NeoNecroNomiCron]

After that I will never drink sake that is given at nomihodai or cheap events because its just nasty.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Better to drink beer than bad sake.

Doubru Ume-Shu Roku is the only way to go! (No hangover!)

I found a place in Iikibukuro that is only 960 for 2 hours!

[mercutio]

Its a bit of an aside but after having returned to the US and buying a few different types of rice at the surpermarket that just "didnt taste right" I went to a Japanese grocery in Dallas and bought some SoCal grown Japanese rice.

It tastes "right"

[Taro Toporific]

[. Everything in Japan taste related has to do with subtlety..

"Subtile" is just tasteless. Japan: Life-Without-Spice.


Something meaningful to sink your teeth intoJapan Times Nov 18 By KAORI SHOJI
If nothing else, the Japanese are food snobs....
....The long-standing feud between Kanto (eastern Japan) and Kansai (western Japan) dwells largely on the subject of food -- Kansai folks hold that Kanto-style cooking is too coarse and has no subtlety, while the easterners say Kyoto cuisine is too bland and unnourishing.
This is why mixed marriages between Kanto and Kansai people are still a relative rarity: People believe that a stable union is based upon having the same mikaku (taste buds) and once that is established, everything else will fall into place.
A friend of mine once split up with his girlfriend upon discovering that she was -- gasp! -- a mayoraa (a person who squeezes mayonnaise on most anything). ...more...

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: Fine bouquet, flavor and superb stickiness
In a country that claims about as many types of rice as France does cheese, one might think it would be tough to pick the best. Not so. Professional tasters have given the top rating to koshihikari on a regular basis. As for competition, the champ's closest rivals are its own offshoots crossbred with other strains. Expert opinion affects more than the buying choices of ritzy restaurants and finicky housewives. The government also bases rice policy on popularity. In a sort of bureaucratic Darwinism, the government urges growers to plant popular rice strains. Right now that means koshihikari. Popularity, however, can backfire. Another strain, sasanishiki, once competed for the high ground, but it has fallen from favor. It is a fate one official blames on expansion to unsuitable fields and a resultant inconsistency in quality...more...

[dimwit]

Expert opinion affects more than the buying choices of ritzy restaurants and finicky housewives. The government also bases rice policy on popularity. In a sort of bureaucratic Darwinism, the government urges growers to plant popular rice strains. Right now that means koshihikari. Popularity, however, can backfire. Another strain, sasanishiki, once competed for the high ground, but it has fallen from favor. It is a fate one official blames on expansion to unsuitable fields and a resultant inconsistency in quality

Oh I just can't imagine that these experts would be open to bribery. Equally, I am certain that all testing was used a double blind.

[ketchupkatsu]

I had a Japanese friend once tell me that they can tell the Japanese rice from foriegn rice because of evolution.

He explained that the Japanese digestive system has evolved to be sensitive to rice other than that grown in Japan. And that foreign grown rice upsets his stomach.

The best part was that he was explaining this to me while eating cal rose rice I had cooked.

[kotatsuneko]

japanese rice does taste 20x better than any other rice tho IMHO

[cstaylor]

japanese rice does taste 20x better than any other rice tho IMHO

You haven't had Californian Japonica.

[kotatsuneko]

well thats what we get over here, and it does taste a lot worse, and thats the supposedely "good stuff"... even hokkaido rice tastes better [and thats saying something..]

[Samurai_Jerk]

I love Japanese rice with Japanese food. I'm always dissapointed when I go to a sushiya here in the States and they don't use japonica. It just doesn't taste right. However, I felt the same way in Japan when I got japonica with Indian food instead of basmati.

[eneman]

They can stick their rice and their tastebuds where the sun don`t shine because that`s where their brain is. I`m outta here thank fuck.

[cstaylor]

well thats what we get over here, and it does taste a lot worse, and thats the supposedely "good stuff"... even hokkaido rice tastes better [and thats saying something..]

Uncle Ben's is not California rice.

[kotatsuneko]

heh ' ] seriously tho, the "japanese rice" we get from the rice wine shop, arigato. atariya etc is overpriced and under flavoured shit compared to real japanese rice.. we even used to get sent huge parcels of fresh rice from various farmers back in sapporo, much nicer than the shop bought stuff from food centre et al.

[Buraku]

A student said that japanese rice is different than the rice grown elsewhere, in consitency and taste, size etc.

Your student is just repeating ad nasuem the "wareware Japanese" line.

I highly doubt the student has visited the countryside to see how the rice is grown.

I should post pictures of green toxic waste oozing onto a rice paddy from a junkyard---the standard Kanto farming practice.

seen it many a time,
f*cking sick

[kotatsuneko]

well, theres gohan, and there gohan if you catch my drift nothing nicer than walking past sweet smelling rice growing, knowing a ton of it will arrive at your door eventually.. even better when you know it won't go thru the usual commercial process, robbing it off its flavour.